An Emic Approach to Intersectional Study of Diversity at Work: A Bourdieuan Framing

This paper presents an emic approach, which is sensitive to the emergence of new categories of difference, in intersectional study of workforce diversity. The paper first provides a comprehensive review of the literature on diversity at work in the business and management field, identifying that this literature is predominantly etic in nature, as it focuses on pre-established, rather than emergent, categories of difference. Next, an emic approach to researching diversity at work is offered. In offering an emic approach, the key distinction the paper makes is the direction of the investigation. Unlike the dominant etic approach, which adopts pre-established (ex ante) diversity categories, the emic perspective proposed identifies emergent and situated categories of diversity ex post, as embedded in a specific time and place. In order to operationalize the emic approach, the use of the Bourdieuan theory of capitals is suggested, and a five-step research guide is presented.