Report on the 5th Workshop on Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion
On May 13-14 2019, the Diversity and Difference platform hosted the 5th workshop on Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion. The theme for this year's workshop was “Inclusive and diverse organization(s) – towards alternative understandings”.
With this two-day intensive workshop, targeted on engaging inclusively, norm-critically and constructively with phenomena of organizations’ diversity practices, the organizers hoped to move towards not only alternative conceptual understandings of diverse organization(s), but also alternative presentation practices.
In this spirit, the intention of the workshop was to create a safe and supportive space for learning, knowledge sharing and providing constructive feedback. More specifically, the workshop format introduced feedback sessions for each presentation, with each presentation followed by 10 minutes associative feedback in small groups. Each group was tasked with summarizing their feedback and adding it to Padlet, an online, interactive dashboard. Finally, the presenter had 5mins to conclude and/or ask clarifying questions. This format supported active participation, collaborative reflection and joint knowledge creation.
Around 40 people from all over the world such as the US, UK, Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and France participated in the workshop. The presentations covered topics related to gendered diversity, class(ed) diversity, integration/migrants, playing (with) diversity as well as leadership and diversity. Moreover, creative and artistic modes of presentations accompanied the more conventional style for academic presentations of work-in-progress.
Dorthe Staunæs from Aarhus University and Jo Brewis from the Open University were the two keynote speakers at the workshop. Dorthe's keynote speech was entitled “Breaking up with leadership for inclusion”. Jo’s keynote respectively addressed “Menopause and the workplace: for an intersectional approach”.
The workshop participants critically explored, reflected and raised questions about theorization of inclusive diversity (and its management), possibilities for translating critical diversity theories into organizational practice in alternative and innovative ways, and how to critique mainstream understandings of diversity management and leadership to create actual inclusion and trigger further organizational change.
Organizing committee
- Annette Risberg, Copenhagen Business School
- Jannick Friis Christensen, Copenhagen Business School
- Sara Dahlman, Copenhagen Business School
- Cornel Florea, Copenhagen Business School
- Astrid Huopalainen, Åbo Akademi University
- Jette Sandager, Copenhagen Business School
