Literature Review on Diversity and Inclusion at Workplace,2010

Abstract

Purpose:

The article highlights various studies conducted in the field of diversity and inclusion at workplace. This helps us to understand the evolution of diversity and inclusion and identify future research gaps.

Methodology:

The article employs a citation analysis technique to analyse the citation index of journals and authors based on the data collected from various databases such as Social Sciences Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index, and SCImago (2010–2017). For the analysis, journals relevant to the field of management related to diversity and inclusion in the area of management were selected from the database of 254,617 journals.

Finding:

A literature review analysis was commissioned to focus on diversity and inclusion at workplace and its research trends from 2010 to 2017. The varied meanings and interpretations of the terms ‘diversity and inclusion’ make it ripe for examining the literature on diversity and that of inclusion to offer a deeper and nuanced understanding of their meanings and conceptualizations. The review analysis suggests that there is a rich body of research in the area of diversity and its related outcomes. Since inclusion has emerged as a fairly recent area of exploration, more research is required in the area of inclusion and its related outcomes.

Originality/value:

The article is original and holds significance as inclusion has only recently entered the lexicon of popular discourse. Further, this study may benefit research scholars from management seeking understanding about research trends and emerging trends in the area of diversity and inclusion.

Keywords

Diversity Inclusion Women Disabilities Literature Review

Introduction

In the twenty-first century, the corporate world has intensified its focus on diversity and inclusion. The major reasons for this shift are increase in the participation of women workers, involvement of people belonging to different backgrounds and multiple generations. Daniels (2001) states that with more than 75% of Fortune 1,000 companies adopting diversity initiatives, the management of diversity is no more a choice but has become a crucial business imperative. Moreover, inclusion of immigrants got new sociopolitical impetus in view of increasing workforce diversity (Ortlieb & Sieben, 2014). Further, study conducted by Miller and Katz (2002) shifted the discourse from managing diversity to leveraging diversity, which emphasized that merely adopting the practices to manage the diverse workforce will not be serving the purpose, rather organizations should take a step further and adopt initiatives that help organizations to leverage or capitalize diversity for achieving and sustaining higher performance. Several other authors have explicitly stated that current diversity efforts have led to the emergence of the concept of inclusion (Sabharwal, 2015). As a result, the term ‘inclusion’ was paired with diversity in the 1990s (Holvino et al., 2004). Therefore, the concept of inclusion needs to be examined along with diversity so that important questions about leveraging the potential of diverse workforce can be answered.

This contribution will help researchers to gain nuance understanding of diversity and inclusion. Moreover, it seeks to analyse recent literature in the area of diversity and inclusion from 2010 to 2017, which will enable researchers and practitioners to gain insights into the emerging research trends.

To analyse the amount of work done in the area of diversity and inclusion, we have utilized citation analysis to examine the citations in various research publications. This analysis highlights research trends in diversity and inclusion at workplace from 2010 to 2017.

Methodology

Our specific objective was to investigate the existing literature on diversity and inclusion to determine the most relevant documents for understanding recent trends in diversity and inclusion at workplace from 2010 to 2017. To accomplish the abovementioned objectives, a database was built using Web of Science, Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and SCImago. The analysis involved the following stages:

Tracing the evolution of the concept of diversity and inclusion by reviewing the literature.

Determining recent research trends on the basis of the number of publications indexed in SSCI and ESCI.

Identifying journals publishing papers related to diversity and inclusion from 2010 to 2017 in SSCI and ESCI by using the keywords diversity and inclusion.

Reviewing management literature on diversity and inclusion to determine highly cited authors.

Accentuating studies of frequently cited authors.

Finally, discussing future research prospects in the area of diversity and inclusion at workplace.

Evolution of Diversity and Inclusion

The two major studies, conducted by Kelly and Dobbin (1998) and Edelman et al. (2001), highlighted the rise and fall of the term ‘diversity’. These studies revealed that a very few things were written about diversity before 1987; however, after this, there was a sharp increase in the number of practitioner journal articles relating to the concept, with a peak in 1993 and a gradual decline during the next three years. This was further illustrated by Thomas (1990), who suggested that AA should be reinstated; instead managing diversity should be focussed upon. This perspective was supported by the successive studies conducted by Ross and Schneider (1992), Kandola and Fullerton (1994) and Thomas and Ely (1996). Additionally, one of the milestone analysis of organizational behaviour textbooks from the early 1990s conducted by Litvin (1997) revealed the tendency to problematize difference among individuals and then offer diversity management as the key (Oswick & Noon, 2014). This sense to transition led to the genesis of the term ‘diversity management’ in the early 1990s.

Moreover, Oswick and Noon (2014) found that a total of 13,896 publications appeared in the SSCI on the topic of equality, diversity and inclusion from 1970 to 2009. This represents an average of 347 articles per year. Out of this, diversity accounted for 54% publications and inclusion accounted for 13%.

Indeed, by the beginning of 2010, the number of publications on the topic ‘inclusion’ was more or less on a par with equality. However, the various trajectories seem to diverge to the degree that interest in equality has remained stable while interest in inclusion has increased (Oswick & Noon, 2014).

According to Biggs (2017), Frederick A. Miller was the first person to realize the importance of diversity and inclusion at workplace. Since 2010, the diversity discourse has made transition to inclusion (Oswick & Noon, 2014). This transition was needed as diversity focuses on the characteristics of the employee; on the contrary, inclusion emphasizes on the characteristics of the organization which consists of organizational culture and organizational climate such that different individuals (people coming from different background) are fully accepted and equitably rewarded by the organization. Rather, inclusion tries to provide an environment of fostering diversity.

Research Trends from 2010 to 2017

Ng and Rumens (2017) identified a number of publications according to different dimensions of diversity as presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 points out that the most researched dimension of diversity is ‘women’, whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) remains to be the least-researched dimension. According to Mustanski (2011), no significant studies have been conducted to unearth the cause of why LGBT is being termed as ‘under-researched area’. However, the following reasons have been identified from the review of literature pertaining to LGBT:

Due to the absence of legislation in many parts of the world to protect the LGBT community against discrimination, it becomes onerous to detect and address discrimination against LGBT (Colgan et al., 2007).

Second, it is difficult to measure sexual orientation as generally people prefer to answer according to the socially acceptable norms, which results in biased data. People belonging to the LGBT community do not openly talk about their sexual orientation, which results in lack of data for the research. For example, according to a survey conducted by Statista from 2015 to 2016, only 29% respondents claimed that they knew someone from the LGBT community. This projects that LGBTs refrain from identifying themselves as someone belonging to LGBT community.

Although inclusion of LGBT has become a major political agenda of all the major economies of the world, but there is still a lacuna for organizational policies and support (especially in small organizations), which leads to under-reporting of discrimination. This implies that LGBT issues are the most unimportant issues at workplace. This calls for more profound studies to address LGBT issues at workplace all over the world as LGBT employees still experience bigotry and discrimination at workplace on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender (Ng & Rumens, 2017).

Empirical data required from LGBT community are majorly derived from the ‘snowball’ population (where the respondents give reference to someone belonging to the LGBT community) (Badgett, 2014).

Figure 1.

Source: Social Sciences Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index and SCImago.

According to research administered by WORLD Policy Analysis Center (WORLD) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on the constitution of 193 countries, this analysis was the most comprehensive study until today. The findings revealed that most countries’ constitution protects people regardless of the sex, religion, race and ethnicity but LGBTs remain out of this umbrella. Additionally, only five countries, namely, Britain, Bolivia, Fiji, Ecuador and Malta, give constitutional rights to the people regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Although major economies such as the USA, the UK and Canada add questions on self-identified sexual orientation, same-sex relationships and sexual behaviour, some of the developing countries are also actively participating in collecting data about LGBT community. Few notable examples include the following:

According to Goldani and Esteve (2013), countries such as Brazil (2010) and Urauaguy (2011) conducted a consensus to enquire about attraction towards same sex.

Nepal’s Central Bureau of Statistics made efforts in 2011 to collect demographic data by including the ‘third gender’ in the census form. Unfortunately, due to issues of disclosure and harassment by enumerators, the count remained significantly low which remained out of the census report (Bochenek & Knight, 2012).

However, the Ecuador Census Board collected data from around 2,800 LGBT respondents about their living conditions and discrimination through ‘snowball’ sampling technique (Anon, 2013).

An interview was administered to 474 LGBT respondents in Kenya in the year 2011 revealed evidence of physical violence and discrimination at workplace.

Although most of the studies are concentrated to Western countries, more studies should encompass non-Western countries (Ozturk, 2011). These gradual steps taken by various countries around the globe to collect quantifiable data of LGBTs will expedite research studies in this area globally.

Highly Cited Journals

Table 1 presents the list of journals in the area of diversity and inclusion from SSCI and ESCI along with citation count and citation per year from 2010 to 2017.

Table 1.

List of Highly Cited Journals

S. No.	Name of Journal	Citation Count	Citation/Year
1.	Academy of Management Journal	372	46.50
2.	Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal	257	32.13
3.	Cross Cultural and Strategic Management	5	2.50
4.	Human Resource Management International Digest	0	0
5.	Industrial and Commercial Training	11	1.83
6.	Journal of Organizational Change Management	50	6.25
7.	Journal of Managerial Psychology	63	7.88
8.	Springer Journal of Business Ethics	147	18.38
9.	Journal of Management Studies	9	9
10.	Employee Relations	20	5
11.	Human Resource Management Journal	210	26.25
12.	Group and Organization Management	33	6.6
13.	International Journal of Manpower	0	0
14.	Journal of Management Development	21	7.0
15.	Gender in Management: An International Journal	15	1.88
16.	Journal of Applied Psychology	215	26.88
17.	Advances in Developing Human Resources	70	8.75
18.	Public Administration Review	38	12.67
19.	Organization Science	257	32.13
20.	Human Resource Journal	257	32.13
21.	Gender and Society	89	17.80
22.	Personnel Review	42	5.25
23.	Sexual Orientation and Transgender Issues in Organisation	15	7.50
24.	Women’s Studies Journal	8	1.60
25.	Journal of Bisexuality	18	3.60
26.	American Sociological Review	166	23.71
27.	Human Resource Management Review	170	21.25
28.	Industrial and Organisational Psychology	123	20.50
29.	Politics and Policy
30.	Journal of Gender Studies	7	1
31.	Human Relations	159	22.71
32.	Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management	25	3.57
33.	Organisation Studies	61	8.71
34.	Gender and Society	89	17.80
35.	Journal of Management	1,777	222.13
36.	Journal of Organisational Behaviour	77	11
37.	Psychologist-Manager Journal	08	1.14
38.	International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology	21	3.50
39.	Journal of Applied Behavioural Science	07	2.33
40.	Diversity in Higher Education	28	07
41.	International Journal of Diversity in Organisation, Communities and Nations	0	0
42.	Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology	18	4.50
43.	International Journal of Organisational Diversity	02	0.40
49.	International Journal of Community Diversity	0	0
50.	International Journal of Human Resource Management	166	20.75
51.	Gender, Work and Organization	243	34.71
52.	Strategic Management Journal	122	15.25
53.	Academy of Management Review	150	30

Source: Social Sciences Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index and SCImago.

Note: Journal of Management has been the highly cited journal.

Most Frequently Cited Authors

We reviewed 102 research papers in the area of diversity and inclusion, out of which 71 papers were related to diversity and inclusion at workplace. Table 2 presents the list of most frequently cited authors on the basis of citation count. The table includes the name of author, paper title, year of publication and citation count. The table was formulated on the basis of data collected from Google Scholar, Social Sciences Citation Index and ResearchGate.

It can be observed from Table 3 that Shore et al. (2011) are the highly cited authors for their contribution titled ‘Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research’. Apart from research scholars, diversity and inclusion has been the area of interest for practitioners and management consultants who seek to develop and implement diversity and inclusion as the global strategies. Consultants such as Schneider–Ross and Altavis published various reports and research papers to create awareness about immediate need to translate strategic goals of organizations into practical actions to improve their business performance.

Table 2.

List of Authors

S. No.	Author	Paper Title	Citation Count
1.	Nair and Vohra (2015)	‘Diversity and inclusion at the workplace: A review of research and perspectives.’	12
2.	Hays-Thomas and Bendick (2013)	‘Professionalizing diversity and inclusion practice: Should voluntary standards be the chicken or the egg?’	35
3.	Shore et al. (2011)	‘Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research.’	233
4.	Nishii (2013)	‘The benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups.’	130
5.	Cottrill et al. (2014)	‘How authentic leadership and inclusion benefit organizations.’	66
6.	Dahl (2014)	‘“Making up” workers in an inclusive organisation: Inclusion and diversity in Danish parking patrol.’	4
7.	Colgan and McKearney (2012)	‘Visibility and voice in organisations: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered employee networks.’	76
8.	Macan et al. (2013)	‘Learning from others: Expanding diversity and inclusion across our borders.’	02
9.	Goodman (2013)	‘Taking diversity and inclusion initiatives global.’	08
10.	Derven (2014)	‘Diversity and inclusion by design: Best practices from six global companies.’	14
11.	Daya (2014)	‘Diversity and inclusion in an emerging market context’.	19
12.	Chrobot-Mason et al. (2013)	‘Leadership in a diverse workplace.’	75
13.	Hays-Thomas et al. (2012)	‘Skills for diversity and inclusion in organizations: A review and preliminary investigation.’	21
14.	Ortlieb and Sieben (2014)	‘The making of inclusion as structuration: Empirical evidence of a multinational company.’	23
15.	Sabharwal (2014)	‘Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further performance.’	102
16.	Sposato et al. (2015)	‘Diversity, inclusion and the workplace-equality index: The ingredients for organizational success.’	04
17.	Davis et al. (2016)	‘Workplace diversity management in Australia: What do managers think and what are organisations doing.’	16
18.	Georgiadou (2016)	‘Reflections from EDI conference: Equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights in times of austerity.’	–
19.	Ylöstalo (2016)	‘Traces of equality policy and diversity management in Finnish work organizations.’	01
20.	Jin et al. (2017)	‘Does leadership matter in diversity management? Assessing the relative impact of diversity policy and inclusive leadership in the public sector.’	03
21.	Paolillo et al. (2016)	‘Promoting safety participation through diversity and inclusion climates.’	04
22.	Oswick and Noon (2014)	‘Discourses of diversity, equality and inclusion: trenchant formulations or transient fashions?’	91
23.	Lee and Kramer (2016)	‘The role of purposeful diversity and inclusion strategy and cultural tightness/looseness in the relationship between national culture and organisational culture.’	16
24.	Sherbin and Rashid (2017)	‘Diversity doesn’t stick without inclusion.’	10
25.	Mor Barak (2015)	‘Inclusion is the key to diversity management but what is inclusion?’	28
26.	Donnelly (2015)	‘Tensions and challenges in the management of diversity and inclusion in IT services multinationals in India.’	20
27.	Fredette et al. (2016)	‘From diversity to inclusion: A multimethod study of diverse governing groups.’	18
28.	Holck et al. (2016)	‘Identity, diversity and diversity management: On theoretical connections, assumptions and implications for practice.’	28
29.	Brown (2015)	‘Identities and identity work in organizations.’	232
30.	Calás et al. (2013)	‘“Woman” on the move: mobile subjectivities after intersectionality.’	39
31.	Cole and Salimath (2013)	‘Diversity identity management: An organizational perspective.’	54
32.	Ferdman (2017)	‘Paradoxes of inclusion: Understanding and managing the tensions in diversity and multiculturalism.’	13
33.	Ferdman and Sagiv (2012)	‘Diversity in organisations and cross cultural work psychology: What if they were more connected.’	53
34.	Muzio and Tomlinson (2012)	‘Researching gender, inclusion and diversity in contemporary professions and professional organisations.’	67
35.	Ozturk and Tatli (2016)	‘Gender identity inclusion in the workplace: broadening diversity management research and practice through the case of transgender employees in the UK.’	31
36.	Chrobot-Mason (2013)	‘The psychological benefits of creating an affirming climate for workplace diversity.’	86
37.	Farndale et al. (2015)	‘A global perspective on diversity and inclusion in work organisations.’	21
38.	Theodorakopoulos and Budhwar (2015)	‘Guest editors’ introduction: Diversity and inclusion in different work settings: Emerging patterns, challenges, and research agenda’.	33
39.	Barker et al. (2012)	‘The bisexuality report: Bisexual inclusion in LGBT equality and diversity.’	104
40.	Boekhorst (2015)	‘The role of authentic leadership in fostering workplace inclusion: A social information processing perspective.’	70
41.	Köllen (2013)	‘Bisexuality and diversity management—Addressing the B in LGBT as a relevant “sexual orientation” in the workplace.’	30
42.	Trenerry and Paradies (2012)	‘Organizational assessment: An overlooked approach to managing diversity and addressing racism in the workplace.’	33
43.	Brimhall et al. (2014)	‘The mediating role of inclusion: A longitudinal study of the effects of leader–member exchange and diversity climate on job satisfaction and intention to leave among child welfare workers.’	41
44.	Wangombe et al. (2013)	‘Managing workplace diversity: A Kenyan perspective.’	31
45.	Sabharwal (2015)	‘From glass ceiling to glass cliff: Women in senior executive service.’	33
46.	Tepper et al. (2011)	‘Predictors of abusive supervision: Supervisor perceptions of deep-level dissimilarity, relationship conflict, and subordinate performance.’	158
47.	Guillaume et al. (2012)	‘Surface- and deep-level dissimilarity effects on social integration and individual effectiveness related outcomes in work groups: A meta-analytic integration.’	60
48.	Huy (2011)	‘How middle managers’ group-focus emotions and social identities influence strategy implementation.’	103
49.	Ghorashi and Sabelis (2013)	‘Juggling difference and sameness: Rethinking strategies for diversity in organizations.’	38
50.	Vornholt et al. (2013)	‘Factors affecting the acceptance of people with disabilities at work: A literature review.’	43
51.	Ng and Sears (2012)	‘CEO leadership styles and the implementation of organizational diversity practices: Moderating effects of social values and age.’	36
52.	Labelle et al. (2010)	‘Ethics, diversity management, and financial reporting quality.’	35
53.	Zoogah (2010)	‘Why should I be left behind? Employees’ perceived relative deprivation and participation in development activities.’	31
54.	van Dijk et al. (2012)	‘Reframing the business case for diversity: A values and virtues perspective.’	31
55.	Klarsfeld et al. (2012)	‘Social regulation and diversity management: A comparative study of France, Canada and the UK.’	31
56.	Syed (2010)	‘An historical perspective on Islamic modesty and its implications for female employment.’	31
57.	Guillaume et al. (2014)	‘Managing diversity in organizations: An integrative model and agenda for future research.’	30
58.	Priola et al. (2014)	‘The sound of silence. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender discrimination in “inclusive organizations”.’	26
59.	Bendick and Nunes (2012)	‘Developing the research basis for controlling bias in hiring.’	22
60.	Acar (2010)	‘Analyzing the effects of diversity perceptions and shared leadership on emotional conflict: A dynamic approach.’	24
61.	Madera et al. (2013)	‘Hotel managers’ perceived diversity climate and job satisfaction: The mediating effects of role ambiguity and conflict.’	20
62.	Jonsen et al. (2010)	‘Gender differences in leadership – believing is seeing: Implications for managing diversity.’	20
63.	Martín-Alcázar et al. (2012)	‘Transforming human resource management systems to cope with diversity.’	20
64.	Downey et al. (2015)	‘The role of diversity practices and inclusion in promoting trust and employee engagement.’	19
65.	Hoobler et al. (2018)	‘The business case for women leaders: Meta-analysis, research critique, and path forward.’	16
66.	Cooke and Saini (2012)	‘Managing diversity in Chinese and Indian organizations: A qualitative study.’	13
67.	Heres and Benschop (2010)	‘Taming diversity: An exploratory study on the travel of a management fashion.’	16
68.	Roberson et al. (2017)	‘The evolution and future of diversity at work.’	10
69.	Cunningham and Sartore (2010)	‘Championing diversity: The influence of personal and organizational antecedents.’	9
70.	Cavanagh et al. (2017)	‘Supporting workers with disabilities: A scoping review of the role of human resource management in contemporary organisations.’	6

Source: Google Scholar, Social Sciences Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index, Research Gate and SCImago.

These articles and reports prepared by these consultants along with Table 3 can provide a plethora of information to the scholars about the importance, scope of diversity and inclusion at workplace. Moreover, it seeks to impart information about past research, present research trends and highlight perspective areas for future research.

Highly Cited Authors

The important findings of highly cited authors have been summarized in Table 3.

Table 3.

Highly Cited Authors with Findings

S. No.	Authors	Title	Citation Count	Research Findings
1.	Shore et al. (2011)	‘Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research.’	233	The authors reviewed the literature associated with diversity and inclusion to propose concepts of inclusion and future prospects of research in the area of diversity and inclusion. They also asserted that future research should include uniqueness and belongingness factors.
2.	Brown (2015)	‘Identities and identity work in organizations.’	232	The author reviews the literature to study the role of identity in an organization and propose future research prospects in the area of identity work.
3.	Tepper et al. (2011)	‘Predictors of abusive supervision: Supervisor perceptions of deep-level dissimilarity, relationship conflict, and subordinate performance.’	158	Researchers identify the predictors of abusive supervision and answer the question why supervisor abuses his subordinates?
4.	Nishii (2013)	‘The benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups.’	130	The author proposes constructs of climate for inclusion.
5.	Sabharwal (2014)	‘Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further performance.’	102	The author advocates that an organization is productive only when the employees are encouraged to participate in an important decision-making process. Therefore, diversity management should be paired with inclusion to enhance organizational performance.

Source: Google Scholar, Social Sciences Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index, Research Gate and SCImago.

As Roberson (2006) suggests, the emergence of a new rhetoric in the field of diversity replaces the term ‘diversity’ with the term ‘inclusion’. Keeping these key findings in mind, this study explores the concept of diversity and inclusion.

Diversity management alone is insufficient to help the organization to improve performance. Instead, more efforts should be made to build a more inclusive workplace for employees (Sabharwal, 2014). This propounds the idea that diversity should go hand in hand with inclusion (Sposato et al., 2015). Some commentators see diversity and inclusion as co-dependent. In this regard, diversity is considered a necessary precursor to inclusion, while inclusion is the required antecedent of diversity (Oswick & Noon, 2014), whereas the study conducted by Roberson (2006) suggested that the emergence of a new rhetoric in the field of diversity replaces the term ‘diversity’ with the term ‘inclusion’.

Future Research Prospects

With the global companies operating in multiple geographies, it is important to learn how to leverage on business benefits of diversity and inclusion. This brings our attention to the fact that anti-discrimination norms (such as diversity and inclusion) remain as blossoming areas of the near future. According to Schneider–Ross, ‘Employee networks are seen as a useful forum for providing support on areas of mutual concern; as well as career development and idea generation. Positioning these strategically has helped to create a more inclusive culture.’ They further illustrated that policies play an important role by enabling diversity and inclusion at workplace as they provide a platform for promoting equal opportunities in employment and working practices. However, the same set of diversity and inclusion practices will not be applicable to all the organizations. Therefore, it is important to design and customize diversity and inclusion initiatives according to the situations and local needs (Derven, 2014; Goodman, 2013). Kossek et al. (2006) pointed out that research is required to be conducted not only on clusters of practices but also on how diversity and inclusion is linked with other important organizational characteristics such as leadership, top management composition, culture and so on.

Gender diversity has resulted in notable advantages to the organizations such as enhanced sales and profits. Organizations are becoming gender diverse by ensuring fair representation of both sexes. According to data of Fortune 500 companies, 25% executive ranks are held by women. As explained by Ryan and Haslam (2005, 2007), despite women workers are breaking the ‘glass ceiling’ and advancing ahead towards top positions, they are still confronted by discrimination. These challenges faced by women leaders are often termed ‘glass cliff’. This leads to emancipation of the thought that why do women leaders face ‘glass cliff’ even after attaining executive ranks? What are the various factors that impact ‘glass cliff’? (Sabharwal, 2013). A comprehensive research to propose a theory on these concepts can be a major breakthrough in diversity and inclusion as a consensus around a theory of glass cliffs is yet to be reached (Sabharwal, 2013). Organizational research in diversity and inclusion can be broadened by examining well-known metaphors ‘glass ceiling’ and ‘glass cliff’ with context to LGBT communities. These studies can provide useful insights to the business organizations understand the barriers the minorities (women and LGBTs) are confronted with at workplace, and these issues can be addressed congruously. Therefore, this will aid organizations to provide a better workplace to its employees irrespective of their gender and sexual orientation.

Scholarly work in the area of diversity and inclusion can be steered in many directions. Some identified potential factors to prescribe areas of future research in the field of diversity and inclusion are summarized as follows:

Diversity literature is extensive, and further studies are required to understand how to create inclusive environment at workplace.

As literature suggests that more studies have been conducted in the field of diversity and its outcomes, but more theoretical development is required in the area of inclusion and related outcomes.

Future research should focus on practices which satisfy uniqueness and belongingness needs. Consequently, inclusion of LGBT in workplace opens up significant areas of research as it is essential to understand LGBT comprises of people belonging to four different communities with different needs and preferences.

As discussed earlier, some tools and techniques should be designed to obtain data from LGBT communities who are hesitant to reveal their identities and sexual orientation. Moreover, exhaustive research is required to study the relation between organizational outcomes and LGBT workforce diversity.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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Literature Review on Diversity and Inclusion at Workplace,2010–2017

Abstract

Purpose:

Methodology:

Finding:

Originality/value:

Keywords

Introduction

Methodology

Evolution of Diversity and Inclusion

Research Trends from 2010 to 2017

Highly Cited Journals

Most Frequently Cited Authors

Highly Cited Authors

Future Research Prospects

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

References