Changing views on diversity management - The rise of the learning perspective and the need to recognize social and political contradictions

This article sketches out the ways in which responses to diversity have changed over time. Using the schema of Dass and Parker there is a sense of movement across their four Perspectives: resistance; discrimination and fairness; access and legitimacy; and learning, in which each perspective attempts to deal with the inadequacies of its predecessor Although the learning perspective has the potential to develop a 'better' understanding of difference, in which the work gets diversified, not just the people, it suffers from political naivety. It needs to recognize the political and social dimensions of difference, rather than setting them aside, if it is to realize its potential.