ABSTRACT
Over the past 20 years, the concepts of difference and intersectionality have become institutionalized in the field of Organizational Communication. In this literature, difference is conceptualized as it relates to socially constructed identities that shape workplace interactions and power relations, whereas intersectionality refers to the ways in which multiple forms of difference are intertwined with each other and experienced simultaneously. This chapter reviews the key issues addressed by organizational communication scholars of difference and intersectionality, as well as some of the key critical frameworks through which difference and intersectionality have been explored, most notably feminist standpoint theory, whiteness, queer theory, and postcolonial theory. The chapter concludes by discussing the ways in which organizational communication research on difference and intersectionality conceives of communication, organization, and the relationship between communication and organization.
