Abstract
Privilege describes benefits that belong to people because they fit into a specific social group or have certain dimensions to their identity. In line with McIntosh (2012) it is argued that everyone both has privilege and lacks privilege in different contexts. Recognising your privilege means understanding the access you’ve been granted to certain spaces, the dynamics within an organisation, and how influential you can be towards inclusion in the workplace.
While social identity as a concept is well researched and there is a growing body of literature on inclusion and privilege, there is little known about leader’s self-conceptualisation of privilege and whether this influences how they include others in the workplace or not.
As a practitioner working on a culture change agenda, I have observed variations in how the concept of privilege is perceived, ranging from leaders keen to learn more, often resulting in inclusion, through to a resistance to acknowledge the existence of privilege or its influences in the workplace.
Given this anecdotal experience, and the work of De Vries, (2015) where they questions if those in power are ever able to deconstruct their own privilege, I wish to explore the relationship between social identity, privilege, and inclusion in the workplace. Therefore, my research question is, how does the conceptualisation of own and others privilege influence how Partners in a professional services firm include others at work.