Management of Inclusion in Organizations: Some Basic Pillars

Introduction

Under current dynamics and conditions, it can be said that we live on a planet that seems to be getting smaller and smaller, framed by globalization in which borders are disappearing. This implies new social and organizational models mediated by the use of new information and communication technologies, which give the possibility of connecting people without limitation of time or space, facilitating the exchange of ideas and knowledge.

This scenario leads organizations to work on the development environments for people who think differently, relate differently and work differently, to have an environment that favors respect, coexistence and collaboration, in which they can express themselves, relate from their individuality to enrich the community understood as the formation of work teams, that add to the higher purpose and objectives of the organization. In this sense, diversity management is of vital importance for those organizations that are interested in staying in time and seek to add value to the market, developing strategies that promote collaborative work for the solution of problems and proposals for innovative, sustainable and technology-mediated alternatives.

This work will allow us to understand that the management of diversity for labor inclusion, facilitate the structure of policies and the design of strategies and the implementation of concrete actions by organizations in this regard, to avoid falling into the common mistake of addressing it only as a fashion, or understand labor inclusion only under the limits of gender differences or hiring of people with disabilities.

This chapter addresses some essential aspects that are related to diversity management as a way to promote a culture of inclusion in today's organizations. It begins by addressing the concept of inclusion, then giving some looks that allow recognizing the characterization of inclusive organizations and then making an approach of basic aspects that demonstrate the importance of managing inclusion for the sustainability of the company.

Subsequently, an approach to diversity in organizations is made from the presentation of the concept and evolution, to then address aspects associated with human talent, resources or diverse work capabilities, making an approach to the understanding of what the culture of diversity in companies implies, which is enriched by cultural diversity.

Below are some global trends that drive organizations to work in inclusion processes based on some principles and policies supported by senior management. Finally, there are challenges and actions that favor the inclusion and management of organizational diversity within which are aspects associated with intercultural intelligence and inclusive leadership.

This chapter is developed with the methodology used to carry out exploratory studies, which, as stated by Hernández et al. (2014) allows to familiarize oneself with relatively new topics and obtain information on aspects associated with human behavior, while helping to determine some priorities for future research. This type of research presents trends and proposes the path for further research, being flexible in the approach to knowledge and advancing in the understanding of new situations associated with human dynamics. (p. 59)

The documentary review was carried out by defining the keywords or search descriptors of the research topic, as well as synonyms and normalized terms: culture of diversity, management of inclusion, equality, equity, inclusive leadership, cultural intelligence, change management, culture of inclusion. The search criteria were documents in English and Spanish, no more than 5 years old (2018-2022). Subsequently, the search for documents was carried out in the databases Scopus, Science Direct, Business Complete Source and Google Scholar. Documents applicable to the objective of the study were found, to which the title, abstract and keywords were reviewed, and in some cases, the document was completely reviewed to decide if the information it contained was related, it was relevant and applicable to the study. Finally, once the information collected was classified, the documents detailed in the references were selected.