ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which organizations respond to social justice-related societal events and how these responses may be viewed as a form of resistance to diversity. The chapter begins by outlining why organizational response is important for employees by discussing the ways in which social justice events can lead to collective trauma, particularly for people belonging to social groups that are at the center of the event. Management theory on organizational responses to social and political events (Greening & Gray, 1994) and psychology theory on White Americans’ identity management of race and White privilege (Knowles, Lowery, Chow, & Unzueta, 2014) are used to develop a conceptual framework for understanding organizational response to social justice issues. The authors posit that different organizational responses can be perceived as either resistant to or embracing diversity and provide recommendations for organizations to respond in ways that are more aligned with embracing diversity.
