Dialogic Differentiation: Rethinking Inclusion in Organizations

• In Event: 20811 - Who's Afraid of DEI?: New Questions and New Realities

Abstract

How can numerical and stigmatized minorities within an organization experience inclusion? Minorities in many organizational contexts face inclusion dilemmas, situations where belonging in one organization seems to require letting go of some core identity or group membership. Using the case of elite universities, I demonstrate that identity groups play a central role in how people navigate and potentially resolve such inclusion dilemmas. Specifically, I find that groups can engage in a discursive, cultural process that I call dialogic differentiation, by which they define themselves in dialogue with, and in struggle against, their organizational context. Drawing on four years of fieldwork and 98 in depth interviews with minority groups on the Right and the Left, I develop three stages of dialogic differentiation: (I) defining the institutional ethos, (II) developing axes of differentiation, and (III) establishing dialogic practice. While existing work shows how people engage in assimilation, rejection, and compartmentalization, I find dialogic differentiation has unique potential to foster integrated, pluralistic organizations and institutions, and thus sheds light on how to rethink inclusion amid DEI backlash and polarization more broadly. elves in dialogue with, and in struggle against, their organizational context. Drawing on four years of fieldwork and 98 in depth interviews with minority groups on the Right and the Left, I develop three stages of dialogic differentiation: (I) defining the institutional ethos, (II) developing axes of differentiation, and (III) establishing dialogic practice. While existing work shows how people engage in assimilation, rejection, and compartmentalization, I find dialogic differentiation has unique potential to foster integrated, pluralistic organizations and institutions, and thus sheds light on how to rethink inclusion amid DEI backlash and polarization more broadly.

Author

• Krystal Laryea, University of Notre Dame