000			02044nam a2200181 4500
999			_c510909 _d510909
008			190904b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aRomani, Laurence _99648
245			_aBenevolent discrimination: Explaining how human resources professionals can be blind to the harm of diversity initiatives
260			_c2019
300			_ap.371-390.
520			_aThis article contributes to critical diversity management studies by exploring how human resources professionals do not see that the diversity measures they initiate can contribute to the reproduction of inequalities. We argue that framing such practices as benevolent obscures the fact that they are discriminatory acts. Drawing on the concept of benevolent discrimination, we conceptualise it along three dimensions: (1) a well-intended effort to address discrimination within (2) a social relationship that constructs the others as inferior and in need of help, which is granted with (3) the expectation that they will accommodate into the existing hierarchical order. Benevolent discrimination is a subtle and structural form of discrimination that is difficult to see for those performing it, because it frames their action as positive, in solidarity with the (inferior) other who is helped, and within a hierarchical order that is taken for granted. We develop the concept of benevolent discrimination building on an in-depth qualitative case study of a Swedish organisation that is believed to be exemplary in its engagement in diversity management initiatives. The organisation is however swayed by an inequality regime based on the intersection of class and ethnicity. We argue that it is precisely because human resources professionals frame their actions as acts of benevolence that they cannot see how they take part in organisational discrimination. - Reproduced.
650			_aDiversity management _99649
700			_aHolock, Lotte _99650
700			_aRisberg, Annette _99651
773			_aOrganization
906			_aHuman resource management
942			_2ddc _cAR