The purpose of this paper is to report on the 2008 inaugural Equal Opportunities Conference held at the University of East Anglia, Norwich

Research presented in the ‘Work and Career experiences of Ethnic Minority Men
and Women’ stream continued the theme of pushing the boundaries of diversity
research and increasing the level of sophistication with which we address
diversity-related organisational research. The work presented highlighted the
richness of knowledge that can be gained from international research, and the
critical importance of local context in making sense of diversity-related issues.
For instance, Fu’s work on global diversity management focused on the
interactions between expatriate and Chinese employees in two Western
multinational company subsidiaries in China. Drawing on Jackson & Schuler’s
typology of cultural diversity (2003), Fu identified the mediating thoughts and
processes through which the effects of cultural diversity are translated into
observable behaviours, including emotional and cognitive reactions to diversity
training and cross cultural interactions. Contrary to much organisational and
practitioner rhetoric, the study indicated that cultural diversity management did
not necessarily lie at the forefront of international human resource management
as neither organisation sought to systematically map cultural differences or refine
its practices to more appropriately suit the particular needs of its Chinese
subsidiaries. Fu recommends more sophisticated approaches to cross cultural
training such as going beyond presenting information on host country norms to
exploring underlying reasons behind styles of communication and working.
Turning to Europe, Ortleib & Sieben’s unit of analysis was the organisation.
Integrating literature on organisational strategy, diversity and resource
dependency theory, they sought to provide a single, systematic answer to why
persons with migration backgrounds are (not) employed. Their resultant typology
of diversity strategies offers a unitary lens for explaining the various attitudes
held by organisations towards employing diverse individuals. Testing their
hypotheses with 500 heads of personnel of German organisations, they found
initial support for the hypothesis that choice of diversity strategy is dependent on
organisational intent to accrue critical resources and reduce dependencies from
resource providers, thus providing an explicit business case for various diversity
models in which employees with migration backgrounds are conceived as an
organisational resource. In another part of Europe, Lenaers’ study on non-EU
citizens in Belgium examined the labour market outcomes of non-native
graduates. This study is distinctive in comparison to much Belgian labour market
research in its focus on relatively successful people of minority origin. The
results of this postal survey of a matched group of 457 graduates indicated that
non-natives (graduates with surnames of Italian, Turkish or Moroccan origin)
remained unemployed for a longer period of time after graduation than native
Belgians. Once employed, the author found no significant differences between
natives and non-natives in income and nature of employment contract.
Significant differences were however found in the perceptions held by the non
native group of the need to ‘try harder’ to achieve success compared to their
native peers. This theme of expending more effort recurred in some of the UK-
based studies.

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