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Although the topic of inclusion has become a hot and unavoidable issue for organizations, research on how this topic is being addressed in companies is still almost nonexistent. How do HR managers promote workplace inclusion? The objective of this study is to answer this research question.

The results are based on evidence that emerged during in-depth interviews conducted with 16 human resources professionals from the world of large-scale retail trade, as well as from the analysis of documents and reports produced by the companies in which the interviewed professionals work.

The findings reveal that the promotion of corporate inclusion is not only aimed at satisfying the need for belongingness and uniqueness. It is also aimed at satisfying two other types of human needs, namely, the human need to share and the human need to be impactful. In addition, the results reveal that HR professionals promote workplace inclusion through six initiatives that can be traced to two main ways in which inclusion is conceived.

Even though there is an extensive number of studies aimed at defining and measuring the construct of workplace inclusion, progress has not been made in understanding how HR professionals promote inclusion. This study covers this literature gap by bringing to light the existence of two main meanings associated by HR professionals to workplace inclusion: extensive inclusiveness and narrow inclusiveness.

The theory building of inclusive workplace is still in its early stages, particularly concerning the inclusion of the poor in the developing countries. Through the exploration of social entrepreneurial inclusion, this study extends the inclusive workplace theory by featuring the inclusive dynamism of organizations for the poor in developing countries.

A case study approach was selected, as the goal of this study is to build on the theory in an under-researched area. This qualitative study is described as theory elaboration as it expands upon theoretical links that have received little attention among workforce diversity scholars.

We have established a conceptual framework of social entrepreneurial inclusion, which encompasses the following normative themes: organizational perspective for promoting social equality, empowering relationships, a sense of inclusion, organizational access to valuable resources and empowered inclusion.

Although we have taken an exploratory qualitative approach and made efforts to report our data neutrally, we acknowledge that the ethical and theoretical positions taken in analyzing the data may have influenced the outcome of this research and, therefore, our findings can never be truly objective. We also acknowledge that this study was conducted in developing countries, thus the poor inclusive workplace model is not generalizable for the poor in developed countries due to different institutional and ecological settings.

We have illustrated the importance of business leaders leveraging the opportunities in the space between interdependency of individuals and organizations through doing well by doing good. Poor-inclusive workplaces need business leaders who can demonstrate the effective interpersonal skills to develop constructive and personalized relationships with the workers, the family and community members to encourage the idea that the poor be included in the workplace.

The findings from this study also infer how corporations may collaborate with SEs and humanitarian agencies for inclusive growth so they can simultaneously unleash economic value and social value to develop more effective poor-inclusive business models in both sectors. Social entrepreneurs (SEs) and humanistic agencies tend to have situated knowledge of the poor in terms of locally embedded needs and knowledge of the community that corporations do not have.

This paper promotes the integrative workplace models of inclusion where inclusion of poor is empowered through involvement of multiple parties inside and outside workplaces. The empowered inclusion outcomes are strengthened through organizational access to valuable resources at the institutional level.

The formal reporting of disability to an employing organization is inconsistent and likely an underestimate of the true numbers of workers with disabilities and the presence of various types of disabilities. This issue interferes with an organization's count of such workers, as well as efforts to set priorities and develop practices to support workers with disabilities. The authors argue that creating inclusive work environments not only improves worker well-being (as suggested in past research) but also improves their reactions to the process of formal reporting of disability in the workplace.

A sample of 160 working adults in the United States who reported disabilities or health conditions that may qualify as disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990, as amended in 2008) completed a survey that measured perceptions of the workplace environment and reactions to a frequently used disability disclosure form.

When controlling for age of respondents, anticipated disability stigma and inclusion in the workplace predicted different reactions to a disability disclosure request. Anticipated stigma was associated with more negative emotion, concerns about privacy and others' reactions to their responses on the disclosure form. Inclusion in the workplace was associated with higher ratings for appropriateness of the measure, positive emotion and less negative emotion.

Although research has identified associations between workplace inclusion and general worker experiences, such as job satisfaction and intentions to quit, this work uncovers a benefit of inclusion to required measurement processes in organizations. The unique contributions of inclusion and implications for workplace practices are discussed.

In this chapter, we explore the role of disability-based employee resource groups (ERG) in implementing large organizations' disability inclusion strategies and how pandemic responses shaped the workplace treatment and inclusion of disabled employees.

We conducted semi-structured interviews with disability-based ERG members and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professionals in large corporate settings. Then, we analyzed how pandemic-induced changes in the workplace impacted disability inclusion efforts and experiences of disabled employees.

Results from our study revealed that workplace disability inclusion responsibilities shifted to disability-based ERGs during the onset of the pandemic. Participants detailed how organizational disability inclusion practices and policies expanded through increased awareness among some employee bases and were de-prioritized to the point of erasure in other situations. Within the context of the pandemic, members of disability-based ERGs played an integral part in both enhancing visibility of disability and responding to instances of ableism in their respective organizations.

Findings provide context as to how shifting organizational contexts, such as pandemic related workplace policies, becomes disabling, and in turn illustrate the fluid nature of disability. By framing disability as an evolving (fluid) identity category and prioritizing the awareness of disabled perspectives, organizations can better support disabled employees in their future, overarching DEI strategies and approaches to workplace inclusion post-pandemic.

Drawing on Shore and colleagues' model of inclusive workplaces (2018) and the perceptions of social context framework (Borgogni et al., 2010), this study aims to develop and provide a preliminary validation of the Social Drivers of Inclusive Workplaces (SDIW) scale.

Using inductive and deductive approaches, items were developed. The resulting pool of 28 items was administrated to 1,244 employees using an anonymous online survey. The factor structure of the SDIW scale was tested through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Reliabilities were estimated. Alternative models were tested through CFAs. Nomological validity and measurement invariance across gender were explored.

The EFA revealed a three-factor structure, including inclusive colleagues, supervisors and top management. This solution was confirmed by the CFA and outperformed all alternative models, showing good reliabilities. Measurement invariance across gender was confirmed. Correlations indicated that the SDIW total score and each dimension were positively associated with belongingness needs satisfaction and affective commitment, while negatively related to interpersonal strain, negative acts and turnover intention.

This study provides practitioners with a reliable tool to map social drivers of inclusion within workplaces in order to design tailored interventions.

This study contributes to the inclusion literature, as it is the first to provide a scale that simultaneously measures employees' perceptions of inclusive behaviours enacted by the three main social actors within the workplace.

This chapter analyzes the influence of inclusion, equal opportunity and antidiscrimination policies on the strength of diversity in a foreign firm domiciled in a developing country.

It used a questionnaire to collect fact from the depth of employees’ experiences of diversity management in practice to understand its implication for the strength of diversity in the workplace. It questioned the nature of the constructs on diversity in line with the effect of equal opportunity in the workplace.

The component factor analysis extraction method obtained valuable constructs from the stated dimensions of items in the questionnaire. The regression technique was used to analyze the influence of these constructs on the strength of diversity in the workplace.

The results revealed that inclusiveness is necessary to intensify the strength of diversity in foreign organization in a developing nation, with the need to deepen alternative equal opportunity policy and diverse work culture awareness. Power relations strategies foster staff welfare, but weaken compensation by merit heighten employees’ sentiments.

Data were only collected from the companies head office; its branches were not covered.

Employees detect biases in equal opportunity policies beyond the guises of control power relation. Thus, besides a policy for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, an alternative equal opportunity policy is essential to intensify diversity.

It empirically probes foreign organizations in a developing country staff response to changes in the workplace due to the cautious implementation of inclusion, equal opportunity and antidiscrimination policies to foster diversity.

Reliance on third-party judgments are common in efforts to identify and reduce workplace sexual harassment (SH). The purpose of this paper is to identify whether a workplace emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value is related to third-party labeling of and response to an exchange between a male manager and his female subordinate.

Participants (n=308) in an online survey experiment were randomly assigned to a workplace that emphasized inclusion or one that emphasized individual achievement as a cultural value. They read a vignette describing a workplace interaction between a male manager and his female subordinate and responded to a series of questions.

Organizational emphasis on inclusion is unrelated to third-party labeling of the interaction as SH, but positively associated with labeling the female’s intention to pursue harassment charges as an overreaction, and support for the female subordinate in a claim of SH against her manager. Culture is unassociated with willingness to defend the male manager in a SH claim.

Identifying how workplace culture shapes third-party reaction to harassment can help employers use third-party witnesses and cultural value statements as tools to reduce SH.

A workplace’s cultural emphasis on inclusion is positively related to third-party support for SH victims implying the importance of workplace context in the fight against workplace SH.

The paper presents the first experimental analysis of how a workplace cultural emphasis on inclusion affects the third-party observers’ reactions to SH.

This study is an inductive exploration of factors that are relevant to the inclusion and integration of immigrant workers in a Swedish workplace. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of immigrant employees with other organisational actors at two senior nursing units in Sweden.

Results are drawn from the analyses of interviews with six female and three male immigrant nursing assistants living permanently in Sweden.

Trustful relationships with other organisational actors, during both formal and informal interactions, are considered essential facilitating inclusion of these immigrant workers. Immigrant workers experienced inclusion when they achieved language competence (or felt supported in their attempts to do so) and bridged cultural differences. The results also highlight conditions for interactions and leadership as factors influencing inclusion. In addition, inclusion implied acculturation or awareness of the values of native-born citizens.

The study suggests that immigrants’ relational dynamics with their colleagues are essential to inclusion, despite types of studies that focus mainly on the competences of leaders to manage diversity.

The results have implications for organisations’ development of a more democratic workplace with more inclusiveness and with satisfied employees.

The study gives voice to immigrant workers, which is rare in Swedish and international organisations that deal with the issue of immigrant integration in the workplace.

This paper aims to explore how the scientific literature and company reports have addressed inclusive workplace design and strategies to date.

This paper adopts a scoping review to answer the following question: To what extent is inclusion present in workplace design and related strategies? An analysis of 27 scientific papers and 25 corporate social responsibility reports of the highest-ranked companies in the Great Place to Work global ranking disentangles the main aspects related to workplace design and strategies for promoting inclusion.

This paper opens avenues for four macro-categories of diversity (psycho-physical aspects; cultural aspects; socio-economic conditions; and ability, experience and strengths) to support the development of inclusive workplace design and strategy. Besides, multiple spatial scales emerged as material and immaterial elements of the workplace encountering inclusion and diversity.

Nowadays, the workforce is becoming more diverse. Although diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) has become key to many organizations, it remains unclear how DE&I principles are applied in workspace design and strategies. This scoping review provides a novel perspective on the topic by integrating scientific knowledge and practice-based approaches which still address this matter independently.