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Using intersectionality and introducing newer developments from critical cross-cultural management studies, this paper aims to discuss how diversity is applicable to changing cultural contexts.

The paper is a conceptual paper built upon relevant empirical research findings from critical cross-cultural management studies.

By applying intersectionality as a conceptual lens, this paper underscores the practical and conceptual limitations of the business case for diversity, in particular in a culturally diverse international business (IB) setting. Introducing newer developments from critical cross-cultural management studies, the authors identify the need to investigate and manage diversity across distinct categories, and as intersecting with culture, context and power.

This paper builds on previous empirical research in critical cross-cultural management studies using intersectionality as a conceptual lens and draws implications for diversity management in an IB setting from there. The authors add to the critique of the business case by showing its failures of identifying and, consequently, managing diversity, equality/equity and inclusion (DEI) in IB settings.

Organizations (e.g. MNEs) are enabled to clearly see the limitations of the business case and provided with a conceptual lens for addressing DEI issues in a more contextualized and intersectional manner.

This paper introduces intersectionality, as discussed and applied in critical cross-cultural management studies, as a conceptual lens for outlining the limitations of the business case for diversity and for promoting DEI in an IB setting in more complicated, realistic and relevant ways.

This chapter explores genderwashing in the context of exclusive talent management (ETM) and defensive diversity management (DDM). It makes the counter intuitive argument that ETM is a misnomer in that it privileges maintenance of an organizational hierarchy based on social identity over the development of talent. Further, DDM is a genderwashing tool, enabling organizations to fend off criticism through symbolic diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives while enacting discourses that legitimate structures, practices, and norms that produce a status hierarchy based on social identities. A genderwashing perspective reveals this contradiction and spotlights the uncomfortable reality of workplace inequalities. It also shows that operating within boundaries set by the status quo renders DDM ineffective in removing the real career impediments faced by women and members of minoritized groups (MMG). A transformative diversity management (TDM) approach is needed to confront these realities and enable organizations to support the career aspirations of women and MMG.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a scene-setting viewpoint that critically examines various diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) blind spots within the field of international business (IB). These include issues such as social justice, intersectionality, de-colonization, the co-creation of inclusive research practices in indigenous spaces, social dialogue and the gap between DEI rhetoric and reality. An additional aim of the viewpoint is also to contextualise the discussion of DEI blind spots in terms of the six papers which make up the first part of a two-part special issue on DEI in IB".

The authors build on existing DEI overview works and comment on specific DEI blind spots. The authors also discuss the role of positionality as critical reflexive scholarship practice, which they see as an essential step in problematizing structural inequalities. The authors then discuss six specific areas where DEI blindspots persist within the IB literature and link their discussion to the six papers included in the first part of their DEI special issue.

Addressing the contradictions between the business and social justice cases for DEI requires addressing the ontological contradictions between the two perspectives through problematizing structural inequalities. A key contribution of the paper is also the discussion around positionality in DEI research and the relevance of positionality statements as part of critical reflexive scholarship in support of a socially just DEI research agenda.

The authors discuss the role DEI research plays and can play within the evolution of the IB discipline. The authors apply a critical management studies perspective to pervasive DEI issues, as well as engage with the topics in the special issue through a unique critical reflexive epistemology which includes their own positionality statements as guest editors and researchers. Their critical discussion and recommendations for future research serve as a kind of whetstone to sharpen IB’s DEI research tools and in turn for IB to help sharpen DEI research’s tools, supporting it to become more socially just.

This study aims to critically discuss and reorient the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) debate toward the idea of addressing and rectifying the pervasive structural inequalities that DEI, in its undiluted form rooted in social justice (SJ), aims to combat. Drawing on Bourdieu, the study first examines the diffusion and contestation of DEI into international business (IB). It then proposes a Bourdieu-inspired agenda to advance the transposition of SJ principles into IB.

The study interpretively reconstructs the process of DEI’s ideational diffusion. It examines how the interplay between ideas and field dynamics in IB shapes ideational processes and outcomes.

In response to rising global inequalities – to which multinational enterprises (MNEs) have significantly contributed – SJ movements have propelled DEI into the wider social and political arena, including corporate boardrooms. Within IB, a diluted version of DEI – IB-DEI – emerged as a paradigm to improve MNEs’ performance, but failed to address underlying structural inequalities. As the social impacts, utility and legitimacy of DEI have been challenged, the DEI debate has come to a flux. The study proposes conceptual and contextual extension of DEI within IB and advancing socially engaged research and practice that help reinforce DEI’s core SJ purpose – tackling structural inequalities.

The study is one of the few to openly tackle SJ-IB contradictions on DEI, while advancing the application of Bourdieu to critical studies of IB.

Sport organizations hold substantial ideological power to showcase and reinforce dominant cultural ideas about gender. The organization and portrayal of sporting events and spaces continue to promote and reinforce a hierarchical gender binary where heroic forms of masculinity are both desired and privileged. Such publicly visible gender hierarchies contribute to the doing of gender beyond sport itself, extending to influence gender power relations within sport and non-sport organizations. Yet, there has been a relative absence of scholarship on sport organizations within the organizational sociology field. In this paper, we review findings of studies that look at how formal and informal organizational dimensions influence the doing and undoing of gender in sport organizations. Subsequently, we call for scholars to pay more attention to sport itself as a source of gendered organizational practices within both sport and non-sport organizations. We end with suggestions for research that empirically explores this linkage by focusing on innovative theoretical perspectives that could provide new insights on gender inclusion in organizations.

This paper aims to critically examine how dual-listed multinational enterprises (MNEs) that are embedded across multiple national contexts interact with other actors to shape the diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) narrative, outcomes and the associated dynamics of social change in the mining industry.

The authors use data from the publicly available sustainability reports of two global mining conglomerates with dual-listing structure, Rio Tinto and Anglo American, alongside prevalent DEI regulations in the UK, Australia and South Africa to understand how DEI discourse and practice and the corresponding role of key actors have evolved since 2015. The authors combine a case study approach with topic modelling and qualitative content analysis to critically analyse the linkage between actors’ stated posture and actions in their DEI field and their impact upon various exchange relationships within the mining industry exchange field over the period 2015–2021.

The analysis revealed three broad phases of evolution in the DEI involvement of the MNEs emphasizing on diversity, equality and inclusion, respectively. Both firms progressed at a different pace across the three phases highlighting the need for a systemic perspective when addressing DEI concerns.

This paper is one of the earliest to adopt an issue and exchange field perspective towards examining the complexity of DEI. Taking a critical performative stance, the authors argue that for improving convergence between MNEs’ DEI rhetoric and reality and to advance DEI in new ways organizations and policymakers must devise structural interventions in the DEI field that substantively impact MNEs’ industry exchange field relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and critically examine the integration of religious perspectives in diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives in the context of international business (IB).

This qualitative study used a case study methodology, focusing on an international consulting firm, inspired by Islamic Sufism, and their clients in South Africa and Pakistan. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with consultants and clients from 25 organizations, participant observations during training sessions, and document analysis. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyse patterns in the data.

The study revealed that religious ideas and individuals are marginalized in the global business environment through a phenomenon termed “secularchy”. Consultants from the Islamic Sufi-inspired firm had to detach religious elements from their management model to gain acceptance in secular corporate settings. Participants reported that religious perspectives were systematically excluded and those expressing religious viewpoints faced significant barriers. The findings emphasize the need for more inclusive D&I practices that genuinely integrate religious diversity into organizational cultures.

This study introduces the concept of “secularchy” to describe the systemic marginalization of religious perspectives in IB, a novel contribution to the D&I literature. The authors challenge the dominant secular paradigm in global business, advocating for more equitable and inclusive integration of religious diversity in organizational practices.

Although existing literature emphasizes the significance of diversity and inclusion in management roles for employees, there is a notable absence of a standardized scale to assess employees’ perceptions of an inclusive climate, particularly in relation to practices that encourage acceptance of demographically diverse leaders. This study aims to bridge this gap by developing the perceived inclusion climate for leader diversity (PICLD) scale.

The scale development process was carried out in five phases which included: qualitative component (interviews); test for face validity; check for content validity; construct and criterion-related validity; and nomological network testing.

Following the first three phases of scale development, 12 measurement items were produced. Phase four results indicate that PICLD is distinct from both the intercultural group climate scale and diversity-oriented leadership scale, in which all three scales were found to be positively correlated with job satisfaction. Phase five results show that PICLD positively correlates with organizational justice. Organizational justice also mediates the relationship between PICLD and three employee outcomes (performance, engagement and turnover intention).

Organizations are encouraged to be open to suggestions made by managers from historically marginalized groups that motivate diverse leaders to voice their concerns to foster inclusionary climate perceptions among employees. Welcoming diverse managerial perspectives can dismantle systemic barriers, enabling marginalized leaders to thrive while fostering employees’ perceptions of an inclusionary workplace.

This study introduces the PICLD Scale to enhance comprehension of how policies supporting leader demographic diversity impact employee perceptions of inclusive climate. This research also contributes to the advancement of social exchange theory and literature on organizational justice, performance and engagement.