Abstract
Internationally, academic hospitals are giving increasing attention to diversity management. This paper sheds light on the actual praxis of cultural diversity management by professionals in workplace interactions. An ethnographic study in a Dutch academic hospital showed that normalization practices were obscuring diversity issues and obstructing inclusion of cultural minority professionals. The normalization of professionalism-as-neutral and equality-as-sameness informed the unequal distribution of privilege and disadvantage among professionals and left no room to question this distribution. Majority and minority professionals disciplined themselves and each other in (re)producing an ideal worker norm, essentialized difference and sameness, and explained away the structural hierarchy involved. To create space for cultural diversity in healthcare organizations in the Netherlands and beyond, we need to challenge normalization practices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 141-150 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Scandinavian Journal of Management |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2018 |
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Keywords
- Academic hospitals
- Cultural diversity
- Ideal worker norm
- Normalization
- Privilege/disadvantage
- Professionalism
- Reification of difference/sameness
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“We are all so different that it is just … normal.” Normalization practices in an academic hospital in the Netherlands. / Leyerzapf, Hannah; Verdonk, Petra; Ghorashi, Halleh; Abma, Tineke A.
In: Scandinavian Journal of Management, Vol. 34, No. 2, 01.06.2018, p. 141-150.Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - “We are all so different that it is just … normal.” Normalization practices in an academic hospital in the Netherlands
AU - Leyerzapf, Hannah
AU - Verdonk, Petra
AU - Ghorashi, Halleh
AU - Abma, Tineke A.
PY - 2018/6/1
Y1 - 2018/6/1
N2 - Internationally, academic hospitals are giving increasing attention to diversity management. This paper sheds light on the actual praxis of cultural diversity management by professionals in workplace interactions. An ethnographic study in a Dutch academic hospital showed that normalization practices were obscuring diversity issues and obstructing inclusion of cultural minority professionals. The normalization of professionalism-as-neutral and equality-as-sameness informed the unequal distribution of privilege and disadvantage among professionals and left no room to question this distribution. Majority and minority professionals disciplined themselves and each other in (re)producing an ideal worker norm, essentialized difference and sameness, and explained away the structural hierarchy involved. To create space for cultural diversity in healthcare organizations in the Netherlands and beyond, we need to challenge normalization practices.
AB - Internationally, academic hospitals are giving increasing attention to diversity management. This paper sheds light on the actual praxis of cultural diversity management by professionals in workplace interactions. An ethnographic study in a Dutch academic hospital showed that normalization practices were obscuring diversity issues and obstructing inclusion of cultural minority professionals. The normalization of professionalism-as-neutral and equality-as-sameness informed the unequal distribution of privilege and disadvantage among professionals and left no room to question this distribution. Majority and minority professionals disciplined themselves and each other in (re)producing an ideal worker norm, essentialized difference and sameness, and explained away the structural hierarchy involved. To create space for cultural diversity in healthcare organizations in the Netherlands and beyond, we need to challenge normalization practices.
KW - Academic hospitals
KW - Cultural diversity
KW - Ideal worker norm
KW - Normalization
KW - Privilege/disadvantage
KW - Professionalism
KW - Reification of difference/sameness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045731928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85045731928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scaman.2018.03.003
DO - 10.1016/j.scaman.2018.03.003
M3 - Article
VL - 34
SP - 141
EP - 150
JO - Scandinavian Journal of Management
JF - Scandinavian Journal of Management
SN - 0956-5221
IS - 2
ER -