Diversity management - Dialogue, dialectics and diversion

This paper uses Habermas' model of dialogue and the public sphere to provid e a critical examination of organizational diversity management. The paper argues that, in spite of the dialogic and inclusive claims made by the dive rsity movement, its basic framework and methods serve to limit and repress productive dialogue on race rather than produce effective organizational ch ange. The diversity movement represents an important ideological strategy t hat seeks to re-assert the privacy of the corporate sphere and its employme nt decisions, making its emergence a significant element of the general soc ial-political attempt to manage and contain racial conflict and social cont radiction.