Questioning impact: interconnection between extra-organizational resources and agency of equality and diversity officers

This paper examines the change agency of equality and diversity (E&D) officers with a specific emphasis on the role of extra-organizational influences and resources. The paper is informed by qualitative material collected through interviews with E&D officers from 20 higher education institutions in the UK. The paper offers an evidence-based analysis of the utility of extra-organizational mechanisms and intervention programmes for organizational E&D agenda and for the agentic influence of E&D officers. The paper contributes to both academic literature and policy-making. We present original empirical insights into the change agency of E&D officers by exploring the impact of extra-organizational bodies as potential mechanisms for support and influence. At the policy level, the paper provides evidence on the value of extra-organizational resources and tools that are produced by policy bodies in promoting progressive E&D agendas in organizations.

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Human Resource Management on 14 Jul 2014, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.934893"
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License

Published online: 14 Jul 2014