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The purpose of this paper is to illuminate enablers, barriers and vignettes of South Asian women leaders and possible paths to increase the influence and leadership of women in South Asia.

Navratna, the nine precious gems of ancient Indian literature are used to frame reflections on South Asian women leaders, and the Global Gender Gap Report of 2015 is used to give context to five barriers and five enablers to women’s leadership in the region. Illustrative vignettes of South Asian women in leadership roles are presented. These vignettes have been selected based on a case study approach of South Asian women leaders.

Five enablers that may help empower women towards greater leadership and influence are proposed: involving men in what should change, greater economic participation by women, supportive family, country- and context-specific leadership training, and finally grassroots advocacy, mentoring and role models.

The paper shines new light on women leaders whose sparking excellence in their specific field illuminate paths for others to follow and thus contributes to promoting research on multifaceted women leaders in South-Asia.

This paper aims to explore the experiences of church ministers who played the role of transitional leaders in congregational situations involving conflict.

Grounded theory was chosen as a suitable approach to investigate phenomena that occasionally penetrate religious publications and even less frequently scholarly management journals. Accordingly, in-depth interviews were conducted with six church ministers who had been transitional leaders in one Christian denomination in New Zealand.

Participants indicated that the drivers of transitional ministry were conflict, dysfunction and loss of direction; the goals were to heal the damage caused by conflict and restore functionality and well-being; the process, underpinned by a leadership philosophy of affirmation, trust-building, engagement and communication, involved working with church members to instil hope, establish operational structures, identify and resolve dysfunction, envision a future and ultimately recruit a permanent minister.

The limitations of a small sample size in one Christian denomination could be addressed by using wider samples in other contexts. It is suggested that insights into transitional leadership after conflict will be of interest to researchers as well as practitioners in other religious organizations, the wider non-profit sector and the private sector. Future research into the impact of transitional leadership, against a background of conflict and organizational change, will add to this empirical foundation.

The model of transitional ministry is a unique contribution to religious literature and practice. It also offers insight into how other types of organization could deal with the exit of its permanent leader, in circumstances of conflict, and manage the transition phase of a temporary replacement, so that the organization returns to a state of well-being with a renewed sense of purpose.

The purpose of this study is to discuss how ethnicity and gender influence high-tech entrepreneurship in the Cambridge cluster emphasizing homophily and how and why bridging and bonding ties are created in moving individuals from the periphery to cross the threshold into acceptance.

The authors present findings on the micro-dynamics of ethnicity and gender in high-tech entrepreneurship underpinned by homophily. The authors discuss how ethnicity and gender influence who enters and stays in high-tech entrepreneurship university spinouts. Through an entrepreneurial narrative qualitative approach, the authors explore how and why bridging and bonding ties may be created and the challenges for those at the periphery to cross the threshold into acceptance. The study adopts an entrepreneurial narrative qualitative approach using interviews with individuals associated with the Cambridge cluster.

The authors add to the entrepreneurship literature by responding to the call for multiplexity within homophily, and the research indicates that homophily strongly influences who enters and who leaves the cluster based on bridging and bonding ties. The findings address the need for more focused understanding of entrepreneurial clusters and how mechanisms can be developed to create an environment to nurture both bridging and bonding ties. It is possible for an entrepreneurial cluster to be perceived as attractive and thriving while being homophilous. Ethnic individuals and women continue to struggle to gain acceptance in the Cambridge cluster.

Interviews were conducted by one person – an ethnic minority female – for continuity of all interviews. Yet as many of the participants were not minorities, it is possible that an interviewer who was not an ethnic minority may have elicited different narratives.

The study adds to the entrepreneurship literature by focusing on multiplexity within homophily in examining the dynamics of homophily in the context of the Cambridge cluster and the significance of nurturing bridging and bonding ties. The research comments on implications for practice among three interlinked but autonomous groups: first, the individual entrepreneurs; second, the networks she/he belongs to; third, the university as both fertile ground for entrepreneurship and an educational institution where entrepreneurship education is engaged in for encouraging and supporting spinouts.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a “just” enterprise can challenge stigma deeply embedded in culture and in the process develop and prevent a whole new generation of women, in this case the daughters and grand‐daughters of sex‐workers, from being stigmatized.

Drawing on fieldwork interviews this paper, through appreciative inquiry analyses and most significant change questioning, examines the development of an Indian based enterprise called Freeset, a company employing women leaving sex work, and examines its history and its possible future trajectory. Freeset challenges the stigma of these Indian sex‐workers, including that perpetuated through patriarchy, by offering alternative work which displays respect for their abilities and dreams and up‐skills them to function as leaders in their communities.

While stigma erodes social status by discounting and discrediting persons considered outside the norm, it is possible to challenge that process and change the life trajectory of its victims.

Hearing and highlighting the voice of the stigmatized is vital in clarifying a holistic view of stigma and its impact on society.

There are significant insights into how values based enterprises might establish their ethos in cultures that discount those values the enterprise upholds.

Few enterprises focused on producing social change outcomes develop sustainable business practices that challenge the economic root causes of stigma. Freeset provides new insights into managing diversity issues in a South Asian context to achieve that goal.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an editorial introduction to the special issue on “Gender and diversity in organizations in South Asia”.

The paper reviews the state of extant research on equality, diversity and inclusion in South Asia. It also offers an overview of the papers included in the special issue and the unique contributions they make to this field of knowledge.

Findings vary for each paper; however, overall, the special issue brings to the fore theoretical ideas, alternative organizing and organisations and challenges involved in diversity management in South Asia.

The papers offer fresh insights in theorizing and managing diversity and equality which depart from the dominant Anglo‐centric theorizations in this field.

Educators, policy makers and managers in organisations may take into account various findings and recommendations offered in the papers leading to greater awareness of the challenges and opportunities to formulate context‐sensitive policies and practices of diversity in South Asia.

Barring a few exceptions, the topic of gender and diversity management in South Asia, as for example the centrality of national culture and values, remains generally ignored in work and organization studies. Papers that are published appear in a wide variety of journals rarely achieving a critical mass. The current (special) issue of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion addresses these gaps and seeks to strengthen understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion pertaining to the region classified as South Asia.

This paper is a guest editorial piece in the Special Issue of the Gender in Management journal on “Gender equality at work in South Asia”. In this paper, the authors aim not only to introduce the papers selected for the Special Issue but also to offer an overview of the current state of female employment, economic activity and gender equality at work in countries in South Asia.

The paper offers a review of extant literature and macro‐economic data on gender equality in employment and management in South Asia.

Four stories emerge: firstly the pervasive existence of structural and institutional barriers such as patriarchal ideologies reinforced by gender inegalitarian interpretations of holy texts; secondly women's limited access to education and skill development; thirdly lack of non‐agricultural employment and economic resources resulting in economic dependence on men and sex‐based division of labour; and fourthly the development and joy of agency where there is facilitation and nurturance of women.

This Special Issue is probably the first ever collection of journal articles focused on gender equality at work in the South Asia region.

International population mobility has increased dramatically in the last ten years due to immigration policies, globalisation and skilled individual’s quest for better prospects. New Zealand has consciously invited migrants onto its shores and it is now a land of tremendous diversity. The basis for this paper is a qualitative study on first generation Indian immigrant women seeking employment in the host country New Zealand. The research examines in‐depth what it means to seek entry into the world of work as a migrant, from the perspective of legitimate peripheral participation in learning to function in the host country. The results suggest a many layered experience, and a complex terrain, with a landscape of initial hope, followed by feelings of being devalued, a downward spiral of weeping, regret letters and lowered self esteem. The paper sketches emergent cameos of these women and draws out some of the significant variables in their learning trajectories. In sights for creating conditions for legitimate peripheral participation are offered emphasising a worldview that embraces both the internal and external realities as stepping stones in the topography of work experiences for migrants in New Zealand.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of ethnic minority entrepreneurship in Sweden offered through the sacred‐secular lens of the Islamic Dawoodi Bohra community, with the purpose of exploring the relationship of spirituality to entrepreneurship.

Through a case study, this paper spotlights the entrepreneurship of immigrant women from the Dawoodi Bohra Islamic community in Sweden. Utilizing the literature from spirituality, ethnography and ethnic minority entrepreneurship, this paper seeks to foreground the importance of a transcendent dimension in entrepreneurship which is woven into and sustains the day‐to‐day beliefs and practices of ethnic minority women entrepreneurs.

The women seem to be able to negotiate their spirituality within their role as ethnic minority women entrepreneurs, which gives meaning to their daily existence and increases their izzat (honour) in their community.

This is a specific case study and represents a particular Islamic community, hence cannot realistically reflect all Islamic women in entrepreneurship. Future research can uncover the role of migrant Islamic women from various communities and countries.

The paper presents the interweaving and leavening effect of spirituality and entrepreneurship for Islamic women entrepreneurs and is a valuable insight on how such women negotiate their lives.

The paper presents a close look at Islamic women from the Dawoodi Bohra community whose lived experience represents a negotiation between their spirituality, patriarchy, migration, ethnicity and minority.

This paper aims to explore the work experiences of ethnic minority migrant Indian women and their reasons for entering entrepreneurship in post‐colonial New Zealand.

Over a period of five years, in‐depth semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 45 Indian women migrant entrepreneurs in New Zealand. A total of approximately 50 hours of interviews with 200 hours of transcription and member checks contributed to the understanding of these women. The interpretations were enhanced by congruence of ethnicity and gender of the researcher‐author.

The qualitative interviews surfaced issues of being non‐white, exclusionary employment practices and negotiating post‐colonial New Zealand in order to follow the migrant dream despite the prevalence of softwares of colonialism in the mindset of the host country.

The study was conducted in one country (New Zealand) on one ethnicity (Indian); hence, there needs to be caution in generalizing the findings for other ethnic minority women and in other post‐colonial countries.

The research focuses on the experiences of educated ethnic minority women who are often marginalized based on their visible diversity discriminators, despite efforts by the New Zealand Government to create an equitable non‐racialized society.

The paper is a powerful reminder of the need to understand the layered reality of ethnic minority women and to reduce the gap between policy and action.