Diversity paradox

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The diversity paradox is a theoretical concept in the field of organizational communication - a subfield within the larger discipline of communication studies. The diversity paradox is summarized as “an organizational emphasis placed upon one potential understanding of diversity which, in turn, deemphasizes alternative expressions of difference for certain minority members” (p. 3). An organizational focus on representations of gender, for instance, synchronously moves the focus away from sexual orientation, an organizational focus on representations of sexual orientation synchronously moves the focus away from age, and so on.
History
The diversity paradox was developed by J. Jacob Jenkins, a Professor of Communication at California State University, Channel Islands within a series of journal articles, conference presentations, and a peer reviewed book by the same name. Jenkins spent four years studying the way community was cultivated and sustained within a racially/ethnically diverse congregation in Tampa Bay’s inner city. The resulting four-year ethnography revealed that this organization’s focus on visual representations of race/ethnicity synchronously moved the focus away from an endless number of other possible understandings (e.g., age, gender, nationality, sexual-orientation, and so on); thus, the organization’s approach to creating a diverse community actually served to narrow its conception.
Core concepts
The diversity paradox has six core tenants: (1) fractionated understanding, (2) visible hierarchy, (3) false attainment, (4) neglected representation, (5) diminished alternatives, and (6) potential tokenism.
Understood in yet another way, the diversity paradox also reveals the possibility for a phenomenon called attributional tokenism. That is, a garish emphasis placed upon one particular trait of an organization’s culture, norms, or practices that promotes a desired image or appearance, while overlooking cultural norms and practices to the contrary. As a theoretical extension of tokenism, attributional tokenism does not grant any particular person or persons that of token status, but rather a particular organizational feature or characteristic.

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