Identity and value in organisations - UHasselt

This study develops theory on the process through which personnel’s diverse socio-demographic identities become sources of economic value for organizations. Specifically, drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we propose to re-conceptualize diversity as the result of a three-fold process. First, socio-demographic groups are associated to competencies considered necessary to perform within a given work process, contributing to the generation of economic value. Second, those competencies are traced back to socio-demographic groups’ specific habitus, that is, a socially constituted system of cognitive, motivating and embodied ‘dispositions’ shared by the group members by virtue of their common material conditions of existence and social practices (Bourdieu, 1992)  outside and prior to the organization. Third, as dispositions are transposed into the work process becoming competencies, they undergo commodization and are exchanged for economic value under the form of organizational rewards (i.e. wage, benefits, terms of employment, and career opportunities).

Full title: Socio-demographic groups’ dispositions as value-generating competencies:  Diversity as commoditization and exploitation of the habitus

Authors: Patrizia Zanoni and Maddy Janssens (KULeuven)