Polyculturalism: Diversity incognito or diversity made irrelevant?

Abstract

Valenzuela and Bernardo (2023) propose the benefits of adopting a polycultural framework for diversity management in organizations. On the surface, the authors offer a diversity incognito approach, where a commitment to diversity drives organizational practice but is not readily visible or marked by pro-diversity language and labels. It is a seemingly attractive approach, particularly because it could mitigate defensive routines related to the experience of identity threat (Dover et al., 2020; Leslie et al., 2020). However, it also has some real limitations that may short-circuit the goals of diversity management. We discuss the benefits alongside the critical challenges that ultimately limit the use of polyculturalism.