liu.seSearch for publications in DiVA
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Truth games of diversity: How hiring managers and human resource recruiters negotiate and learn about ethnicity and gender during recruitment processes
Linköping University, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Education and Sociology. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5624-2576
2026 (English)In: Management Learning, ISSN 1350-5076, E-ISSN 1461-7307, article id 13505076261424472Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

This study explores how hiring managers and HR recruiters negotiate issues of diversity and inclusion– specifically gender and ethnicity – during recruitment processes within a large Swedish corporation.Drawing on a Foucauldian approach, it examines the interplay of power, knowledge, learning, and truthin these negotiations. The study contributes to critical management research on diversity and inclusion inrecruitment. Based on ethnographic observations of 20 meetings across seven recruitment processes, thearticle illustrates how informal learning and power/knowledge dynamics shape understandings of diversityand inclusion. Findings show that the recruiters and managers’ understanding of diversity in the workplace arenarrow. They focus on surface-level diversity – primarily European nationalities and binary gender identities(counting men and women) – while overlooking more nuanced understandings. Although hierarchicaldifferences between managers and recruiters pose challenges, informal learning does occur to some extent,as both parties influence each other’s views on diversity during recruitment. Nevertheless, opportunities forreflexive and critical learning are often missed due to prevailing power/knowledge relations, which hinderdeeper engagement with diversity and inclusion.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
SAGE Publications , 2026. article id 13505076261424472
Keywords [en]
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Recruitment, Ethnicity, Gender, Informal learning, Power/Knowledge
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-221893DOI: 10.1177/13505076261424472ISI: 001713680700001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105032800006OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-221893DiVA, id: diva2:2046081
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2019-01228.Available from: 2026-03-16 Created: 2026-03-16 Last updated: 2026-03-26

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(170 kB)18 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 170 kBChecksum SHA-512
8fd232e13e78e597f96f991e2eab5eea1abfc80aafabd2442f50c13508f9e2d68845c9a83567b0dad7aad961e4139b7b67c659ddf7d4a59ffa0efc06ba7720ff
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Vesterberg, Viktor

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Vesterberg, Viktor
By organisation
Education and SociologyFaculty of Arts and Sciences
In the same journal
Management Learning
Business Administration

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 2506 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf