Managing Difference Fairly: An Integrated ‘Partnership’ Approach

This chapter reviews the current debate about the concept of diversity management in organisations and its relationship to equal opportunities. It is concerned with the role managers play in the management of diversity initiatives, why this involvement often fails to deliver permanent change in organisational culture, systems and structures and how managers might work in an integrated ‘partnership’ within their organisations to implement diversity successfully. In particular, we have drawn our ideas from the European and North American traditions and literatures on equal opportunities and diversity management. To highlight a number of our views, a case study from the railway industry is presented to illustrate key points. Our broad conclusions are that a multidisciplinary and multifunctional approach is most likely to sustain the long-term and deep-rooted changes necessary for successful diversity management.