Diversity Management in the Public Sector: Moving from Hobbyism toward Integration An Exploratory Case Study in The Netherlands

Abstract

In research on diversity management we find a great deal of attention to be directed on tools and personnel issues. What we rarely come across are historical analyses of diversity management within organizations. In this paper we fill this gap and discuss the various stages an organization goes through in developing and implementing diversity policy. We do so by way of an in-depth, narrative case-study of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in The Netherlands. We show how ethnic diversity management has evolved within this organization over the past two decades and what pitfalls were encountered, while at the same time discussing the dilemmas which underlie successful implementation of diversity within organizations.