Gender and Diversity in Organization and Management

In the Norwegian context, organizations are expected to work actively, purposefully and develop plans to create promote equality and prevent discrimination. At an international level, gender equality is also a sustainability goal in its own right, and businesses increasingly emphasize ‘diversity’ as part of their strategies. At the same time, we know that this it often gets sidelined in a context of busy work schedules and high demand. The meaningful application of gender and diversity plans also requires knowledge and experience. In this course, we therefore emphasize how equality and inclusion goals can be incorporated into an organisation’s core activities and ongoing transition processes. The overarching goal of this course is to give students the knowledge and skills to develop measures and work preventively in ways that not only provide short-term solutions, but also lasting cultural change in working life.

An important basis for succeeding in facilitating cultural change for equality and inclusion lies in understanding the mechanisms that create differences and inequality. The subject therefore provides an introduction to how gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality and functional ability work in different contexts. The students will learn to recognize inequality and get tools to work further with raising awareness and sharing knowledge. The learning activities will be based on specific situations and issues in the students' own experiences and working life.

Knowledge:

The student has

• knowledge concerning the ways in which social categories like gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality and disability function and intersect to produce inequality.
• knowledge about how equality and inclusion work can be done in practice.
• knowledge of guidelines and frameworks for equality and anti-discrimination work in Norwegian working life.

Skills:

The student can:

• recognize and understand mechanisms of inequality.
• raise awareness and generate solutions that target long-lasting organizational change toward increased gender equality and diversity.
• critically reflect on their own work.

General competence:

• The student will be competent to lead inclusive organizational change

Teaching consists of lectures, discussions and group exercises in two digital/physical sessions of two days each. Some preparation before each session is to be expected. During the course, the participants will formulate challenges (hypothetical or grounded in their own work experience) they would like to examine in relation to gender equality and diversity in a workplace/organizational context.