Skip to main content

About us

The Diversity Research Group brings together researchers from the Birkbeck Business School and the School of Psychological Sciences, with a common interest in diversity in the workplace. It provides a supportive environment for developing collaborative funding proposals and publications, for receiving feedback on works in progress from a group of 'critical friends', and for mentoring less experienced researchers.

We support decolonisation of the the curriculum by encouraging the mainstreaming of diversity research and diverse scholarship within our teaching and we seek to foster research that can be translated into practice.

OUR RESEARCH

Our research addresses (in)equality in the workplace along social categorisations such as gender, age, race and ethnicity, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and class. Some of our work focuses on knowledge construction, using a diversity lens. We are mindful of the importance and effect of language around these issues and of the need for critical reflection on how terms and labels are used in within these broad themes.

Across the group, we employ a wide range of approaches in our work: quantitative and qualitative methods, experimental and field research, online and visual data. Where applicable, our research design includes examining ways in which our research might have impact on practice.

TOPICS COVERED IN OUR RESEARCH

  • Gender dynamics in leadership development, particularly in non-western societies
  • Decolonizing leadership knowledge
  • The intersection of ageism and sexism in the workplace
  • The intersection of race and gender in the workplace, in particular gendered and racialised experiences of work and working life
  • The discursive construction of work identities (such as the older worker) and concepts (such as work-life balance, age, class and gender)
  • The impact of stereotypes and biases on selection and assessment processes
  • Geographies of inequality and diversity in entrepreneurship and innovation
  • The impact of chronic illness and disability on sustained workability
  • Opportunities for voice among transgender employees
  • The impact of organizational power, culture and politics on decisions to take maternity or parental leave
  • The intersection of assisted fertility and paid employment on the working lives of women and men
  • Work-life experiences among migrant and non-western populations
  • Diverse conceptualisations of work-life balance across different cultures
  • Examination of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic through the lens of diversity