Abstract
In 2001, Diane Grimes presented a charge to the field of organization development: that it should “get its own house in order,” by employing an “interrogation of whiteness” to examine the hidden assumptions about race embedded within OD literature and praxis. This paper explores how the field has responded to Grimes’ call to action over the past 20 years and examines how interrogations of whiteness have advanced the field’s capabilities to disrupt white supremacy culture within the discipline and its spheres of influence. A review of literature connects interrogating whiteness with its roots in critical race feminism and the humanistic values embedded in OD’s founding philosophies, then demonstrates significant advancements in the use of interrogating whiteness since Grimes’ original charge. Key findings support the conclusion that the field is more meaningfully equipped than ever to pursue racial equity within organizations. These findings include the development of new awareness of white supremacy’s impact on diversity management, new lenses through which to conduct interrogations of whiteness, new language to describe the dynamics of white supremacy culture and ways of disrupting it, and new models for integrating interrogations of whiteness into OD praxis. This paper concludes with a renewed call to action, charging the field to apply these findings to an expanded, multidimensional disruptive inquiry of oppressive systems, and proposing that to meet a new cultural moment, OD must unbind itself from its factionalized view of equity/diversity/inclusion and strategic values alignment, and recognize liberatory praxis as fundamental to the work of the discipline.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
APA style guidelines and common practice among some critical race scholars recommends the capitalization of words that name racial or ethnic groups, e.g. “White” or “Black.” The majority of the authors I cite within this paper, however, do not follow this convention; therefore, for the purposes of consistency and clarity for readers, I chose not to capitalize these terms within this chapter, except in cases where an author I quote directly has done so.
- 2.
For a history of Connecticut’s Inter-Racial Commission, now known as the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, see: https://www.ct.gov/chro/cwp/view.asp?a=2523&Q=315814.
References
Ahmed, S. (2004). Declarations of whiteness: The non-performativity of anti-racism. Borderlands, 3(2), 1–15.
Ahmed, S. (2007). ‘You end up doing the document rather than doing the doing’: Diversity, race equality and the politics of documentation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(4), 590–609. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701356015
Alderfer, C. P. (1982). Problems of changing white males’ behavior and beliefs concerning race relations. Change in Organizations, 122–165.
Alderfer, C. P., & Thomas, D. A. (1988). The significance of race and ethnicity for understanding organizational behavior. In C. L. Cooper & I. Robertson (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 1–41). Wiley.
Alderfer, C. P. (1990). Reflections on race relations and organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 11(6), 493–495. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030110609
Alderfer, C. (2011). The practice of organizational diagnosis: Theory and methods. OUP USA.
Aldoory, L. (2006). A (re)conceived feminist paradigm for public relations: A case for substantial improvement. Journal of Communication, 55(4), 668–684. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2005.tb03016.x
Ali, F., & Syed, J. (2018). ‘Good Muslim women’ at work: An Islamic and postcolonial perspective on ethnic privilege. Journal of Management and Organization, 24(5), 679–697. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2018.22
American Institute of Architects. (2019, February). Equity by design: Voices, values, vision. Issuu Website. https://issuu.com/annelisepitts/docs/eqia_2018_early_findings.
Anand, R., & Winters, M.F. (2008). A retrospective view of corporate diversity training from 1964 to the present. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 7(3), 356–372.
Applebaum, B. (2017). Comforting discomfort as complicity: White fragility and the pursuit of invulnerability. Hypatia, 32(4), 862–875. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12352
Argyris, C., & Schön, D. A. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. Jossey-Bass.
Ashforth, B. E., Schinoff, B. S., & Rogers, K. M. (2016). “I identify with her”, “I identify with him”: Unpacking the dynamics of personal identification in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 41, 28–60. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0033
Atlassian. (2018a). State of Diversity and Inclusion in U.S. Tech: Stats Summary, March 2018a. https://www.atlassian.com/diversity/survey/2018a
Atlassian. (2018b). Fresh data reveals diversity fatigue is a global problem, June 20, 2018b. https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/techs-diversity-inclusion-efforts-paying-off
Berger, L. J., Essers, C., & Himi, A. (2017). Muslim employees within ‘white’ organizations: The case of Moroccan workers in the Netherlands. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(8), 1119–1139. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1166785
Betters-Reed, B. L., & Moore, L. (1995). Shifting the management development paradigm for women. Journal of Management Development, 14(2), 24–38.
Black, A. L. (2014). Reconceptualising meaning-making and embracing disruptive inquiry. Weaving words: Personal and professional transformation through writing as research. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Boler, M. (2004). Teaching for hope: The ethics of shattering world views. In D. Liston & J. Garrison (Eds.), Teaching, learning, and loving: Reclaiming passion in educational practice. Routledge Falmer.
Brookfield, S. (2014). Teaching our own racism: Incorporating personal narratives of whiteness into anti-racist practice. Adult Learning, 25(3), 89–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1045159514534189
Calvert, L. M., & Ramsey, V. J. (1996). Speaking as female and white: A non-dominant/dominant group standpoint. Organization, 3(4), 468–485.
Carrim, N. M. H., & Nkomo, S. M. (2016). Wedding intersectionality theory and identity work in organizations: South African Indian women negotiating managerial identity. Gender, Work and Organization, 23(3), 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12121
Cole, J., Horton, H., & Pini, M. (2019). Culture change or same old society? Consensus, sociocracy, and white supremacy culture. Communities, 184, 53–56.
Collective, C. R., & The,. (1977). A black feminist statement. In T. P. McCarthy & J. McMillian (Eds.), Protest nation: Words that inspired a century of American radicalism (pp. 212–216). The New Press.
Cox, T. (1990). Problems with research by organizational scholars on issues of race and ethnicity. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 26(1), 5–23.
Cox, T. (1993). Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research, and practice. Berret-Koehler.
Cox, T., & Nkomo, S. (1990) Invisible men and women: A status report on race as a variable in organization behavior research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 11(6), 419–431.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139–167.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3), 54–70.
DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press.
Erskine, S. E., & Bilimoria, D. (2019). White allyship of afro-diasporic women in the workplace: A transformative strategy for organizational change. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051819848993
Fletcher, T., & Hylton, K. (2018). ‘Race’, ethnicity and whiteness in the governance of the events industry. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 10(2), 164–179.
Forrest, M. D. (2016). For a ruthless criticism of US politics. Polity, 48(1), 5–28.
Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Gendlin, E. T. (1969). Focusing. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 6(1), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0088716
Grimes, D. (2001). Putting our own house in order: Whiteness, change and organization studies. Journal of Organizational Change Management., 14(2), 132–149. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810110388054
Grimes, D. S. (2002). Challenging the status quo? Whiteness in the diversity management literature. Management Communication Quarterly, 15(3), 381–409.
Groscurth, C. R. (2011). Paradoxes of privilege and participation: The case of the American Red Cross. Communication Quarterly, 59(3), 296–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2011.583498
Holgersson, C., Tienari, J., Meriläinen, S., & Bendl, R. (2016). Executive search as ethnosociality: A cross-cultural comparison. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 16(2), 153–169.
Holvino, E. (1994a). Making sense of ‘making sense of gender in the world economy’. Organization, 1,2, 341–344.
Holvino, E. (1994b). Women of color in organizations: Revising our models of gender at work. In E. Y. Cross, J. H. Katz, F. A. Miller & E. W. Seashore (Eds.), The promise of diversity, pp. 52–59. Irwin Professional Publishing.
Holvino, E. (1996). Reading organization development from the margins: Outsider within. Organization, 3(4), 520–533.
Holvino, E. (2008). Intersections: The simultaneity of race, gender and class in organization studies. Gender, Work and Organization,. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00400.x
Holvino, E. (2010). Intersections: The simultaneity of race, gender and class in organization studies. Gender, Work and Organization, 17(3), 248–277.
hooks, B. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. South End Press.
hooks, B. (1989). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking black. South End Press.
HR Research Institute. (2019, February). The state of diversity and inclusion 2018/2019. HR.com. https://www.hr.com/en/resources/free_research_white_papers/hrcom-state-of-diversity-inclusion-2019-feb2019_jrttnwuk.html
Greene, A. M., & Kirton, G. (2011). The value of investigating stakeholder involvement in Diversity Management. Diversity in the Workplace: Multi-disciplinary and International Perspectives, 119.
Jackson, L. (2021, August 13). Our window of climate opportunity. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/podcasts/climate-change-solutions-ipcc.html
Jackson, L., & Chablani, M. (2021, July 30, August 2). Climate chaos is avoidable. Here’s how. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/podcasts/the-daily-newsletter-climate-change-avoidable.html
Jackson, L. M. (2019, September 04). What’s missing from “White Fragility.” slate. https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/white-fragility-robin-diangelo-workshop.html
Kyriakidou, O., Kyriacou, O., Özbilgin, M., & Dedoulis, E. (2016). Equality, diversity and inclusion in accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 35, 1–12.
Leong, N. (2012). Racial capitalism. Harvard Law Review, 126(8), 2151–2225.
Liu, H. (2017). Undoing whiteness: The dao of anti-racist diversity practice. Gender, Work and Organization, 24(5), 457–471.
Liu, H. (2019). Decolonising organisations with bell hooks. In R. McMurray & A. Pullen (Eds.), Focus on women writers in organization studies: Power, politics and exclusion in organization and management (pp. 83–98). Routledge.
Liu, H. (2020). Redeeming leadership: An anti-racist feminist intervention. Bristol University Press.
Liu, H. (2021). How we learn whiteness: Disciplining and resisting management knowledge. Management Learning, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076211061622
Lu, D., Smart, C., & Gamio, L. (2021, August 12). Where the racial makeup of the U.S. shifted in the last decade. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/12/us/2020-census-race-ethnicity.html
Marshall, J., & Mead, G. (2005). Self-reflective practice and first-person action research. Action Research, 3(3), 235–244. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750305055999
McConarty, K., & Rose, H. (2017). Beyond the 22%: Gender inequity in regional theatres’ show selections. Women’s Studies in Communication, 40(2), 212–228.
Nicholson, H., & Carroll, B. (2013). Identity undoing and power relations in leadership development. Human Relations, 66(9), 1225–1248. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712469548
Nkomo, S. (1992). The emperor has no clothes: Rewriting ‘race in organizations’. Academy of Management Review., 17, 487–513.
Noer, D. (2017). Humanistic consulting: Its history, philosophy and power for organizations. McFarland.
Roithmayr, D. (2014). Reproducing racism: How everyday choices lock in white advantage. NYU Press.
Rumens, N. (2011). Minority support: Friendship and the development of gay and lesbian managerial careers and identities. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 30(6), 444–462. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151111157684
Schuster, M. A., Osherov, A., & Chung, P. J. (2020). Why counting black lives matters—The 2020 Census. New England Journal of Medicine, 383(9), e60–e60.
Segon, M., & Booth, C. (2015). Virtue: The missing ethics element in emotional intelligence. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(4), 789–802.
Shonkoff, B. S., Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, M., & Sadd, J. (2011). The climate gap: Environmental health and equity implications of climate change and mitigation policies in California—A review of the literature. Climatic Change, 109(Suppl 1), S485–S503.
Sinclair, A. (2006). Critical diversity management practice in Australia: Romanced or co-opted? In A. M. Konrad, P. Prasad, & J. Pringle (Eds.), Dimensions of Workplace Diversity (pp. 511–530). Sage.
Smith, J. G., & Lindsay, J. B. (2014). Beyond inclusion: Worklife interconnectedness, energy, and resilience in organizations. Springer.
Southern Poverty Law Center. (2020, March). SPLC identifies 940 hate groups. SPLC Report, 1A.
Suzuki, B. H. (1977). Education and the socialization of Asian Americans: A revisionist analysis of the “model minority” thesis. Amerasia Journal, 4(2), 23–51.
Suzuki, B. H. (2002). Revisiting the model minority stereotype: Implications for student affairs practice and higher education. New Directions for Student Services, 2002(97), 21–32.
The pursuit of hapa-ness. (2001, Jul 31). A_Magazine, 34. Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.newschool.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.newschool.edu/docview/200218507?accountid=12261
Tolbert, M. A. R., & Hanafin, J. (2006). Use of self in OD consulting: What matters is presence. The NTL handbook of organization development and change: Principles, practices, and perspectives. Pfeiffer.
Trần, N. L. (2016). Calling IN: A less disposable way of holding each other accountable. In M. McKenzie (Ed.), The solidarity struggle: How people of color succeed and fail at showing up for each other in the fight for freedom (pp. 59–63). BGD Press.
Van Laer, K., & Janssens, M. (2011). Ethnic minority professionals’ experiences with subtle discrimination in the workplace. Human Relations, 64(9), 1203–1227.
Western, S. (2012). Leadership: A critical text (2nd ed.). Sage.
Worley, C. G., & Jules, C. (2020). COVID-19’s uncomfortable revelations about agile and sustainable organizations in a VUCA World. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 56(3), 279–283.
Zahrawi, S. (2020). The Arab-American experience: Identity negotiation in how does it feel to be a problem? South Central Review, 37(1), 121–137. https://doi.org/10.1353/scr.2020.0000
Zanoni, P., Janssens, M., Benschop, Y., & Nkomo, S. (2010). Unpacking diversity, grasping inequality: Rethinking difference through critical perspectives. Organization, 17(1), 9–29.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fong, K.L. (2023). The Interrogatory Imperative: Hope and Persistence from 20 Years of Interrogating Whiteness in OD. In: Poonamallee, L., Howard, A.D., Joy, S. (eds) Managing for Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19971-4_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19971-4_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-19970-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-19971-4
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)