This transformative research project is carried out in collaboration between three universities: London Metropolitan University, Oxford Brookes University and The University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and a pioneering multinational company. The study is funded by two leading research institutions: British Academy of Management and The Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.
Although there has been substantial research into the experiences and practices of inclusivity and its links to leadership, much of what we know so far is based on traditional research carried out and published mainly in the English language. We argue that a much more contextually sensitive perspective is needed to unpack what inclusivity looks like in contemporary organisations.
We have now completed the first stage of our data collection and analysis process; conducting interviews with participants employed by a partner organisation in Italy and the UK, interviewing 29 participants using a technique called photo-elicitation. Participants provided photographs they felt represented their experiences of inclusion and exclusion and discussed these with a researcher from the research team in their first language. Through creating a safe and non-judgmental space we were able to have very thoughtful and reflective conversations with all participants about their experiences. Having translated and anonymised the transcripts into UK English and completed a detailed analysis of the photographs and interview discussions we have now reached a stage where we can share some of our findings and reflect upon why these might be relevant for multi-national corporations wanting to build inclusion across their organisations. Given the current global climate and discourse around the benefits and challenges of investment in Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policies- issues of interlingual translation and different cultural contexts seems particularly relevant and applicable. We want to join the debate by highlighting the complexities of promoting and embedding inclusivity agendas and their influence on the everyday practices and lives of employees.
More specifically we wanted to explore:
- How is inclusion and exclusion experienced by staff in different roles and work contexts in a leading global contemporary organisation?
- • What do meaningful inclusion and exclusion practices look like in daily interactions between individuals and in teams?
- • What are the barriers and enables of inclusion for individuals, teams and the organisation as a whole?
What did we find?
We refer to findings in general terms here because our study is still in progress, and we want to ensure that we don’t come to premature conclusions as well as for confidentiality.
Context influences both experiences and practices of inclusion.
Our data shows that experiences of inclusion and exclusion are inherently linguistically and culturally situated. Influence occurs in different ways; national and international values; organisational values and values linked to different sites, e.g. HQ and international host sites. We found that cultural values and norms travel in different ways; a) from outside to inside organisation sites; influencing the desire to change organisational culture and climate to reflect its wider context; b) from inside to outside; organisational approaches were at times used to challenge taboos in a wider societal context and c) between sites, where one site was regarded as a centre of excellence; practices were ‘translated’ across to host sites differently. These contexts encompassed a wide range of different diversity and inclusion challenges moving well beyond notions of protected characteristics and were entangled with different power relationships.
Inclusion experiences are not universal.
Given our reflections upon the complexity of context; it is perhaps unsurprising that inclusion and exclusion experiences are also complex. However, aside from the differences in context influencing the physical, spatial and emotional experiences of the includee (the person being excluded or included), we have noticed another difference. There were contrasts between the ways in which participants used language to describe their experiences. When scripts were translated there were self-referential accounts and more abstract responses. Some participants were more self-referential; placing themselves at the centre of their narratives, describing experiences happening to them and their sense of agency in acting in a particular way. Others described narratives in more abstract ways; accounts were less about ‘something happening to me’ and were more general, describing how exclusion or inclusion could happen in more general terms or referring to others. Combining these translated narratives with analyses of the pictures provided showed us that there were more similarities than might be deduced from listening to narratives alone. Paying attention to the interlingual differences allowed us to challenge assumptions about similarities or differences in experience and take a more nuanced view so that voices were not simply ‘lost in translation’.
How language matters
The translation process of this research has been fascinating; and we have had meetings and discussions with the translation team throughout. This has highlighted a number of very subtle differences in the ways in which roles, people and practices in the organisation are referred to; for example using gendered nouns in ways that are different to the cultural norm; or borrowing words from UK English to make certain points clear, or where a literal translation would not convey the same meaning intended. This adds additional layers of meaning to participants’ accounts which provides additional insights into assumptions and values in organisations and how participants make sense of their experiences.
There is a shifting dynamic between these three areas (context, experience and language) which adds a nuance to our findings; both in terms of intersemiotic meanings (words to pictures) and interlingual understanding (language to language). This has potential implications in terms of how organisations translate and practice EDI in global contexts.
What next?
We are in the process of drafting journal articles for review from translation studies, methods and management journals. We are also planning two series’ of podcasts where researchers will discuss the research process in detail and then reflect upon these findings with organisational practitioners to consider the pragmatic implications of these discoveries for organisations. This will also provide a useful resource for students and teaching purposes.
Further research dissemination activities are planned to reach as wide an audience as possible with the explicit aim of ensuring that our findings are accessible and practical. We have a LinkedIn page entitled ‘Leadership Language and Visualisation’ which will act as a repository for all our work, including resources from conference presentations and knowledge and learning created during the research process as well as academic papers when published. A practitioner event is also planned in early July to share knowledge in more detail and to give practitioners an opportunity to ask questions and to network and discuss these issues further.
We are now keen to continue collecting data from other countries so that we can begin to consider further the nuances across other cultural contexts for inclusion practices. We are working with our partner organisation to recruit the next stage of participants.
If you’re working in our partnering organisation and would like to find out more or take part in our study please reach out to us as we’d really like to hear from you.
You can contact Gareth on gareth3.edwards@uwe.ac.uk who will put you in touch with one of our researchers responsible for data collection in your division’s respective language.
If you would like to follow our progress or find out more about the project in its entirety, look out for future blog articles and social media updates.