Diversity: A key idea for business and society. By Mustafa F.Özbilgin, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 2024. pp. 156. £35.99 (pbk). ISBN: 9780367423605
本书探讨多样性的概念、起源、表现形式及管理，涵盖劳动力多样性、生物多样性和技术多样性，适合学者、从业者和政策制定者阅读。
Mustafa Özbilgin's recent publication “Diversity: A Key Idea for Business and Society” is a book, part of the Key Ideas Series of Routledge that explores the term ‘diversity’, how it manifests itself, and how different disciplines impacted and shaped the way it is studied in social sciences. The book centers on workforce diversity, its management, consequences, and regulatory aspects of diversity. Each chapter concludes with illustrative diversity cases. In these seven illustrative cases, the readers can see the real-time implications and use of diversity in various contexts. For instance, examples span from the case of the COVID-19 pandemic and its adverse impacts on diverse groups in societies of Western and Asian countries to the migration of the diversity concept over time from North America to different contexts and shaped new meanings across the world. This is also how the author brings forth why diversity is key for societies and businesses across the globe. Özbilgin employs a language accessible to diverse audiences beyond academia, including industry practitioners, policymakers, and others interested in delving into the subject without overwhelming technical details. The book is structured into seven chapters accompanied by an introduction. Özbilgin initiates the discussion in the introduction by framing the global context through a dystopian lens, highlighting the imperative to reconceptualize human diversity amidst emerging challenges in other diversity categories, such as biodiversity and technodiversity. He prompts readers to ponder the beacon of hope amidst the current pessimism. The author illustrates this pessimistic and dystopian context as the unprecedented power and dominion of humans leading to the destruction of ecology and natural environment (e.g., climate crisis). At the same time, the world witnesses a decay in institutional diversity due to the uptrend of neoliberal ideology. In brief, the first part of the book centers on workforce diversity, and the second part focuses on managing and regulating diversity, especially emphasizing bio- and technodiversity. Chapter 1 primarily delves into the origins of diversity. In this chapter, the author provides definitions of diversity and discusses various framings. These framings include, for instance, numerical, relations of power, psychological, institutional, organizational, processual, and relational frameworks proposed by Syed and Özbilgin (2009). Although diversity and its origins are adequately covered, I believe the book would have a more holistic perspective on the agenda if the author gave voice to the definitions of inclusion. Plus, the relevance and connection of inclusion to diversity. In the book, i't is unclear why inclusion is detached from diversity's conceptual developmental journey. Chapter 2 explores manifestations of diversity. These diversity manifestations encompass etic (e.g., gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, age, techno, and biodiversity) and emic (e.g., India's caste system) categories. At the same time, the author cautions against studying a single dimension of diversity, which may cause the negligence of a broader complexity of inequalities deriving at the intersection of several forms of diversity (see Tatli & Özbilgin, 2012 for a discussion of using an emic approach to the intersectional study of workforce diversity). Here, Özbilgin introduces us to two growing etic diversity concepts: biodiversity and technodiversity. On the one hand, the author describes biodiversity in the book by paying attention to the nonhuman species and how they have been unfairly used by humans thus far. Also, without legal rights to protect these nonhuman species from humans' overuse of them. An example from the book could be, “animals, plants and fungi have been used for their potential as food, clothing and energy source, others have been ignored or destroyed” as they have been useless for humans as pests or toxic material (p. 32). On the other hand, Özbilgin defines technodiversity as “how a diverse range of technologies are becoming essential, natural, relational and inseparable parts of organisms, including humans” (p. 33). The author emphasizes how the advancement of technodiversity, such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality, has changed humans' experience of life. For instance, from using AI-led technologies impacting work streams in different industries to the gig economy transforming our free time and daily activities such as online shopping, ordering food online, and many more. At the same time, Özbilgin calls for organizations to include technodiversity as part of their diversity management efforts to mitigate bias, fear, and skepticism against the use of technology. All in all, this is a well-rounded chapter regarding the differences between locally relevant, that is, emic, and general, that is, etic, categories of diversity. Notably, deep diving into bio- and technodiversity is interesting for the reader partly due to their relative unfamiliarity compared to other diversity parameters. Also, partly because it is a clear contribution to the field of diversity research to bring forth these still not-so-common diversity parameters as opposed to gender diversity, for example. Chapter 3 examines disciplinary influences on diversity science, elucidating how perspectives from other disciplines shape the understanding of diversity in social sciences. Formal sciences, reliant on quantitative methodologies, lend legitimacy to diversity science but often overlook the authenticity of subjective narratives. Social sciences draw from natural sciences, incorporating concepts like biodiversity and neurodiversity, yet usually adopt a deterministic view that reduces humans to biological qualities only. Arts and humanities offer qualitative methods and different theorizations to study diversity. The author also delves into diversity across various social science disciplines (i.e., psychology, sociology, political science and law, economics, business, and management). He emphasizes the complexity of human diversity, advocating for methodologically and approach-wise interdisciplinary collaboration to capture it fully. Chapter 4 discusses the consequences of workforce diversity, highlighting both positive impacts on innovation and performance when managed effectively and adverse outcomes stemming from poor management and lack of an inclusive climate, such as missing harmony at the workplace and having communication issues (see also Ely & Thomas, 2020 on how numerical increase of workforce diversity in and of itself is not going to fulfill business case for diversity's lofty expectations if there is no sound organizational change). The author sets the scene by highlighting earlier studies focused on both the business and moral cases of diversity and focused on the consequences of workforce diversity. He argues that studying the consequences of workforce diversity per se would create both positive and negative outcomes. Instead, he says, research should look at the link between diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) work and their outcomes on organizational, team, and individual levels. From there, he moves on looking at studies that focus on the link between diversity and performance, innovation, workplace equality, bottom line, social responsibility, and sustainability. In concluding this chapter, the author argues for considering the potential limitations of a human-centered approach to diversity. He advocates for advancing the conversation on diversity by embracing a “posthumanist turn in diversity” (p. 66), illustrated through a compelling case. He explains the posthuman diversity era as a period that will emerge if humans can curb the hegemony of human diversity over bio- and technodiversity, where human diversity is no longer considered as the absolute dominant above anything and everything else in this world. He contends that the implications of posthuman diversity will emerge from the intersection of human diversity, biodiversity, and technodiversity, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach. He provides an example of this posthumanist turn in diversity in an illustrative case on recognizing the legal rights of the environment. Later, he returns to this point on bio- and technodiversity again in the last chapter. Chapter 5 addresses an exceptionally relevant and timely topic concerning DEI initiatives: the increasing backlash against these efforts, particularly in recent years. As we have entered 2024, there has been a global surge in discussions questioning whether this year marks the peak of backlashes on the DEI efforts in organizations in various sectors and the future existence of the DEI agenda. Social media platforms are abuzz with discussions led by DEI specialists and scholars, aiming to uphold the legitimacy and the need for ongoing DEI initiatives across various industries and cultural contexts. The resistance, however, is not new, as Özbilgin mentions, illustrated examples from the UK and the US. Similar resistance to diversity is evident in other national contexts as well, as he argues. For instance, this reminded me one example from the Danish context. In Denmark back in 2021, scholars focusing on gender, migration, race, and postcolonialism faced criticism from Danish politicians who labelled their research as “pseudo research” (Friis & Sandorff, 2021). This exemplifies the challenges DEI specialists in the industry and scholars face in other national contexts. The author's decision to include setbacks, backlashes, and opposition against workforce diversity in various contexts is particularly valuable for readers interested in understanding the struggles encountered by the DEI agenda and diversity scholars globally. Despite the persistent negativities, the chapter concludes on a hopeful note, emphasizing the importance for organizations to tailor their diversity efforts to address the genuine needs of participants while aligning with broader organizational change initiatives. Chapter 6 offers a detailed examination of diversity management that emerged as a strategic management concept with high expectations of serving capitalism (i.e., the business case for diversity) if managed right in the context of neoliberalism. This chapter might appeal to readers seeking more profound insights on diversity management as a professional field of work that has been developed in the past 30 years. Özbilgin outlines the evolution of diversity management over the past three decades, and highlights the shifts in approaches and lessons learned from previous methods. He discusses a wide range of approaches to managing diversity. For instance, strategic, processual, contextual, multilevel, relational, and maturity approaches. On the one hand, this chapter provides a thorough literature review to cover all these abovementioned approaches. Readers without a DEI background might find this part complicated, even at times confused about whether some of the arguments are the author's suggestion for organizations as the way to go or Özbilgin provides various perspectives in the literature review. As this book reaches a wide spectrum of audiences, for the next volume, I recommend the author rearranging the sections of this chapter for further clarity. On the other hand, I especially enjoyed reading the section on diversity management interventions and activities due to its practical relevance to organizations. The author successfully makes step-by-step practical suggestions for organizations coming from different starting points to work with DEI. For instance, the author suggests certain actions for organizations that are novice to DEI, such as first establishing dialog around organizational diversity management. Hence, this part can be particularly useful for readers who would like to have an overview of certain DEI activities relevant to organizations in different stages in their DEI journey. He then concludes with a case study on diversity management failures, giving examples of different diversity management strategies of organizations in the UK and Northern European countries. Chapter 7 explores the regulatory dimensions of diversity through three distinct frameworks: multilevel, multifaceted, and what he terms the “new deal” (p. 96). A notable strength and a cardinal contribution of this book is its focus on biodiversity and technodiversity, which are often overlooked aspects in this field of research, as I mentioned earlier in this book review. Özbilgin contends that an imbalanced relationship exists between human diversity, biodiversity, and technodiversity. He argues that despite the historical emphasis on human diversity in social sciences, factors like global warming, species extinctions, and technological advancements challenge humans' perceived superiority. Özbilgin advocates for more sustainable solutions in addressing global challenges, suggesting that highlighting the uneven relationship among these diversity categories could serve a constructive starting point. Overall, “Diversity: A Key Idea for Business and Society,” written by Mustafa F. Özbilgin, offers a wealth of theoretical insights into diversity, workforce diversity, and its management within organizations with a historical overview. It adeptly strikes a balance, ensuring inclusivity for readers from diverse backgrounds and occupations. An area for improvement could be that I would like to dig deeper into this new deal the author suggests between human-, bio-, and technodiversity in the posthuman diversity era. Mainly, how can we all contribute in our capacities to reaching sustainable ways to tackle global challenges on micro, meso, and macro levels, respectively, as individuals, organizations, countries, and supranational organizations for the emergence of this deal as well as the era? At the same time, as I mentioned, the book does not delve much into the notion of inclusion, although he briefly touches upon the impact of inclusive workplace climate on diversity in chapter 4. Previous research shows close ties between diversity and inclusion, and the first one does not “stick” without the latter (Sherbin & Rashid, 2017). It would be interesting to read how Özbilgin incorporates inclusion further in the techno- and biodiversity discussions. Nonetheless, I highly recommend it to individuals ranging from newcomers to the field of diversity research to seasoned scholars already engaged in these topics. As the author discusses the notion of diversity through examples from a global perspective and writes in a language that keeps the target group of the audience broad, he aims to position this as a universal book. I believe he succeeds in that regard. The book promises to be engaging and thought-provoking, offering a streamlined and fruitful reading experience. No funding was received for this manuscript. There is no conflict of interest to declare. Ece Gürsoy is a PhD fellow at Copenhagen Business School. Her research centers on gender diversity, organizational DEI (diversity, equality, and inclusion) work, and gender microaggressions. She primarily uses ethnography and other qualitative methods in her research. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data was created or analyzed in this study.