Global Perspective on Diversity and Inclusion

by

Mustafa Ozbilgin, Cihat Erbil

• LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846740-0224

Introduction

Diversity and inclusion are two terms that provide an umbrella for efforts to tackle discrimination, exclusion, and inequality by valuing diversity and promoting inclusion for historically disadvantaged groups across social, organizational, and individual levels. Diversity and inclusion are now academic, political, and professional fields of study and practice. Diversity and inclusion efforts gain meaning and shape depending highly on the spatial, temporal, sociocultural, and symbolic context in which they manifest. There is a spatial dimension to diversity and inclusion, which means different things across different international, regional, national, and organizational contexts. While in some national and organizational contexts, there is support for diversity and inclusion in terms of recognizing, protecting, valuing, and promoting a more comprehensive range of diversity categories and tackling inequalities across these categories, other contexts remain hostile, unsupportive, and adversarial across some sorts of diversity. While eight types of discrimination are unlawful in the UK, class inequalities are not part of equality laws. In India caste caste-related inequalities are targeted by laws. In South Africa, the legal framework promotes reconciliation to address the detrimental consequences of Apartheid. In terms of temporal context, there is a time dimension to equality and diversity efforts. While earlier diversity and inclusion efforts primarily included generic (-etic) categories such as gender, ethnicity, and disability, recently legitimated diversity categories such as sexual orientation, belief, appearance, and age are considered in some countries. Further, there has been a posthumanist turn, which problematizes the domination of human diversity concerns above and beyond those of nature and technology. In recognition of this, diversity and inclusion research now includes new categories such as biodiversity, technological diversity, and interspecies diversity in the posthumanist landscape of diversity and inclusion. The sociocultural context of diversity and inclusion refers to the specific values, beliefs, and practices that shape and underpin how inclusion and exclusion, privilege and disadvantage, and equality and discrimination manifest in different cultural settings. Sociocultural context is highly varied across national and regional settings, making adopting a standardized, one-size-fits-all approach to diversity and inclusion ineffective. The legal context explains what aspects of diversity and inclusion are considered priority categories for protection against discrimination and inequality. Legal regulation and compliance-based work can set the floor and the baseline for diversity and equality interventions in organizations and nation states. Due to variations in regulatory systems, diversity and inclusion efforts at work emerge as idiosyncratic.

General Overviews

In response to the tensions among national-level requirements of diversity and inclusion, different sets of priorities, contextual path dependencies, and idiosyncratic differences, global and multinational organizations often need help with standardizing their diversity and inclusion efforts across national borders or localizing their interventions. The former has the risk of poor effectiveness across regions with dissimilar priorities with regard to core diversity and inclusion drives. The latter risks adopting uneven practices across national branch networks of global organizations, exposing them to international scrutiny. For example, child labor, tied labor, exploitation of women, minority ethnic groups, and exclusion of LGBTQ+ workers are acceptable in some countries. Therefore, as Jonsen and Özbilgin 2013 explains, many organizations adopt a third-way perspective termed the transversal approach. Works such as Özbilgin, et al. 2019; Özbilgin and Erbil 2021; and Fitzsimmons, et al. 2023 discuss social movements such as antiracist movements (e.g., Black Lives Matter) feminist movements (MeToo) and pro-LGBTQ+ inclusion movements (Pride Marches) that have changed the moral landscape, putting normative pressure on global organizations to adopt a broader range of measures to push for diversity and inclusion. Thanks to such social movements, there has been more comprehensive international regulation of gender, ethnic, and disability diversity and protections against discrimination in these categories. Social equality, diversity, and inclusion demands have fostered UN-level conventions on these three categories, in which many countries have signed on to offer protections against gender, ethnic, and disability discrimination. Özbilgin and Erbil 2024 points to international drivers of diversity and inclusion, pushing for national regulation and organizational interventions to overcome different forms of historical disadvantage. De Aquino and Robertson 2018 explains that diversity and inclusion (D&I) could be framed, theorized and planned globally but must be understood and practiced locally. As explained in the Introduction, Özbilgin and Chanlat 2017 illustrates that contextual variation and relational organization of equality, diversity, and inclusion are important. Furthermore, Klarsfeld, et al. 2022 discusses how international, national, and social demands for equality must be translated into a concrete set of ideas, practices, change interventions, structural reforms, normative and numerical transformations, and behavioral changes. Özbilgin, et al. 2017 highlights a need to translate progressive ideals into a set of practices at the level of organizations. Much of the diversity and inclusion literature engages with how high-level ideas of practice fail to translate into organizational interventions, change, and transformation efforts.

• Chanlat, J. F., and M. Özbilgin. “Diversity and Context.” In The Edward Elgar Encyclopedia of Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Edited by S. M. Nkomo, A. Klarsfeld, L. Taksa, A. F. Bender, and G. Cachat-Rosset, 33–36. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2024.

  Diversity gains shape in its unique context, as context gives meaning and legitimacy to diversity concerns and activities. The authors explain, however, that context requires an operational definition in management scholarship. The section elaborates on temporal, spatial, cultural, and symbolic context variants. The temporal context is the historical setting and its landmarks, such as #BlackLivesMatter in the United States, #MeToo globally, #ArabSpring in the Middle East and North Africa, #GeziPark in Turkey, and #WomenFreedom in Iran, which shape how diversity is defined and its interventions are crafted in each country, respectively.

• De Aquino, C. T. E., and R. W. Robertson. Diversity and Inclusion in the Global Workplace. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-54993-4

  A collection of chapters elucidating the intricacies of workplace diversity and inclusion (DI) within a global context. Beyond the conventional discourse surrounding DI subjects like age, gender, and ethnicity, the book delves into less explored categories, notably spirituality and disability. Additionally, the book posits design thinking as a promising alternative approach to global diversity management. It presents a comprehensive framework that allows organizations to explore their unique needs in managing DI.

• Özbilgin, M. Diversity: A Key Idea for Business and Society. London: Routledge, 2023.

  DOI: 10.4324/9780367824044

  Widens the scope of diversity from human diversity to biodiversity, including interspecies and technological diversity, as well as cyborg diversity. The text explains that the old deal between human diversity, biodiversity, and technodiversity had fundamental flaws and accepts the dominion of humans over other life forms, nature, and technology. The book stipulates a new deal based on an equal relationship that calls for improved regulation and the recognition of nature and technology as legal entities. Recognizing nature and technology as legal entities would allow nature to be legally represented and protected, and technological advancements could be subject to taxation and legal responsibility for their impacts.

• Özbilgin, M., F. Bartels-Ellis, and P. Gibbs, eds. Global Diversity Management: A Fusion of Ideas, Stories and Practice. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-19523-6

  Brings together academics, practitioners, and policymakers whose interests intersect with global diversity management. Brings a broader range of evidence to frame the work and scholarship in the field of diversity management in global organizations. Transdisciplinary in terms of contributions. Bridges the academy-practice divide.

• Özbilgin, M., and J. F. Chanlat, eds. Management and Diversity: Perspectives from Different National Contexts. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing, 2017.

  This edited volume has contributions from four continents, highlighting the explanatory power of national context in giving meaning to varied manifestations of diversity-related priorities, discourses, regulatory approaches, and practices. The volume has demographically diverse researchers of significance from all continents, bringing together local theorization from the Global North and countries of the Global South. With a critical perspective, the volume offers a historically and culturally anchored reading of diversity from national perspectives.

• Özbilgin, M., and C. Erbil. “International Diversity.” In The Edward Elgar Encyclopedia of Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Edited by S. M. Nkomo, A. Klarsfeld, L. Taksa, A. F. Bender, and G. Cachat-Rosset, 201–205. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2024.

  A comprehensive overview of research on international diversity, emphasizing its importance as a relational construct influenced by various contexts. Examines how international diversity is managed in the context of multinational corporations, considering the influence of economic, social, political, environmental, and technological factors. Highlights the emergence of a new deal for international diversity, encompassing human, biological, and technological diversity. Also emphasizes the importance of regulatory changes and intersectional solidarity to promote a more expansive conception of international diversity.

• Özbilgin, M., A. Tatli, and K. Jonsen. Global Diversity Management: An Evidence-Based Approach. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

  Brings together five empirical studies conducted over seven years. The manuscript has a nested approach starting with global perspectives of diversity management, situating regional, national, and sectoral considerations. Some chapters explore the organizational setting and the positionality of diversity and inclusion offices and professionals. The book reviews extant literature and discusses original research conducted by authors in each chapter.

• Jonsen, K., and M. Özbilgin. “Models of Global Diversity Management.” In Diversity At Work: The Practice of Inclusion. Edited by Bernardo M. Ferdman and Barbara R. Deane, 364–390. New York: Wiley and Sons, 2013.

  This chapter reviews a wide range of models of global diversity, including nested, contextual, relational, process, strategic, and maturity models. The chapter exposes the utility of adopting multiple diversity models to manage diversity and inclusion, as each model fits different settings. For example, the nested model shows the complex macro, meso, and micro factors influencing diversity management discourses and practices.

• Klarsfeld, A., L. Knappert, A. Kornau, E. S. Ng, and F. W. Ngunijiri, eds. Research Handbook on New Frontiers of Equality and Diversity at Work: International Perspectives. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.

  This research handbook explores the multifaceted concerns of equality, diversity, and inclusion across diverse national landscapes. The editors expound that prevailing literature on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) primarily emanates from the Global North, thereby motivating their aspiration to provide comprehensive coverage of regions where EDI remains insufficiently examined. The focal points of this research handbook encompass an extensive array of themes such as gender equality, sexual orientations, labor inclusion, emic (locally meaningful), and etic (generic) diversity categories, as well as the pivotal influence of legislative frameworks on fostering EDI.

• Syed, J., and M. Özbilgin. “A Relational Framework for the International Transfer of Diversity Management Practices.” The International Journal of Human Resource Management 20.12 (2009): 2435–2453.

  DOI: 10.1080/09585190903363755

  The relational framework of diversity approaches diversity in a way sensitive to the historical, social, cultural, and economic context, in which diversity gains shape at macro, meso, and micro levels of analyses. The relationality between diversity actors, organizational structures, and macro institutions of influence shapes the priorities, practicalities, and possibilities of diversity works.