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Envisioning inclusive organizations: theory-building and corporate practice
Edited by Dr Johanna Hofbauer and Dr Astrid Podsiadlowski
1. Introduction
All over the world, migration processes and demographic shifts bring about that business companies increasingly depend on migrant employees ([17] OECD, 2012; [20] Ortlieb and Sieben, 2013). In view of pertinent labour and skill shortages, European governments initiated immigration policies to facilitate companies the recruitment of people from abroad. Also, the enhancement of equal opportunities at work and the inclusion of immigrants got new socio-political impetus in view of the rising workforce diversity. Yet still, empirical findings show that the employment opportunities of migrants are far from equal to those of native-born individuals without a foreign background. Migrants earn lower wages (e.g. [9] Fertig and Schurer, 2007), are more often assigned to low-skill jobs for which they are over-qualified ([11] Holgate, 2005; [27] Turner, 2010), get lower scores in job performance ratings ([24] Roth et al. , 2003), face stronger barriers in their career development ([15] Kamenou and Fearful, 2006) and experience multifaceted discrimination ([18] Ogbonna and Harris, 2006).
The explicit aim of diversity initiatives is to alter this situation by creating more inclusive workplaces (e.g. [12] Holvino et al. , 2004; [23] Roberson, 2006). In the "ideal" inclusive organization, the variety of employees' skills and perspectives shape organizational strategies and work processes, basic values and norms. In addition, fairness and equal opportunities are realized, all employees - including members of minority groups - feel integrated and they are represented on all hierarchical levels. However, although diversity scholars consent in the relevance of inclusion, a sound theoretical grounding is still lacking ([26] Shore et al. , 2011). Also, empirical studies on organizational practices of inclusion are rare (exceptions are [3] Bilimoria et al. , 2008; [13] Janssens and Zanoni, 2008; [30] Zanoni and Janssens, 2007).
In this paper we propose to apply an established sociological theory, Giddens' theory of structuration, to the question how organizations become inclusive and what ambivalences are associated with corresponding organizational practices. Structuration theory's core concept of the "duality of structure" is particularly well suited to carve out social practices of inclusion in organizations and to highlight the dynamics, contradictions and tensions within "the making of inclusion". We illustrate such ambivalent practices on...