Ethnic Diversity at Work: Diversity Attitudes and Experiences in Dutch Organisations

Demographic changes in Europe and the United States have created interest in how an ethnically diverse work force can best be managed. Employers are regularly encouraged to engage in diversity management activities, but little is known about the attitudes and experiences of ethnic minority and majority employees and managers.

This book reports on a study in fifteen Dutch organizations with an ethnically diverse staff. It explores the following general questions: What do minority and majority employees and managers think about employing minority members, and affirmative action policies? What do they think about interethnic differences, and the interethnic relations at work? What do they think about the accommodation of cultural and religious differences? In-depth analyses are presented describing implicit theories and experiences as well as multilevel analyses examining which factors contribute to more positive or negative attitudes and experiences.

Juliette Schaafsma is a social psychologist. She conducted this study at Babylon, Centre for Studies of the Multicultural Society (Tilburg University). Currently, she is working as an assistant professor at the Department of Communication and Culture, Tilburg University (The Netherlands).