Dear colleagues, 

Please consider submitting your work to our Stream on Global Workplace Inclusion at the inspiring EDI conference in Sevilla, Spain (May, 27-29).

⏰ Submission deadline is approaching quickly (March, 23).

Full Call for Papers below, attached, and here.

Lena, Kathi, and Renate

17th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion International Conference

27-29 May 2024, Sevilla (Spain)

GLOBAL WORKPLACE INCLUSION:
INTERNATIONAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY, AND ACTION-ORIENTED INSIGHTS

Stream Chairs

Lena Knappert, Vrije Universiteit (VU), The Netherlands

Katharina Bader, University of York, UK

Renate Ortlieb, University of Graz, Austria

Workplace inclusion aims at developing organizational cultures that are fair, embrace diverse perspectives, and allow people to bring their authentic selves to work (Mor Barak & Daya, 2014; Shore et al., 2018). It is often considered a branch or extension of diversity management that promises a route to manage workforce diversity effectively, thereby enhancing individuals' well-being, innovation processes, and organizational performance (Nishii, 2013; Chung, 2020). For people and organizations who work across national borders, inclusion is particularly important and challenging simultaneously (Ortlieb & Sieben, 2014; Thomason & Gibson 2024) as international work needs to consider various context-specific understandings and conditions of diversity and inclusion. However, current theorizing and evidence on workplace inclusion in the global context is still limited (Fitzsimmons et al., 2023).

This stream invites contributions that generate theoretical insights, empirical findings, and evidence- based recommendations on how global workers (e.g., migrant workers, remote workers, and expatriates), global organizations (e.g., multinational companies, born global companies or international mergers and acquisitions) and other stakeholders (e.g., policy-makers, diversity agents, and diverse and historically marginalized employees in global organizations) experience and may tackle the challenges arising from fostering workplace inclusion across different country contexts.

We see a comprehensive and complex set of trends that are relevant for global workplace inclusion that may frame the submissions to the stream:

1)      Technology: Technological progress facilitates unprecedented connectivity, allowing for virtual collaborations and transcending physical boundaries for those who share access to the required technology. The substantial increase in remote work is giving rise to new flexible workspaces that facilitate international interactions and labor mobility without the physical constraints of traditional travel or migration. This evolution reshapes the traditional understanding of workplace interactions and challenges established inclusion concepts that tend to assume inclusion to happen in a stable physical context (Biejer et al., 2024).

2)      Migration: The importance of migration––movement patterns by human bodies within countries and across national borders––for inclusion demands in organizations cannot be overstated. Ongoing global migrations bring diverse talents together, presenting both opportunities and challenges in fostering an inclusive workplace. Yet, while poverty, conflicts, and climate change are generating new patterns of global migration (Boas et al., 2022), national borders are being strengthened and enforced to control the mobility of human bodies (Nail et al., 2022). These developments raise critical questions about the scope and essence of inclusion and the implications to create a truly inclusive global workplace that serve the human potential.

3)      Global inequality: Despite global crises and seemingly increasing geopolitical tensions, global flows of trade, capital, information, and work continue to grow (Altman & Bastian, 2023). At the same time, inequalities between wealthier and poorer countries, and within countries are increasing (Ma et al., 2022). Multinational companies (MNCs) are drivers of and subjects to this trend as they operate in various contexts characterized by different levels and different dimensions of equality. Tackling inequalities across countries and fostering global equality standards, some MNCs have started to implement global diversity and inclusion initiatives (Bader et al, 2022). Using their role as global change agents (Koveshnikov et al 2019), MNCs have the opportunity to raise the bar for workforce inclusion, yet, ethical implications, effective implementation strategies and global employee reactions are still only marginally understood.

Building on these trends, this stream invites scholarly contributions related but not limited to the following questions:

·        How can global workplace inclusion be conceptualized and measured?

·        How can global inclusion initiatives be evaluated and monitored?

·        What is the role of technology in creating inclusive global workplaces?

·        How can global organizations and leaders manage inclusion in virtual spaces?

·        How are different groups of global workers affected differently by organizational initiatives?

·       In the context of increased worker mobility, how can organizations foster inclusion on a global level?

·        How does intersectionality play out in global workers' inclusion-exclusion experiences?

·        How does the politicized nature of migration affect inclusion of global workers?

·       How are different groups of global workers affected differently by political decisions and discourses?

·        What can theorizing on global workplace inclusion learn from related disciplines?

·        How can comparative empirical work advance theorizing on workplace inclusion?

·        How can global organizations facilitate inclusion across national borders?

·       How can local contexts benefit from advances in global workplace inclusion across the home and host countries of MNCs?

·       How do actors within MNCs and other relevant stakeholder groups make sense of and negotiate inclusion in light of global inequality?

·        Which ethical considerations arise when MNCs implement inclusion initiatives?

The deadline for submissions of extended abstracts (5 pages) or full papers is March 23, 2024.

Manuscripts must be submitted through the EDI website only.

All submissions will be subjected to peer review organized by stream chairs with two referees for each paper. To be considered for the best paper nominations, please send your full papers via email to Lena Knappert (l.j.knappert@vu.nl; subject: EDI best paper nomination) no later than March 23, 2024.

References

Altman, S. A., Bastian, C. R. (2023). The State of Globalization in 2023. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/07/the-state-of-globalization-in-2023

Bader, A. K., Froese, F. J., Cooke, F. L., & Schuster, T. (2022). Gender diversity management in foreign subsidiaries: A comparative study in Germany and Japan. Journal of International Management, 28(3), 100921.

Beijer, S. E., Knappert, L., & Stephenson, K. A. (2024). "It doesn't make sense to stick with old patterns": How leaders adapt their behavior to foster inclusion in a disruptive context. Journal of Organizational Behavior, epub ahead of print, DOI: 10.1002/job.2766?af=R.

Boas, I., Wiegel, H., Farbotko, C., Warner, J., & Sheller, M. (2022). Climate mobilities: Migration, im/mobilities and mobility regimes in a changing climate. Journal of Ethnic and Migration  Studies, 48(14), 3365-3379.