Leading the Way: DEI Professionals’ Key Role in Driving Diversity and Inclusion and Designing Policies

Keywords

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Issue Date

2024-08-27

Language

en

Document type

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Title

ISSN

Volume

Issue

Startpage

Endpage

DOI

Abstract

With a rising need for more diverse and inclusive organizations and concrete policies that match these needs, the position of D&I professionals has become more prominent as well. What is known about these professionals and their role in designing D&I policies and driving diversity and inclusion – from this point forward, diversity and inclusion will be referred to as D&I – is mainly information derived from either the US or UK. To address this gap, this research focuses on D&I professionals in the Netherlands. It focuses on the role of D&I professionals, what challenges they face, and what strategies they use. It shows that D&I professionals still tend to stand on their own when it comes to D&I, and require continuous connections with other divisions in the organization. Next to that, they have a role in challenging the status quo, and keeping D&I present and running in the organization. The biggest challenge they face is resistance against D&I. The findings highlight that there are multiple places where this resistance has its roots, and how this complicates their day to day tasks. While the literature emphasizes the appeal to the business case as the best strategy, in this research it was found that genuine collaboration and communication works best in designing effective D&I policies and driving D&I.

Description

Citation

Supervisor

Faculty

Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen