Abstract: This paper deepens our understanding of the construction of ethno-racial diversity and difference in organizations, and the consequences of those discursive struggles on the lives of workers. Categories of difference are usually seen as building blocks of diversity management, however critical and postcolonial researchers have long pointed out the need to develop more flexible and context-sensitive epistemologies in studying racial inequality, beyond binary conceptions of blackness and whiteness. The Jewish context offers a unique opportunity to explore those discursive dynamics, due to the elusive nature of “Jewish difference”, taboos over the use of racial classifications, and possible conflicts between an anti-racist stance and a Zionist affiliation. Exploring the diversity discourse within UK Jewish nonprofit organizations reveals three main diversity frames: in the first, “Jews are white”, the construction the Jewish organization as a white space is explored, as well as DEI efforts to bridge the Jewish-black gap; the second, “Jews are non-white”, explores this re-emerging discourse in the context of DEI, and investigates its acceptance as an act of reclaiming a historically marginalized identity, and as an appropriation of racial difference; the third, “Jews are ethnically diverse” explores the manifestations of Ashkenazi-Sephardi relations in diaspora organizations, and the sidelining of race. Throughout those diversity discourses, the repercussions on the lives of workplace are critically examined.
Abstract: Diaspora organizations can be seen as spaces where national identities are negotiated, expanded, and contested, and as transnational sites where organizational members hold overlapping and multiple frames of belonging and loyalty. This framing suggests the potential to extend diversity debates beyond the us/them binary logic of the nation-state. This qualitative study explores representations of Israel-Palestine in Jewish organizations in the UK, that broadly identify with a liberal Zionist orientation. It examines how nationhood and attachment to “homeland” are constructed, negotiated, and managed in everyday organizational life, with particular attention to moments of ambiguity and dissent. It shows how, as employees navigate diasporic ambivalence, diversity and inclusion discourses work to shape and often limit political-ideological differences. It contributes to diversity and organization studies by conceptualizing nationhood and homeland attachment as DEI questions and by advancing a diaspora organizational lens on how nationalism and belonging are negotiated in workplaces. It also highlights the ambivalent role of communities in DEI work, showing how community engagement can operate both as a source of ethical grounding and as a gatekeeping mechanism that constrains organizational capacity to accommodate difference.
