Understanding the habitus of managing ethnic diversity in Germany: a multilevel relational study

Drawing on Bourdieu (1990, 1994, 1998) and Layder (1993, 1998) this study provides a critical realist account of the organisational habitus of managing ethnic diversity in Germany. Using a multilevel, contextual and relational analytical framework, I interpret and operationalise Bourdieu’s key concepts, field, habitus and symbolic violence in the organisational context in order to examine macro, meso and micro level influences on the organisational habitus of managing ethnic diversity in Germany. The aim of this study is not only to contribute to an understanding of the organisational habitus of managing ethnic diversity in Germany, but also to understand the resistance of organisations to manage ethnic diversity, since organisations in Germany still do not view managing ethnic diversity as pertinent. Lastly, this study examines the implementation of the diversity management concept in the German context as well as the underlying organisational habitus of managing ethnic diversity in order to understand if the inclusion of ethnic minorities is achievable through the management of ethnic diversity in the German context. In order to do so, this study employs multiple data sources: documentary data, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, visual data, a focus group, oberservations, a research diary and a single company case study of a German subsidiary of a North American Multinational Corporation (MNC). The thesis demonstrates the importance of considering history and particularly the treatment of history in organisational research, since this study illustrates that the organisational habitus of managing ethnic diversity is trapped in history, to be precise in the treatment of the German Nazi-past. Moreover, the thesis reveals two underlying hidden mechanisms, which guide and constitute the organisational habitus of managing ethnic diversity in Germany. These mechanisms are symbolic violence and integracism, which both undermine the overdue proposal of race equality, equal opportunities and the management of ethnic diversity at work