The Experiences of Diversity and Inclusion Practitioners in Organizations in Poland

In response to increasing employee diversity, companies started creating positions for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) specialists. The aim of the study is to explore the experiences of DEI practitioners in Poland. Since women constitute a majority of DEI practitioners, six women were interviewed and the semi-structured in-depth interviews were recorded, uploaded to Nvivo and analyzed using inductive coding procedure. The key contribution is identifying organizational barriers: lack of resources, formalized structures, and procedures and most importantly lack of senior management support. The interviewees were often the first to take on this role in their companies, which required them to build the professional identity. The findings are in line with previous research utilizing Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power in context of DEI. The conclusions from their experiences are valuable for organizations that consider creating similar roles as well as for the people who contemplate assuming such a position.