Attic tragedy as both a guide and a driving force to detect and manage constructions of identity and diversity

Abstract

ABSTRACT The perception of identity and diversity, as a factor of shaping relations, affects the ‘physiognomy’ of organizations and the public sphere. This project attempts to use Attic tragedy as a critical reflective method to decipher the constructions of identities and stereotypes through philosophical processing. Fictional analogies are presented using parallels from Aeschylus’ Persians, Sophocles’ Electra and Euripides’ Medea in relevance to contemporary constructions of diversity and difference in and around organizations. The role of tragedy and tragic, related to difference within a fictional context, along with its therapeutic dimension, are discussed in order to convey in present tense practical implications, serving as a guide for detecting and dealing with differences. Such an approach’s contribution lies in using and sharing an ancient functional tool to solve a timeless problem, i.e. diversity and difference, developing into a key driver to overcome them.