Adam Smith Business School

Dr Sandra Portocarrero, London School of Economics. 

A Triadic Lens into Diversity Work: The Interplay Between Worker's Ethnoracial Background, Tasks, and Expertise 

Monday, 15 December 2025.

15:00 - 16:30 Room 141A, Adam Smith Business School Building

Abstract

I examine how the race and ethnicity of diversity workers influences the everyday organization of diversity work within organizations. Drawing from interview and participant observation data I collected over two years at a large R1 U.S. university, I investigate how diversity work is organized and experienced by workers. My findings reveal that diversity work is unequally organized based on workers' racial and ethnic backgrounds, with significant differences in how minority versus white diversity workers experience their roles. I uncover a mechanism whereby organizational actors associate diversity workers' expertise with specific tasks based on the workers' race or ethnicity. These associations are particularly pronounced when minority diversity workers are asked to fulfill tasks outside their formal job descriptions and tasks that are more relationally straining.

Importantly, I find that minority diversity workers actively participate in these associations, highlighting their racial or ethnic identity when claiming capacity to fulfill certain tasks, even when such work proves emotionally demanding. I develop a triadic model of "divergent expertise-task associations" that explains how minority diversity workers become presumed to possess the appropriate expertise for emotionally straining tasks, often related to racial and ethnic issues.

My research extends understanding of expertise by considering workers' race and ethnicity not merely as categorical variables but as key components in ongoing expertise-task associations formed through workplace interactions. My findings offer practical implications for organizations seeking to create more equitable work environments.

Bio

Professor Sandra Portocarrero’s research explores how people and organisations sustain or alleviate inequality, with a particular focus on employees and entrepreneurs who carry stigmatised social identities. Using field methods such as in-depth interviews, surveys, and participant observation, Professor Sandra Portocarrero has conducted research with workers at the U.S. Department of State, and organisations in the United States and Latin America. In her work, she engages with and extends theories of relational expertise and status. 

In her latest projects, Professor Sandra Portocarrero examines the economic and social life of undocumented entrepreneurs in California and of asylum seekers living in shelters in New York City who are starting their own businesses. 

Professor Sandra Portocarrero earned her Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. in Sociology at Columbia University and her B.A. in Sociology (high honours) at the University of California, Berkeley. 

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First published: 29 September 2025