Advancing racio-ethnic and diversity theorising through intersectional identity work

Management research on racio-ethnicity inadequately addresses the complexities of multiple identity dimensions and underplays the role of context. Integrating identity construction with intersectionality, we focus on how individuals make sense of the dynamic nature of non-essentialist identities. We offer an ‘intersectional identity work’ framework to advance racio-ethnic scholarship in organisations

Why work it when you can dodge it? Identity responses to ethnic stigma among professionals

Professionals commonly seek to repair stigmatized identities by constructing more positive and relatively coherent self-views. This study draws on interview, observation and diary data from Romanian professionals in the UK, in order to understand how they construct their identities when faced with ethno-cultural stigma. We find that these professionals engage in counterintuitive identity responses which consist of simultaneously denying and acknowledging personal stigmatization (doublethink), and evading engagement with the stigmatized identity (dodging). Unlike the restorative identity work highlighted by previous studies, these atypical responses require less effort, provide less coherence and do not attempt to restore the blemished ethnocultural identity. Our analyses further indicate that being professional and being White confer individuals privileges that sustain doublethink and dodging. We contribute to scholarship by underscoring the need to consider both stigmatized and privileged identities, when investigating reactions to stigma. We also reflect on the practical implications for organizations of what it means for stigmatized individuals to deny stigmatization or to dodge engagement with stigm

Revealing Intersectional Dynamics in Organizations: Introducing ‘Intersectional Identity Work’

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Little consensus exists regarding conducting intersectional studies. We introduce ‘intersectional identity work’ as an approach for examining individuals’ experiences at the nexus of multiple identities. Incorporating identity work as a theoretical and analytical framework, we use journals and interviews to examine identity-heightening episodes that trigger meaning-making of intersecting senior, gender and ethnic identities among British Asian and black women and men. Our analysis reveals how intersecting identities are leveraged in encounters with subordinates, superiors and clients. Intersectional locations provide resources and cues for claiming or restricting privileged and disadvantaged status in asymmetric power positions. Intersectional identity work expands and restricts identification at juxtaposed locations. It offers a prospect for elucidating intersectional dynamics present in a range of identity configurations and addresses critiques that individual-level intersectional analyses at intersections are mere narrative. We encourage further research that examines other socially salient identities using our approach to develop theory on how multiple identities play out in everyday experience.This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/F020570/1)

Reducing disproportionality in fitness to practise concerns reported to the GMC

This research was commissioned to understand why some groups of doctors are referred to the General Medical Council (GMC) for fitness to practise concerns more, or less, than others by their employers or contractors and what can be done about it. In the UK, certain groups of doctors are more likely to be subjected by employers and healthcare providers to formal local disciplinary process. These groups of doctors are also more likely to be referred to the UK regulator, the GMC by their employers or healthcare providers. In particular, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) doctors, overseas graduates, older male doctors and some non-specialist doctors are more likely than their counterparts to be referred to the GMC by employers or healthcare providers. BAME doctors have more than double the rate of being referred by an employer compared to white doctors. Non-UK doctors have 2.5 times higher rate of being referred by an employer compared to UK graduate doctors. Previous research and analyses have not identified substantive evidence of bias in decision-making by the GMC, yet concerns remain regarding the considerable differences in the patterns of complaints about different groups of doctors received by the regulator. This independent research aims to identify the factors that lead to, and consequential processes adopted prior to, employers making a decision to refer a doctor to the GMC for fitness to practise (FtP) concerns. Further, this study seeks to understand how these factors may contribute to patterns of disproportionality (that is, the over and under representation of certain types of doctors) in referrals from employers, and makes recommendations for change with a view to reducing these patterns of disproportionality. Although the NHS is a national service, each nation has services structured and governed in slightly different ways and there is wide variation in their culture and approach. Our recommendations seek to address factors we have identified as common, but we are conscious that some Trusts will have strong, positive leadership and an inclusive culture and may have already addressed some or all of the recommendations while others will not have addressed any. Similarly, more or less progress will have been made across the four nations of the UK. Our intent is to improve consistency across all NHS Trusts, Boards and Health Boards in relation to the issues raised in this review by ensuring all NHS Trusts, Boards and Health Boards model the approach of those doing good work in this area, and, that there is similar impact across the UK