The importance of diversity and inclusion for sustainable companies and supply chains

Such diversity management in companies uses the diversity of employees to better achieve important corporate goals such as resilience, working climate and value creation for customers and other stakeholders. A workforce that is heterogeneous in terms of age, gender, disability, ethnic and social origin, religion or sexual orientation not only contributes to social sustainability through the principle of inclusion. It also has a positive effect on internal and external justice and on change processes towards ecological sustainability through suitable management approaches, for example in recruitment, team composition and remuneration.

Diversity management

From the point of view of work and organizational psychology, diversity management is an approach to effectively use the different conceptual worlds of people within the framework of a culture of interaction in order to avoid psychologically negative feedback due to different ways of thinking. In the context of the graduate programme, diversity management should therefore not be seen solely in terms of the factors already mentioned, but also in regard to its impact on ways of thinking or qualifications within or between companies. Such potential inconsistencies and frictions can lead to high psychological stress and dissatisfaction in workforces, or to problems of equity or distribution within companies and along supply chains. The approach here is to generate constructive cooperation by establishing an appropriate culture of interaction, thus making companies and their interaction more resilient and sustainable. Especially with regard to the interaction of a company with supply chains, such a culture of interaction is necessary for long-term fair, ecologically sensitive and productive cooperation.

Processes, policies and corporate culture

The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) is intended to prevent discrimination against employees, which is why active diversity management also minimizes the risk of damages from a company perspective. The integration of a diverse workforce into corporate management systems must take place at the level of processes and policies as well as the corporate culture. Tensions, paradoxes and inconsistencies between these two levels and the macro-institutional level (e.g. legislation) often make concrete implementation difficult. Dissemination of inclusive, equity-, and diversity-promoting approaches along the value chain via sustainable procurement and supply chain management practices, which is desirable from a systemic perspective, poses further profound challenges to implementation (Gold and Schleper, 2017).

Recognition Culture

Resolving these tensions, paradoxes, and inconsistencies requires a culture of interaction that is motivationally accepting of different points of view, including across organizations in supply chain systems. Such cultures of interaction are familiar from organizations that have to deal with high risk potential and depend on open and flexible cooperation among the workforce (Sträter 2019). A culture of recognition creates the conditions to be able to act sustainably, because it reduces biases and motivates despite tensions, paradoxes and inconsistencies. Thus, it is through the interaction of diversity management and a culture of recognition that the possibility of developing an organization towards sustainability arises in the first place and, in doing so, develops thrust for the transformation of the value chain from raw material producer to the final customer towards equity, inclusion and sustainability.

Co-determination as a catalyst

The already institutionalized participation of the workforce in the context of co-determination with trade union support via transformation councils, or in sustainability reporting, can act as an anchor, catalyst and shaping force in this sustainability transformation. Establishing a diverse workforce contributes directly to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 ("Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all") and Sustainable Development Goal 10 ("Reduce inequality within and between countries"). In terms of the complementarity of all SDGs, diversity, equity, and inclusion can contribute to the implementation of other sustainability goals, such as reducing resource consumption or reducing CO2 emissions (e.g., Sustainable Development Goals 12 and 13) in companies and along supply chains. While this issue has received little attention in empirical research, there are theoretical approaches that postulate, for example, "recognition" (Honneth 1992) of the various groups involved or affected in value creation as a way for companies to engage in a true sense for people, workers as well as the environment (Gold/Schleper 2017). For a transformation of entire sectors towards more sustainability, it is also important that institutions (laws, standards, etc.) are created with the involvement of various stakeholders that enable the diffusion and implementation of diversity management and mindfulness culture in companies across regions and along supply chains and clusters of companies. This relates to Sustainability Goal 16, which is to build peace, justice, and strong institutions.

Sustainability practices within companies and along supply chains.

This goal requires an interdisciplinary approach. Work science, psychological, and transdisciplinary methods and approaches help to understand the conditions for success and barriers to establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces and to demonstrate the effectiveness of organizational designs with respect to sustainability goals. Approaches to sustainability-oriented management and supply chain research contribute in complementary ways to the study of the mechanisms of diffusion and integration of sustainability practices into organizational and supply chain management structures and systems, taking into account micro- and macro-institutional conditions.

The diffusion of social as well as environmental sustainability practices within companies (Gutierrez-Huerter O et al. 2020) and along supply chains (Gold et al. 2020) is of outstanding practical relevance and a research area of increasing attractiveness (e.g. Trautrims et al. 2020), especially against the background of the Corona pandemic, increasing precarization of labor and global political conflicts. In particular, management practices aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion in companies and supply chains are difficult to implement, as employee:s are equally objects and actors in this process, and supply chain actors often face paradoxical institutional requirements. There has also been little research on the conditions under which diverse, equitable and inclusive value creation develops a positive force for other sustainability goals, as could be investigated in particular with regard to resource conservation, climate protection and the preservation of biodiversity. Here, in particular, the existing institutional infrastructure of democratization and co-determination of the workforce as well as the collective bargaining system and trade union support can also receive central attention as a starting point and driver for shaping the sustainability transformation. The same applies to labor science and industrial and organizational psychology. It is seen time and again in the change management of companies that important development goals can be recognized but not implemented due to internal friction or even inconsistencies in the interaction of different companies (Sträter 2020). An approach based on diversity and recognition culture is therefore currently being addressed for many issues in labor research, whether for digitalization, electromobility, etc. (Sträter and Bengler 2019).

Transdisciplinarity

An important factor highlighted is that for the transformation of a company into a space of sustainable productivity and social participation, in-house participation formats are essential. The transdisciplinary methodological approach to be developed is therefore based on the consistent participation of company, in particular trade union, actors and representatives and takes the gender perspective centrally into account. This transdisciplinary approach is developed through the scientific transfer of the principles of diversity management and the combination of these principles with psychological aspects of the culture of interaction. The effectiveness of this combination for a fairer and smoother transformation of companies and supply chains will be researched in the graduate programme. Building on the results, participation formats with good interaction culture within and across companies will be developed. The results can be used in important aspects of trade union work such as co-determination, collective bargaining policy or justice to make companies and supply chains more sustainable.

PhD students in the graduate programme can choose research questions in the outlined thematic area. For example, they may examine the institutional tensions between firm, inter-firm, and macro-institutional levels :

• Trade-offs and paradoxes between the workplace level of process and culture, and the level of macro-institutional norm-setting (e.g. unions, associations, legislation) in the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion in companies and supply chains.
• Role of "translators" (e.g., works councils) leading the institutional negotiation process for the transfer of diversity management practices or transdisciplinary approaches.
• Approaches to integrating and consolidating institutional tensions into an effective transformation process.

Another exemplary research agenda focuses on the diffusion of principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion along supply chains:

• Power-theoretical as well as institutional-theoretical analysis of the diffusion of principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion along supply chains, with special attention to environmental sustainability as an additional target dimension
• Role of artifacts (posters, machines, narratives) as meaning-making elements in the diffusion process.

Finally, the intertwining of social and environmental sustainability goals , for example, can be explored in more detail:

• Analysis of the extent to which diversity in the workforce is beneficial or perhaps a hindrance to achieving other sustainability goals (such as reducing resource consumption).
• Potential of lived recognition culture to accelerate time developments towards sustainability against the backdrop of the strong urgency of the sustainability transformation process
• Methods to develop recognition culture and/or to check the maturity level of recognition culture