Imagining the Future Possibilities While Managing the ‘Performative’: Exploring the Nested Paradoxes

Abstract

Paradoxes form the essence of the diversity practice. However, most research has overlooked their significance and positioned inter-related diversity concepts in isolation or opposition. The diversity paradoxes become particularly salient when we focus on diversity practitioners and their efforts to address divergent demands. This study employs the paradox perspective to understand and explain these tensions and overcome a dualistic understanding of diversity. Interviews with 81 diversity practitioners, conducted over two years- amidst the global pandemic and before and after the racial awakening of summer 2020, shed light on diversity practice within a charged diversity context. The findings indicate three nested paradoxes in diversity work, including paradoxes of intent, structure, and performance. These paradoxes were interwoven and impacted the participants daily. At the most fundamental level, the paradoxes represented the tensions practitioners experienced between agency-structure and self-other. The study describes how participants navigated and resolved various paradoxes and fueled the virtuous circle of resilience. A paradox perspective provides a critical lens to examine diversity management within organizations and rejuvenates the diversity literature.