Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations

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About this Research Topic

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Background

Modern organizations are becoming more and more aware of the challenges they face regarding diversity. This issue has gained renewed attention as the concern for diversity in organizations encapsulates employee’s multiplicity of experiences, qualifications, knowledge, competencies, as well as diversity regarding minority groups, including LGBTQ+ groups. Thus, creating inclusive working conditions that take into account the required activities that include the key elements of the leadership and HRM process.

Today’s workers are increasingly diverse in terms of personal characteristics such as race, gender and gender identity, national origin, religion (Badgett, 2013). Nevertheless, there are still reports of individuals being excluded, notably women and minorities, especially in the LGBTQ+ group (Findler et al., 2007; Hur, 2020). The “business case for diversity” suggests that diversity in the workplace can cause lower costs and higher revenues, bearing improved financial results, motivating organizations to consider the economic benefits of investing in a diverse group of employees (Hur, 2020). Thus, in existing literature there is a need to understand diversity-oriented leadership and HR practices in different contexts (Shore et al., 2018). Many researchers have directed their attention toward outcomes of diversity rather than understanding factors that influence adaptation of those practices (Farashah & Blomqusit, 2021). Still, in existing literature, there is a gap of recognizing the leadership and HRM practices which can support work engagement, job satisfaction, and other work outcomes, preventing turnover intention and organization leave (Sabharwal et al., 2018) in the diversity employees’ group. Without the awareness of good practices of leadership and inclusion, organizations will find themselves at a disadvantage in competitive labor markets characterized by diversity, without the possibility to attract the most talented employees.

In this Research Topic, we aim to pursue new knowledge about a socially relevant research question in the context of people management in organizations that intend to be inclusive: to understand, to identify and to know the problems of leadership and inclusive HRM practices aimed at supporting diversity in work contexts and analyse their influence on work outputs. We seek to publish a collection of articles that will provide both theoretical and empirical findings that address (and are not limited to) any of the following themes:

- Leadership

- Diversity

- Inclusion

- Inclusive HRM practices

- Minority groups

- Organizational environment

- Work attitudes and behaviors

- Gender

- LGBTQ+

- Workplace bullying

- Public policies and social innovation practices

Keywords: Leadership, Diversity, Inclusion, Inclusive HRM practices, Minority groups, LGBTQ+

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