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Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Study

Tahj Borom, Dhivya Balabascarin, Salman Faris Karunichalil

Indiana University Kokomo

BUKO-J 552: Principles of Leadership & Ethics

Professor Elizabeth Clayton

October 14th, 2023

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Abstract
Diversity and Inclusion play a vital role in creating a culture that is beneficial to the workplace,

Leaders across all industries are looking for different ways to implement initiatives to create a

diverse culture and keep one. In our study, we aim to find common approaches to having a

diverse and inclusive workplace in which leaders of different backgrounds and industries have

found success. We targeted a diverse group of interviewees who are business leaders within our

networks who could answer questions tailored around research questions that revolved around

how diversity and inclusion affect the workplace and how diversity and inclusion be

implemented in the workplace across many businesses. The data contained in this study are

purely qualitative and are provided from a thematic analysis of multiple interviews conducted by

the creators of this paper.

Keywords: Diversity, Inclusion, Leadership, Workplace, Thematical analysis, Qualitative

research.
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Introduction

The overall purpose of our study was to learn how diversity and inclusion affect the

workplace and how we (our group members) could implement initiatives within our future

companies. Leaders are constantly looking for ways to improve their workplace and better the

company overall, but doing so ethically is extremely important.

Creating a positive culture goes a long way in keeping the company ethical, “the impact of

culture on moral behavior is becoming more visible. So, moral issues must be grasped from what

is bestowed by society at large and organizations in particular” (Bardy, n.d. Pg, 75). The impacts

of culture were a big driving force in us picking diversity and inclusion, not only is it a prevalent

topic not only in the workplace but also everyday topics, but we believe it can have a great

impact within the workplace. This is tailored to our first research question How do leaders

foster a culture of respect and inclusivity that extends beyond formal policies? Aiming to

answer how leaders can create a culture with a focus on respect and inclusivity.

Our group is very diverse having two individuals from India, one being female and one male,

while also having an African American male; we have a group who have varying outlooks on

life. We had all experienced incidences where we didn’t feel included or a time where there was

little diversity within our settings, this caused us to want to explore how diversity and inclusion

were seen by leaders within the workplace.

The framework of human-centered management has been implemented by many of the top

organizations, According to IBM a human-center organization is “ one that exists to fulfill a

purpose for its users, customers, and community”(IBM) focusing on the experience of all its

experiences, but “cares as much about the experience of its diverse, empowered teams as it does
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about its customers”(IBM). Despite some skeptics who believe “Common values are what makes

a society stick together. But with growing ethnic diversity, one may come to think that social

cohesion may be threatened” (Bardy, n.d., Pg 108) it has been prevalent that human-centered

management, a framework that diversity and inclusion fit in, is significant to the success of

organization which drove our group to search this topic even further. This concept was tailored

towards our second research question What Strategies Have effective leaders implemented to

create a more inclusive workplace environment? To see how human management can be

implemented.

Methods

Are sample consisted of nine interviewees, 3 women and 6 men who represent 4 ethnic groups

including two African Americans, one Bangladeshi, and five Caucasians, and it also included

one Biracial interviewee. The industries these individuals also vary with interviewees who are

leaders in their respective industries including Sports, High School Education, Business, and

College Education. Not only did they have diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity/race and

industry, but they also had diverse age ranges with one interviewee being 18-25, three 35-40, one

40-45, one 45-50, and two interviewees over the age of 50.

Interviewees were chosen to provide a wide range of leaders who represent diverse backgrounds

and hold a position where they can help promote diversity through their leadership. Our

interviewees range in Race, Age, Gender, and Industry, to provide our sample with a wide range

of people to reduce biases. Also, to find commonalities from our diverse pool of interviewees.

Having diverse participants helps us gain a broader range of perspectives, experiences, and

viewpoints that help us gain a deep understanding of our study.

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We believe that our pool of interviewees enhances the validity of our findings due to the vast

perspectives we were able to answer our research questions which helped generalize our findings

to a larger population.

We were able to find our leaders by leaning on our networks and reaching out to leaders we

already knew and asking if they would be willing to interview with us; we also asked Professor

Elizabeth Clayton for assistance to connect us with leaders within her network when we were

unable to secure three interviews for each group member.

After securing our interviewees we then set up times that worked for both our schedule and the

person we were interviewing, these interviews were voice recorded either in-person, over the

phone, or using modern technology such as video calling with platforms like Zoom. After

individually recording three interviews for each group member, we then relistened to each

interview and created codes that pulled out quotes that answered the questions asked. After

creating codes and thematic analysis of our interview separately we then compared our themes

and codes to find more overarching themes based on what we found on our own.

By creating themes on our own we were to come together and put themes that were similar and

had exemplars that would fit into other themes together and created a more ubiquitous theme that

was more applicable to our research question. We found lots of similarities between all of our

interviews, so it was relatively easy to notice patterns and determine what quotes went with

which themes, however, there was one difference that we discovered where an interviewee

seemed to go completely differently that we were not expecting when asking our interview

questions (Appendix A), with this we decided that we were still going to write about these

answers within our paper but not try to force it within a certain theme since it didn’t fit into our
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others but instead was its own them that doesn’t necessarily answer either of our research

questions.

Results

Through our Analysis, we were able to agree on two themes for each research question, for our

first research question we garnered the themes “follow the leader and “safe Space for the

Workplace.”

1. How do leaders foster a culture of respect and inclusivity that extends beyond

formal policies? Follow the leader

2. ” Regarding diversity [the] leader has to model the behavior where he or she wants the

organization”

3. " As a leader, you are emulating the behaviors that you want to see in an organization,

and you are driving the culture of that organization by your behaviors.”

4. " You won't have a policy that excludes someone because of something culturally you

don’t understand if you have a diverse leadership team.”

5. “As a leader, it’s important to be mindful of every different culture in your workplace.”

6. "If as a leader you can develop a really deep understanding where your colleagues are

coming from, I think it leads to a much deeper trust between leadership."

This theme we found a link between the quotes our interviews were giving and Chapter 8

of Rethinking Leadership: A human Centered Approach to Management Ethics, Morale

Person, Morale Leader, Morale Leader which states “Leaders may not be directly instructing

employees to do something ethical, but their instructions to the employees may appear to leave
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Diversity and Inclusion
little option but to act in a moral manner. (Bardy, n.d.)” we found that when the leaders of

organizations are moral and have an ethical compass that appreciate diversity and inclusion that

the people who answer to that leader act just as morally and appreciate the diversity and

inclusion that is being pushed within their organization.

The second theme that we found within our first research was “safe space for the workplace”

1. How do leaders foster a culture of respect and inclusivity that extends beyond

formal policies?

2. Safe space for the workplace

3. “leaders need to make sure that he or she not embarrassing in their position, and they

should send a powerful message to everyone else that these are the values that are given

in organization”

4. " When people feel valued and that their voices are heard starting from the top down it

creates an environment where people feel comfortable in”

5. " Asking employees how they feel and when they speak do they feel that they are being

heard and valued”

6. “Making everyone feel like he is a leader. There should not be old model of leadership in

the organization just like one man army in which a single individual who is yelling and

shouting at his team members and trying to show he is an one monopoly. There should be

a leader in every level and every one feels like their roles are valued in the organization”

7. "you talk about inclusivity, is our environment a safe environment , do people feel safe

coming to work and feel that me as a leader has their best interest as a leader"
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8. "you can say that you are honoring diversity and inclusion, and you're respecting

everybody but if folks still feel like they aren’t being seen then you haven’t accomplished

the goal"

Creating a space where employees feel that they can be themselves and that their opinions are

being heard goes a long way. Comfort in the workplace where employees don’t feel as though

they are being judged and that they contribute to the success of the organization allows for a

greater culture.

The research question which focused on more implementation of how to create a diverse

population within the workplace that is inclusive was the basis behind the second research

question that we decided to study. The themes that we garnered from our data were “not just a

quota” and “take action.”

1. What Strategies Have effective leaders implemented to create a more inclusive

workplace environment?

2. “Not Just a quota

3. "its not hey we recruited an African American we did our job, no"

4. " not to fulfill quotas but I think you need to know what you're looking for in certain

positions"

5. "when it comes to the application and search process its inclusivity, we want the best

person regardless of race, religion, so on so forth but we want to make sure everyone has

the same opportunity to advance their career”

6. " You still want qualified people; you don’t want just people in position to fill a quota"

7. "I hate when people use the phrase we checked the box"
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Creating a culture starts at the recruitment and selection process, If you want to create an

inclusive environment it comes down to finding qualified people who aren’t just to check a box

because they fit in a category but because they create a difference within your organization.

2. What Strategies Have effective leaders implemented to create a more inclusive

workplace environment?

B. “take action.”

1. "It’s my job as a leader to make sure that I am equipping my colleagues because at some

point they're going to move on that’s the nature of this business.”

2. "I actively look for diversity not only in demographics but diversity in experiences.”

3. " It’s having actionable goals and consistently tracking those goals then ensuring you're

hitting the mark on whatever those goals are”

4. "Making sure I’m offering equal opportunity for professional development"

5. " to eliminate discrimination your practices have to be intentional, they have to be

strategic you have to ask yourself what type of person are you looking for to fulfill this

position"

6. " putting actionable things in place that transform your organization and present it as one

that’s a safe space for everyone"

As the leader you must be willing to take action to create a diverse culture you can't just sit back

and let it happen. Setting goals and procedures that allow you to take steps towards reaching that

culture is very important. Leaders know that the culture you want isn’t going to just magically

appear and that it must be acted upon.

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Theoretical Contributions

Throughout our themes (Follow the Leader, Safe Space for the Workplace, Not Just a Quota, and

Take Action) we found reminiscence of leader-follower relationship, Morale leader, morale

leader, morale organization, Transformational leadership, and human-centered management

within the data.

Follower the leader showed that it is extremely important for a leader to act morally and

ethically, the leader-follower relationship depends on the relationship between both the leader

and the so-called follower who will be less willing to act morally and listen to the leader if they

are being hypocritical in their actions. All the interviewees to this point have shown they act

ethically which is likely the reason why this theme became present.

Safe Space for the Workplace, in a sense human centered management and also can speak to

transformational leadership. To get the most out of your employees they must feel comfortable

voicing their opinions while feeling that both their voice and actions matter; Human-centered

management focuses directly on valuing its employees as well as all the stakeholders. This is

exactly what Safe Space for the Workplace is aiming to do, it wants to value and ensure the well-

being of all who work there. From their transformational leadership can reach its maximum

capacity because the leader can then push each employee to reach their potential.

Not Just a Quota also fits into human-centered because of the value that it places on diversity and

inclusion without necessarily needing quotas. Instead, human-centered management would

suggest things like implicit bias training, diversity initiatives, and diverse hiring practices that

look to develop individuals to create a diverse workplace instead of forcing it.

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Take Action is Transformational Leadership in a nutshell. This theme is looking to inspire

diverse candidates by providing them with opportunities that would have otherwise not been

awarded if diversity was not at the forefront of companies’ minds. Transformational Leadership

is about creating a culture and making improvements to the workplace and our theme is

representing how our leaders our doing so.

Practical Contributions

To implement our theme “Follower the Leader” we would recommend that leaders stay as

transparent and ethical as possible. When things go wrong everyone is going to look at the leader

and put the blame on them, being transparent about how you handle things and ensuring to the

individuals working for you that you have their best interest on the front of your mind will be

extremely beneficial. Also making yourself available for employees to voice concerns or ask

questions will be beneficial in displaying your empathy and respect for them which will help

them follow your lead and for the leader to learn how to lead them.

Implementing a safe workplace can be done in many ways, but the practical suggestion we have

is to create support groups for all types of people, this can be similar to a Black student union or

multicultural club which are seen across the country in educational institutions. Creating groups

where people can feel as if they are not isolated can go a long way in creating an inclusive

workplace. We would also recommend having a system for incident reporting, with diversity the

likelihood of discrimination or things of that nature rises so having policies and procedures in

place so that individuals feel as though they can speak about the incident and that action will be

taken.
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Not just a quota, practical contributions that can be beneficial for leaders would be to set up

relationships with the talent pipelines that feed the industry. For example, if I were a company in

the Education industry, the pipeline for that industry would be colleges. Creating a relationship

with these colleges to find diverse talent will help create that diverse culture. Practical

contributions that will also help leaders with this theme are creating systems within your

recruiting and hiring practices to ensure that you have a diverse pool.

Lastly, to take action; leaders need to implement Diversity and inclusion training that helps their

workplace get educated on topics about diversity and inclusion to create a culture where

employees are aware of the steps, you’re taking to improve the workplace. To ensure that the

policies and procedures that you have implemented are working employees feel more included

and that the workplace is more diverse, I would recommend that leaders implement net surveys

that ask a wide range of questions pertaining to Performance, diversity, and inclusion, etc.

Future Directions

Some future directions we would like to take to further our research would be to measure the

return on investment from implementing the diversity and inclusion initiatives, How it affects

remote work employees, do a comparative analysis across more industries, and involve the

employees in the study. Our group believes that these further directions will help with the

following.

Measuring the return on investment of diversity and inclusion initiatives is an essential aspect of

demonstrating the tangible benefits of these efforts. Leaders and organizations are increasingly

seeking ways to quantify the impact of diversity and inclusion on key performance indicators,

such as increased productivity, improved employee satisfaction, and enhanced innovation. By

developing comprehensive metrics and measuring the ROI over time, organizations can better
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understand the direct correlation between their investments in diversity and inclusion and the

positive outcomes they yield.

The rise of remote work, accelerated by global events, has introduced a new dimension to the

diversity and inclusion conversation. As workforces become increasingly distributed, it's crucial

to explore how this shift impacts diversity and inclusion efforts. Remote work can both provide

opportunities for greater diversity and present new challenges, as it alters the dynamics of team

interaction and communication. Understanding how leaders can adapt and implement strategies

to maintain a diverse and inclusive workplace in this evolving landscape is an important area for

future research.

A comparative analysis of diversity and inclusion strategies across different industries can offer

valuable insights into what works best in various contexts. This approach can help identify

industry-specific best practices and the factors that contribute to their success. By studying the

approaches of leaders in fields as diverse as technology, education, healthcare, and finance,

researchers can uncover common threads and tailor recommendations for leaders in different

sectors.

Employee feedback and participation are integral to creating a genuinely inclusive culture.

Leaders who actively involve their employees in the development and implementation of

diversity and inclusion initiatives can harness the collective intelligence of their workforce.

Encouraging feedback, organizing focus groups, and empowering employees to shape the

organization's culture fosters a sense of ownership and accountability among the workforce.

Research in this area can delve deeper into effective employee participation models and how

they contribute to a more inclusive workplace.

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Reference:

Bardy, R. (n.d.). Rethinking Leadership. Retrieved from

https://platform.virdocs.com/read/2342334/13/#/4[ch03]/166,/1:509,/1:509

Bardy, R. (n.d.). Rethinking Leadership. Retrieved from

https://platform.virdocs.com/read/2342334/16/#/4[ch06]/12,/3:601,/3:601

IBM Enterprise Design Thinking. (n.d.). Human-centered organizations: Why and how to build
them. Human-centered organizations: why and how to build them.
https://www.ibm.com/design/thinking/page/hco

§ BARDY, N.D. (2020). Ch.8 Moral person, moral leader, moral organization. In
Rethinking leadership: A human centered approach to management ethics (pp. 166–171).
essay, ROUTLEDGE.
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Appendix(ces)

Appendix A: Diversity in the Workplace Interview

Project Introduction :

Thank you for agreeing to interview with me. Me and my group members are conducting a

study to better understand how your experience of diversity in the workplace have led to your

views and implementation as a leader. Our findings will help determine how leaders in the

workplace can help improve diversity and equal opportunity in the work environment.

Additionally, you will need to think of an Alias that I can use instead of your real name. What

name would you like to use for this interview.

I: Job Background and demographic:

 Can you disclose your Gender?

 Can you give me an age range you fall in?

 What Race/ Ethnicity do you Identify as?

 What is your current position?

Ok, Now I am going to ask you a couple questions about leadership influence in the workplace.

II: Leadership Influence on Workplace Culture:

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 How would you describe the relationship between leadership and the overall culture

within the organization?

o Do you believe their relationship is important to the culture?

 What role does a leader’s commitment to diversity play in influencing a culture of

respect?

 What Challenges do leaders face trying to create a culture of respect beyond formal

policies?

o How can these challenges be overcome?

o Are these challenges detrimental to workplace culture?

o If so, do these challenges eventually affect production.

 What are some benefits organizations can expect to see when leaders prioritize and

invest in an inclusive workplace culture? (Inclusivity has been commonly defined as the

process of providing equal opportunities for people who would have otherwise been

excluded)

o Are there any situations where leaders successfully transformed a company’s

culture to be more inclusive and respectful?

We are now going to shift into question about effect strategies for inclusive workplaces.

III: Effective Strategies for Inclusive Workplaces

 How can leaders actively promote diversity in the recruitment and selection process?

o Are there some best practices you have implemented.

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o Do you have any failed practices you’ve experienced?

 Is there specific procedure that leaders can put in place to minimize discrimination in the

workplace?

o If you feel comfortable sharing, have you ever experienced discrimination in the

workplace or know of someone who has experienced discrimination?

o If so, what was done to mitigate the issue?

 What metrics or indicators do you recommend for leaders to measure the success of

their diversity and inclusion initiatives?

o Do you think pure percentages are the best indicator?

 How can leaders ensure their commitment into inclusivity and diversity in the short term

and long term.

IV: Closing the Interview

 I really appreciate your time; your answers were very insightful! I just have a few more

questions for you.

1. What would you say is the most important thing we talk about and why?

2. Is there anything you’d like to add to what we’ve already discussed.

 Thank you for your time!