| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines how the management and operationalization of difference can create stereotypical representations that can result in exclusionary processes for job-seekers, even though organizations strive for a more inclusive environment. The theoretical framework shows that by adding an inclusionary approach, these negative outcomes can be removed, as it leads to an approach that per definition is multilateral because it includes all (intra-) groups' experiences of exclusion. By using an explorative analysis on the diversity representations of the Rabobank, this thesis examines to what extent the use of stereotypical representations leads to abstract and unilateral representations that can limit the job-seekers capability to identify with an organization, and perpetuates homogenous hiring.
A combined method has been applied to analyze the diversity statement and the diversity photographs of the Rabobank, containing the categories of gender diversity, cultural diversity, and occupational disability. This combined method consists of three analyses’. The first research method is a textual analysis to discern the form, latent meaning, and omission of the statement to help gain an overall insight of the self-conception of the organization. Secondly, a Barthesian approach of meaning production was used in order to analyze the photographs in relation to its cultural background, whereas it enables me to analyze the form of power-knowledge through which these representations are created. As of last, an intertextual method was applied to analyze the combined meaning of the images through the textual analysis of the statement. This enabled me to examine the accumulated meaning that these representations signify.
Based on the explorative analysis of the representations, there can be stated that diversity representations can reiterate stereotypical representations that perpetuate the normalcy of main-stream society. Resulting in abstract and unilateral representations that make it harder for non-normative types to identify with the organization, a process that creates exclusionary processes for job-seekers, as it, in addition, can result in homogenous hiring due to the unilateral representation of difference. As the Rabobank purely represents as an example, further research is | |
