Diversity - necessary or a feather in the cap? : A discourse analytical study of the police organization's diversity work

The purpose of this study is to explore and interpret the different meanings and consequences of diversity and its associated practices for the police organization in Sweden. By highlighting possible discourses on the concept of diversity within the police organization and how the police organization presents the concept of diversity, based on that, contribute to an increased understanding of the police organization’s diversity work. Our study is based on a qualitative method, discourse analysis, which has helped us collect the empirical material. The purpose with discourse analysis is to interpret what is written, therefore this study is based on our own interpretations of the empirical material. The empirical material that consists of the police policy documents has in turn been analyzed based on Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be-approach” (WPR-approach) and the neo-institutional theory where concepts such as isomorphism and loosely coupled occur. When studying the police organization, the concept of diversity is seen to be common. The police highlights the importance of having diversity within their organization, which can be seen to have emerged over time. The result of this study indicates that the police organization works actively to make equal treatment a natural part of the organization today. This includes wanting to reflect society and they believe that diversity entails different skills which they want to utilize within the organization. The study also describes three different problem representations which we have identified in the empirical material. These problem representations have in turn helped us to highlight different discourses about the concept of diversity, which has contributed to an increased understanding of the police organization’s diversity work.