Tanachia Ashikali

This dissertation reports on research into the effects of diversity management and leadership on inclusiveness in public organizations and their impact on employee attitudes and behavior, as well as team outcomes. Public organizations increasingly face new and complex challenges resulting from globalization, migration, and the increasing participation of persons with a migration background in the labor market. Demographic and societal developments necessitate that public organizations remain responsive to the increasingly diverse needs of various stakeholders. To address this, public organizations increasingly strive to utilize the various competencies of their staff, which requires effective diversity management. Additionally, diversity management is increasingly used to promote inclusiveness in organizations. In an inclusive work environment, differences are recognized, valued, and utilized, and diverse employees feel at home in the organization and the team. This can subsequently contribute to the responsiveness of public organizations.

In the literature, diversity management is introduced as an effective management approach that positively contributes to organizational performance. Diversity management is thus an instrumental (economic) approach in which diversity is seen as a resource to improve organizational performance. For example, diversity would contribute to gaining access to increasingly diverse stakeholders (e.g., citizens or clients), but also to generating more perspectives, leading to more effective problem-solving. Furthermore, the role of the public manager is increasingly emphasized, whose leadership is crucial for managing diversity and achieving intended outcomes. With the focus on inclusiveness, it has also been put on the agenda that diversity management should not only be aimed at improving organizational performance, but that it is also important that different social identities can coexist in the work context.

Especially in the area of ethnic-cultural diversity, representation in public organizations is still limited. Literature shows that visible characteristics such as ethnic-cultural diversity can be used to assign certain social categories to individuals. As a result, ethnic-culturally diverse teams often experience team conflict and less commitment and cohesion, resulting in decreased performance. These findings underscore that managing ethnic-cultural diversity is particularly complex and that leadership is required to manage diversity and promote inclusiveness.

This dissertation integrates different theoretical perspectives on diversity and inclusiveness. A social exchange perspective assumes an exchange relationship between the organization (or representatives such as supervisors) and the employee. This exchange relationship is not economic in nature but is based on effort and loyalty from employees in exchange for benefits from the organization, such as support and recognition. Diversity management aims to create an environment where employees' differences are taken into account, which can be seen as a form of recognition and an investment by the organization in its employees. The support and recognition that employees experience then contribute to the sense of inclusiveness and establish a social exchange relationship. Employees respond by showing higher commitment and effort.

In addition, perspectives based on social identity and optimal distinctiveness are relevant. The first perspective argues that individuals form a collective identity based on similarities and differences with group members. The second perspective emphasizes that individuals also have a need to distinguish themselves from the group or team. An environment in which both are optimally balanced features a high degree of inclusiveness. These processes of identification and differentiation primarily take place at the team level.

Furthermore, the degree to which there is a balance between uniqueness and identification can depend on two diversity processes. One is a cognitive process, which assumes that diversity is a source of different approaches, ideas, and skills that must be shared, discussed, and utilized. The other is an affective process, which can result in social cohesion or possible exclusion based on social categories assigned to team members. Exclusion can prevent team members from feeling safe in the group and feeling like a valued group member. Because these processes occur in daily work, direct supervisors are important in managing these processes.

The above explanation indicates that the development of inclusiveness is complex and depends on various factors. It involves diversity management developed at the organizational level and employees' perception of this policy, the role of the supervisor and more specifically leadership as an intermediary factor, and the processes in the team that are important for inclusiveness. This research aims to explain how inclusiveness can be promoted in public organizations and how this results in outcomes at the level of individuals and teams.

In conclusion, this research states that the management of diversity and the promotion of inclusiveness is a management task that takes place at different levels. Both organizational-level diversity management and team-level leadership promote inclusiveness in public organizations and contribute to the identification with and commitment to the organization of all employees. It is important that diversity management is aimed at valuing all employees and not just employees from underrepresented groups. Diversity management goes beyond an instrumental approach; it also focuses on the social work environment where there is room for a diversity of identities and a sense of belonging.

Additionally, this dissertation underscores the role of the direct supervisor in the daily management of teams. Formal policies and interventions alone are insufficient; inclusive leadership is needed. This leadership consists of both a cognitive dimension (stimulating learning from diversity) and an affective dimension (facilitating participation). Finally, leaders' perceptions of team diversity are crucial, as the influence of leadership on team processes and outcomes depends partly on these perceptions. All in all, this study emphasizes that for inclusiveness in public organizations and teams, a combination of organizational-level diversity management and appropriate team-level leadership is essential.