INCLUSION: ANOTHER SEED FOR FRAGMENTATION AND A NEW FIELD OF RESEARCH

• Published in: International journal of information, business and management business and management, 2020-02, Vol.12 (1), p.1-22
• Main Authors: Iqrahafeez, Yingjun, Zhu, Rehman, Khaliq Ur, Hafeez, Saba, Jahan, Sharmin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Corporate culture; Developing countries; Discourse analysis; Empirical analysis; Employees; Ethnicity; Gender; Knowledge management; LDCs; Leadership; Management science; Marital status; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Operations management; Organizational aspects; Researchers; Values; Workforce; Workplace diversity
• ISSN: 2076-9202; 2218-046X

Aim of current research is to differentiate "Diversity Management" and "Inclusion" by considering a theory based discourse and finding the meanings of both from different theoretical perspectives. Historical discourse analysis technique has been used to understand the concepts of Diversity, Diversity Management, Inclusion and Inclusive Organization to develop comparative analysis between the said concepts. Findings of the study explicitly predict that Diversity is related to distinctive characteristics of all the individuals while inclusion is about respecting the differences. Diversity Management and Inclusion are different but interrelated disciplines. Concept of inclusion can be defined based on pertinent situation mainly due to factors like Culture, Organizational Climate and Leadership. Diversity Management along with Inclusion can be implemented in an organization wide context involving individuals at all levels of organization for successful implementation. Current study has adopted theoretical discourse analysis to explore the meaning of diversity and inclusion. These concepts can be explored through more conceptual and empirical work on the construct of inclusion while practical work on practices of inclusive organizations also needs to be done considering pertinent motives for the implementation of Inclusion in both theory and practice. Although up till now a little research is available on Inclusion and most of the studies are based in developed countries, whose results may not be implementable in developing countries because of differences of ground realities. Valuable results can be attained by conducting empirical studies in developing countries.