Diversity of the workforce: voices from the field

The object of this study was to analyze whether organizational policies that aim at stimulating workforce diversity are effectively implemented. We developed a case-study at a multinational company in the technology sector, referred to as HIGHTEC, in order to compare the organizational discourse and policies to how the employees perceive them. We did a documental research into HIGHTEC’s diversity-related policies, which were submitted to content analysis. Eventually, we did interviews with minority and non-minority employees, transcribed and examined them using discourse analysis. The main results showed that, although corporate discourses are translated into organizational policies, their effectiveness is extremely limited due to employees’ ingrained prejudices, permissiveness at the management level, and the lack of a collective sense of diversity. Minorities and non-minorities have shown prejudiced and discriminatory attitudes towards each other, evidencing how difficult it is for them to respect their differences. Although policies give them a specific role in the process, managers show an explicit or concealed prejudice, thus undermining policies’ effectiveness. Indeed, there is a dissonance between diversity discourse and practice, and when it comes to workforce diversity, people are more inclined to accept ethnic, social and gender differences, but resistant to accept different sexual orientations.   Key words: Diversity, culture, policies, gender differences, sexual orientations, minorities.