Managing Corporate Virtue: The Politics of Workplace Diversity in New York and Paris

A major tenet of contemporary capitalism holds that what is good for business can align with what is good for society. Efforts towards more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces epitomize this rising ideology, termed responsible capitalism. An increasingly common managerial mantra is ＂diversity means business.＂ But how does it play out in the daily life of organizations?

Drawing on interviews with diversity managers, a historical review of practitioner literature, and observations from organizations in New York City and Paris, Managing Corporate Virtue goes beyond the rhetoric of DEI initiatives to uncover the concrete challenges faced by those tasked with implementing them. Laure Bereni reveals the persistent fragility of diversity efforts, which are often sidelined; subject to the variations of the legal, social, and political environment; and require constant efforts to sustain managerial support. Practitioners must prove their programs are neither merely virtue signaling nor the Trojan horse of political, legal, or moral pressures that would unsettle the corporate order. Ultimately, by exploring the day-to-day work of diversity managers in the United States and France, Bereni exposes the contradictions lurking beneath the neoliberal promise of harmony between profit and virtue.

Laure Bereni is a Research Professor in sociology at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a faculty member of Centre Maurice Halbwachs at École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Her work lies at the intersection of political sociology, the sociology of gender and race, and the sociology of work and organizations, with a comparative perspective between the United States and France. Her current research focuses on corporate virtue workers and programs - from DEI to environmental sustainability - as part of a broader critical reflection on responsible capitalism.