Ideas at work: a discursive institutionalist analysis of diversity management and social dialogue in France, Germany and Sweden
运用话语制度主义分析法国、德国和瑞典三国中多样性管理与社会对话的关系，揭示理念如何影响制度环境及就业关系。
This article applies discursive institutionalism (DI) to a comparative analysis of the relationship between diversity management and social dialogue. Schmidt’s (2008, 2010) method of ‘who said what, when and why’ and her concepts of actors’ ‘background discursive’ and ‘foreground ideational’ abilities are used to analyse the dynamic relationship between ideas (diversity management) and the institutional environment (social dialogue and national models of integration). It is argued that diversity management provided an opportunity either to maintain or strengthen existing levels of social dialogue, or to promote a more voluntary, managerial and individualist approach to equality issues. The research demonstrates the merits of DI for providing a fine-grained explanation of the (arguably) counter-intuitive outcomes in France, Germany and Sweden. Another aim is to respond to Hauptmeier and Heery’s (2014) calls for more recognition of the role of ideas in shaping the form, dynamics and products of the employment relationship and HRM.