公司团队的多样性往往能带来超乎寻常的创新与效率，在打造组织多样与包容的同时，管理者也必须将员工“归属感”纳入组织文化的重要部分。那么，组织多样性和包容性是一回事吗？如何才能在团队中真正营造一种归属感呢？

       前不久，复旦-BI（挪威）国际合作MBA项目的授课教授、BI挪威商学院副教授Lina Daouk-Öyry受邀为“组织中的伦理与可持续性”这门课程助阵。课堂上，来自世界各地的200多名学生齐聚一堂，其中挪威学生占据了三分之二，剩下的则来自五湖四海。这些挪威学生中，还有很多是非挪威裔的。学生们的面孔各异，肤色不同，在这个周二的早上齐聚在讲堂——这正是多样性的生动体现。Lina一上台，便敏锐地捕捉到了这一点。她并没有直接开讲，而是问了我们一个直击内心的问题：“我们是否真的具有包容性？在这里的每一个人，是否都觉得自己属于这里？是否觉得自己受欢迎？”

       这一问，仿佛投入湖中的石子，激起了层层涟漪。学生们开始沉思，随即带来了一场热烈的讨论。每个人都在思考，自己是否真的感到被接纳，是否真的融入了这个集体。Lina用这样一个简单的问题，就将学生们从惯常思维中抽离出来，引导他们去思考更深层次的问题。

 

DE&I，我们在关注什么？

       如今，DE&I（多样性、公平和包容性）已经成为许多组织关注的焦点。实证研究表明，拥有一支多元化的员工队伍，不仅可以为企业带来丰厚的利润，更能够在工作环境中纳入广博的知识和丰富的经验。在这个全球化的时代，我们需要的是能够应对全球挑战的人才，从而搭建拥有全球视野的员工队伍。

       但大家往往会将多样性（diversity）与包容性（inclusion）混为一谈。多样性囊括了人们年龄、性别、健康、种族背景，和其他诸如社会经济地位、婚姻状况、性别取向等隐形因素。而包容性则是指这个人是否被欢迎、包容、尊重、重视，以及是否实际成为了组织的一部分。美国多样性倡导者Vernā Myers曾说：“多样性是指被邀请参加一个派对，而包容性则是在于被邀请在派对上跳舞。（Diversity is about being invited to the party, whereas inclusion is about being invited to dance at the party.）”或者还可以补充一点，包容性还在于是否被邀请来策划这场派对。

       还有一个迫切需要建立DE&I文化的理由是，人口代际的变化。当下大多数劳动力是由婴儿潮和X世代组成，但千禧一代和Z世代将很快成长并取而代之，成为劳动人口主力。不同代际对待以上问题的态度有很大的区别。

       职场的包容性，在于对每一位员工个体差异的尊重与接纳。它不仅仅是一个简单的工作环境，更是一个能够充分展示员工才华、实现个人价值的广阔舞台。在这样的职场氛围里，员工们不再是被忽视或边缘化的存在，而是作为团队中不可或缺的重要一员，被赋予发声的权利和展示自我的机会。他们的每一个想法、每一个建议，都能得到充分的倾听与尊重；他们的每一次付出、每一次努力，都能得到应有的认可与赞赏。在这样的正向反馈中，员工们自然而然地会产生强烈的归属感，将团队视为自己的家，将工作视为实现自我价值的重要途径。

       而多样性，正是包容性职场得以展现其魅力的关键所在。一个多元化的团队，意味着来自不同背景、不同文化的员工汇聚一堂，他们各自独特的思维方式和经验背景，为团队带来了前所未有的创意与活力。在这个多元融合的团队中，思想的碰撞与交流成为常态，不同观点的交锋与融合激发出更多的创新火花。这种多样性不仅丰富了团队的文化底蕴，更在无形中提升了团队的竞争力和创新能力，为企业的长远发展注入了源源不断的动力。

       一旦把多样性和包容性区隔开，DE&I往往会沦为表面功夫，比如说，团队中有多样的员工，但仅仅只是一个数字表象。许多公司的DE&I会聚焦在诸如董事会、管理层成员的多样性，或是通过招聘来吸引更多女性、有色人种、性少数群体（LGBTQIA+）。可一旦公司陷入多元化招聘的误区，却不考虑组织文化和环境是否有利于员工的多样化发展，这些都只是一些表面功夫而已。

       因此，众多组织纷纷放眼全球，以更宽广的视野寻觅那些能为企业注入新鲜活力和创意的优秀人才。相比之下，那些只局限于聘用与自己相似或复制已有员工模式的组织，不仅无法领略到多样性的强大力量，更可能错失诸多宝贵的机会与可能性。

 

三步打造组织的多样与包容

       为了让这些多样性人才都能够发挥他们真正的优势，打造一个心理安全的工作环境（psychologically safe workplaces）是一个先决条件。一个心理上安全有益的组织能够让人关注在工作质量本身，而不是担心自己是谁，别人会怎么看待自己。这需要组织在文化和结构上进行调整。那么，如何打造一个心理上安全的包容性工作场所呢？我们与HELEM（阿拉伯世界首个LGBTQIA+权益组织）合作开发了包容性工作场所模型，旨在帮助组织更好地理解和应对多样性挑战，打造真正包容的工作环境。以下三个做法可能对你有启发：

 

1，制定“平等守护”政策

       想象一下，如果你的职场中有一把“保护伞”，无论风吹雨打都能为你遮风挡雨，是一种怎样的安全感体验。在职场中，歧视和性骚扰是破坏心理安全感的两大元凶。为了有效应对这些问题，我们需要制定一套完善的“平等守护”政策。

2，营造“心灵绿洲”

       除了政策层面的保障外，我们还需要在文化和结构上下功夫，营造出一个充满爱与温暖的“心灵绿洲”。这需要我们关注员工的情感需求，通过举办各种团建活动、文化交流活动等方式增进员工之间的了解和信任。同时，我们还要在沟通中使用包容性语言，避免任何可能引发误解或冲突的言辞。此外，贴心的设施如性别包容的卫生间等也能让员工感受到职场的温暖与关怀。

3，向外拓展“社会贡献”

       一个真正具有包容性的组织不仅关注内部环境的改善，还会积极投身社会公益事业，展现其社会责任和担当。这不仅有助于提升组织的社会影响力，还能吸引更多志同道合的人才加入我们的行列，共同为职场环境的改善贡献力量。

       在这个充满变革与挑战的新时代，我们渴求的不仅仅是卓越的人才，更是一个能让他们真正感受到归属与融入的集体。通过将真实的DE&I融入到公司的可持续发展愿景中，就能够打造出一个真正充满归属感的组织，让每一位员工都能在其中找到属于自己的价值与位置。

 

原文一：Diversity, equity and inclusion as a sustainability strategy，来自BI Business Review，作者：Lina Daouk-Öyry（Associate Professor, BI Norwegian Business School）

Author | Lina Daouk-Öyry（Associate Professor - Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, BI Norwegian Business School）

 

       Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a hot topic for many organizations and business leaders around the world. Some well-established organizational benefits of DE&I include better results, more innovations and creative solutions, increased employee engagement, and enhanced brand value.

       Studies have even shown that companies with higher-than-average diversity have stronger innovation revenues and that CEOs whose businesses have an inclusiveness strategy say it improves their bottom line.

       While the value of DE&I is well appreciated, its application in organizational settings remains flawed. Why?

 

The party metaphor

       Part of the problem is that diversity and inclusion are so often lumped together that they are assumed to be the same thing. Diversity typically refers to the full spectrum of human differences such as age, gender, disability, and ethnic background or invisible traits like socioeconomic status, marital status and sexual orientation. Inclusion, however, refers to the feeling of being welcomed, embraced, respected, valued and authentically being made part of the organization.

       A famous quote by American activist Verna Myers says that “diversity is about being invited to the party, whereas inclusion is about being invited to dance at the party”. It could even be argued that true inclusion is about being invited to plan the party.

       Making it even more imperative for organizations to step up their DE&I strategies is the fact that demographics are changing. Today’s workforce is mostly made up of Baby Boomers and Gen X (born between 1945 and 1980). Soon, however, they will be replaced by Millennials and Gen Z (born between 1981 and 2012). These generations are very different racially, attitudinally, digitally among others.

 

So what’s the problem then?

       The problem mainly rests in the intersection between diversity and inclusion, which on many occasions is leading to tokenism. One example of this is having a diverse workforce that represent different minority groups but in numbers only.

       Many DE&I initiatives focus on increasing representation, for example by hiring more diverse individuals on boards, setting diversity quotas for leadership and managerial roles, and re-writing job descriptions to attract more women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ and other minority individuals.

       While quotas are a great step in the right DE&I direction, they may very well culminate in a tokenism problem when organizations fall in the trap of increasing diversity hires without considering whether their organizational culture and environment are conducive for this diverse workforce.

 

How do we solve it?

       Creating a psychologically safe working environment is a pre-requisite to increasing representation so individuals who are invited in for their diversity, can fully leverage those strengths they bring with them.

       A psychologically safe and conducive organizational culture enables individuals to be ‘busy’ worrying about the quality of work rather than about who they are and what would people think and do if they knew about it. This requires a holistic revision of the organizations’ culture and structure, and the implementation of interventions on multiple fronts.

       Together with HELEM, the first LGBTQIA+ rights organization in the Arab world, we created the Inclusive Workplace Model as a tool to assist organizations in developing an inclusive workplace with LGBTQIA+ individuals in mind. The model can be widely applicable and consists of 5 dimensions organizations need to attend to in their quest for an authentically inclusive work environment.

 

Three keys for psychologically safe workplaces

1，Put in place policies and practices that equate and protect. This can include preventing discrimination and sexual harassment. Remember to have mechanisms for reporting (data and violations).

2，Create a psychologically safe and inclusive work culture and structure. For example, monitor percentages as well as sentiment data; inclusive language across the organization’ communication; forms recognizing gender identities; gender inclusive toilets, and so on.

3，Contribute to society through outreach. Consider how inclusive your marketing material is, adopt events as part of the organization’s yearly communication and share experiences about successful LGBTQIA+ initiatives with the media.

 

       By integrating authentic DE&I strategy in your sustainability vision, you can create a psychologically safe environment where people can bring about the best things about them, their diverse set of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics.

 

原文二：Do I belong here? Leadership and inclusion at work，来自BI Business Review，作者：Øyvind Kvalnes（Professor, BI Norwegian Business School）

Author | Øyvind Kvalnes（Professor - Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, BI Norwegian Business School）

 

       A while ago, my Lebanese colleague Lina Daouk-Öyry held a lecture on diversity and inclusion to a group of over 200 students at BI. I had invited her to contribute to the "Ethics and Sustainability in Organizations" course, which is mandatory for all Master of Science students. About two-thirds of the students were Norwegian, while the rest were from other parts of the world. Among the Norwegian students, a significant proportion had non-Norwegian ethnic backgrounds.

       We definitely had diversity in the auditorium that Tuesday morning. That was easy to see simply by looking across the room. My colleague Lina acknowledged that and asked if we also had inclusion. Did people in the room feel that they belonged here and were welcome? To what extent had the school, the city, the teachers, and other students welcomed and embraced them? These probing questions took the students by surprise and created a lively and engaged conversation in the auditorium. For me, this was a magical philosophical moment. Lina managed to reach the students with a question that pulled them out of their everyday routines. After the lecture, they eagerly lined up to continue the conversation with her.

       The issues of diversity, equity and inclusion are on the agenda in many organizations today. Empirical research indicates that it can be profitable to have a diverse group of employees. It ensures breadth of knowledge and experience at work, creating platforms for engaging with global challenges. Therefore, it has become common to recruit internationally and have a broader perspective when looking for talents. Those who only hire people like themselves or copies of those already in the organization, miss out on the power of diversity.

 

Inclusion is more than diversity

       The uncomfortable topic Lina raised in her lecture is that diversity is not synonymous with a sense of belonging and inclusion. It is one thing to be invited to the party, but another to feel truly welcome. Invitees may enter through the same door as everybody else, but some are left to fend for themselves, standing in the darkest corners of the room, overlooked by the hosts and the most popular guests. Many of our students seemed to identify with this depiction of the situation. While they contribute in visible and invisible ways to diversity, the question is whether they also experience a sense belonging. Do they feel truly welcome here?

       For leaders, it is crucial not to stop efforts after achieving diversity goals among their employees. They also need to actively encourage and contribute to a strong sense of belonging. This is important not only because it can contribute to profitability but also because it is ethically right to ensure that individuals feel respected and valued at work. If the interest in diversity and inclusion is solely based on economic arguments, it is unlikely to survive as a lasting and stable quality in the organization.

       There is a need for arenas for sharing knowledge and experiences regarding workplace inclusion. The Diversify conference, which was held in Oslo in September 2023, addressed this need. A diverse group of practitioners and academics gathered to reflect on various topic related to belonging in organizations. The initiative for the conference came from the Nigerian economist Chisom Udeze. When she arrived in Norway a few years ago, she realized the need for meeting places to mobilize a higher degree of inclusion in our organizations. Now, Diversify has grown into a vital and powerful meeting point for all those concerned with diversity and inclusion.

       What kind of work environment awaits the students who were so affected by the questions in the auditorium about inclusion and belonging? In my own teaching, I aim to prepare students for life after business school. What can they expect in terms of being welcomed and getting fair opportunities in the workplace? To what extent will their career paths be influenced by their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and cultural background? We can agree that skills and qualities should be decisive, not skin colour, appearance, religion, or other characteristics. It remains to be seen whether leaders, owners, and other decision-makers can accept and embrace the knowledge pointing toward inclusion being both profitable and ethically right.