Journal of Critical Reviews

ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7 , Issue 6, 2020

Review Article

ACKNOWLEDGING GENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AS KEY TO ORGANIZATIONAL

GROWTH: A REVIEW AND TRENDS
Navjeet Kaur1, Dr. Pallvi Arora2
1Research Scholar, International Centre of Cross-Cultural Research & Human Resource Management (ICccR & HRM), University
of Jammu, Jammu, India. kaur.navjeet73@gmail.com
2Assistant Professor, International Centre for Cross Cultural Research and Human Resource Management (ICccR & HRM),

University of Jammu, Jammu, India. pallvi.arora12@gmail.com

Received: 17.02.2020 Revised: 10.03.2020 Accepted: 04.04.2020

Abstract
Diversity refers to the existence of human differences on the grounds of colour, race, ethnicity, gender, identity, age, physical attributes,
ethical values, nationality, education, personality, experiences and knowledge base. Inclusion, on the other hand, is the collaborative
environment that enhances belongingness, participation and contribution as it provides respect to people across varying parameters of
difference. Over the past few decades, workforce diversity and inclusive work practices have acquired the core position in several small,
medium and large sized organizations whether national or international. Historical and current status of women workforce participation
in Indian organizations reveals that a huge gap exists between the proportion of female labor force and their male counterparts.
Presently, as companies have initiated to acknowledge that women constitute a significant source of human capital, it becomes essential
to create female friendly workplaces to encourage gender diversity in organizations. The present scenario identifies gender diversity and
inclusion of workforce as the key to business success and growth. This piece of research investigates the nuances of gender diversity and
inclusion that bring out their true essence in terms of creativity and innovation, organizational reputation, productivity, decision-making,
problem-solving and organizational performance as its several advantages. Additionally, the present research throws light upon the
status of gender diversity in Indian organizations and the present global trends in the domain of gender diversity and inclusion as a key
competitive advantage. It also attempts to bring out the reasons for acknowledging gender diversity and inclusion as a core of every
organizations’ policy.
Keywords: Gender Diversity, Inclusion, Workplace and MNC’s.

© 2019 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.06.25

INTRODUCTION organizations, the initiatives have been commenced for a long

Presently, the entire world is becoming a global village and the
cross-border distances are reducing with a high pace with
enhanced global interconnectedness of business operations and
people. As a consequence of such liberalized and globalised shift,
workforce diversity and inclusive work practices have become
significant for organizational survival, growth and success.
Wentling & Palma-Rivas (2000) asserted that diversity refers to
the co-existence of employees with a wide variety of socio-
cultural, socio-economic and demographic attributes. Diversity
can be defined as variations in observables such as age, gender,
race, ethnicity and non-observables including cultural and
technical characteristics of employees (Jackson, May, & Whitney,
1995; Milliken & Martins, 1996).
Inclusion, on the other hand, refers to the optimum utilization of
differences of workforce for the growth and success of
organization (Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion,
2017). Inclusion talks about providing a sense of involvement,
empowerment, recognition, integration and respect to the
diverse workforce prevalent in the workplace (Daya, 2013). It
also refers to enhancing and encouraging diversity at the
workplace for fruitful and beneficial results (Global Diversity
Practice, 2017).
A research from Bersin by Deloitte (2017) reveals that 77% of
the surveyed organizations aspire to be inclusive whereas 12%
of the surveyed organizations have achieved the objective of
diversity with inclusion. As per the results of the study
‘Delivering through Diversity’ released by McKinsey & Co.
(2018), Australian companies (40%) achieve business leadership
on grounds of gender diversity followed by companies of US
(34%) and then UK (32%). To enhance gender diversity in Indian
time but still only 28% of the entire organized workforce
constitute women out of 48.5 % female of the entire population
(Das, 2018). Das (2018) investigated that a 10% current increase
in women workforce will result in an addition of more than
$700Bn to India’s GDP by 2025.
Considering the long run organizational growth and profit
generation as the major concerns of every organization to
survive in this competitive business world, gender diversity and
inclusion are now becoming the key ingredients that can lead to
achieving the same (Make it more than a mantra: Inclusion and
diversity survey, n.d.). Research indicates that a 1% increase in
workforce diversity leads to a 3% to 9% increase in the revenues
(Bahl, 2018). After reviewing the literature, it has been extracted
that majority of the research work in the field of gender diversity
and inclusion has focused upon its beneficial influences upon
organizational overall growth. In light of the above, it becomes
relevant to address how gender diversity and inclusion practices
in the organizations can bring a positive transformation in the
organizations and strengthen work performances.
Accordingly, this piece of research explores the decadal trends
across 2009 to 2019 associated with gender diversity and
inclusion that highlight its growing relevance. This research
work also aims to address why gender diversity and inclusion
have become the top priority for organizations globally.
Subsequently, the following research questions are been
addressed:
• How do gender diversity and inclusion influence the overall
organizational growth?

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 ACKNOWLEDGING GENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AS KEY TO ORGANIZATIONAL GROWTH: A REVIEW AND
TRENDS

• What are the possible repercussions of promoting gender
diversity and inclusion in organizations?
• Is there any collaborative impact of gender diversity and
inclusion in the workplace?
• What is the present status of gender diversity and inclusion
in Indian organizations?
Based upon a systematic literature review in the domain, the
research paper focuses on the available secondary data and
draws conclusion/inferences based on research papers, reports
and organizational websites. The data also facilitates in
demonstrating the trends across the years.
DIVERSITY VS INCLUSION
Diversity means existence of differences among employees at
workplace based upon their colour, ethnicity, gender, age, social
class, physical attributes, nationality, education, personality,
skills and knowledge. While both the terms ‘diversity’ and
‘inclusion’ are commonly used interchangeable, there exists a
huge difference between the two concepts. Inclusion is different
from diversity as it is a more active concept (Fresh Thinking
Labs, 2017) and considered as a vehicle for embracing the
difference that exists as a consequence of workforce diversity
(Young, 2018). Arruda (2016) asserted that diversity is about
who and what (e.g., who is to be recruited, promoted, transferred
and so on) but, on the other hand, inclusion revolves around how
(e.g., how to embrace and energize diversity in an effective
manner). Jordan (2011) stated that “diversity means all the ways
we differ. Some of these differences we are born with and cannot
change. Anything that makes us unique is the part of this
definition of diversity”. “Inclusion involves bringing together and
harnessing these diverse forces and resources, in a way that is
beneficial. Inclusion puts the concept and practice of diversity
into action by creating an environment of involvement, respect
and connection – where the richness of ideas, backgrounds, and
perspectives are harnessed to create business value” (Jordan,
2011). Hence, inclusion is like a rainbow of different colors, as it
galvanizes diversity. While diversity talks about the differences,
inclusion talks about synergizing those difference to bring more
meaning and collaboration.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: A COLLABORATION
On one hand, while diversity and inclusion represent different
phenomenon, on the other hand, both the concepts are
interrelated to each other as diversity focuses on acknowledging
the different type of people working in an organization based on
age, gender, ethnicity, nationality etc., while inclusion stresses
upon leveraging the workforce diversity for organizational
growth (Jordan, 2011; Arruda, 2016). However, it has been
brought to the light through research that the influence of
diversity and inclusion upon organizations are collaborative and
inconclusive in nature (Wright et al, 2014; Rohwerdr, 2017) as
diversity alone is not sufficient for the holistic improvement of
the organization (Arruda, 2016; Young, 2018). Bourke & Dillon
(2018) asserted that as per the Deloitte’s research, diversity
without inclusion is not fruitful. According to Deloitte’s review,
diversity and inclusion both in collaboration are effective in
achieving two times more financial targets, three times higher
performance, six times more innovativeness and eight times
better organizational outcomes (Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte
Consulting LLP, 2017; Deloitte Development LLC, 2018). The
collaboration between the two is absolutely essential for the
overall organizational growth and development. As diversity is a
broader concept, we work at how gender diversity and inclusion
can be seen collaboratively. Infact, bringing together both the
concepts together essentially leads to more promising outcomes
for the organizations.
SIGNIFICANCE OF GENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN
ORGANISATIONS
Diversity and inclusion are the key principles of the mission
strategy of 21st century organizations (The 2018 diversity best
practices inclusion index, 2018). Diversity and inclusion help in
acknowledging and understanding differences among people and
leveraging its influences for the profitability of the organization
(Folick, 2019) as diverse and inclusive teams take better and
more effective decisions (Larson, 2017). This type of diverse and
inclusive workforce performs twice faster decision-making
within half of the meetings as diversity and inclusion go side by
side (Larson, 2017). With the help of existing literature, Table 1
demonstrates the numerous positive influences of gender
diversity and inclusion upon several aspects of organizational
growth.

Table 1: Significant and positive influences of gender diversity and inclusion upon several aspects of organizational growth
Source Units/Companies under Reasons behind adoption of gender diversity by Results
study the units/companies under study
Grafstein (2019) Study based on secondary For reducing turnover and achieving the targets of It has been concluded that gender diversity and
data/previous research world-class performance inclusion significantly improve the overall
studies performance of the organizations including cost
Greesonbach (2019) Study based on secondary For better and higher returns on income and equity. reduction, talent management, products and
data/previous research services, company’s reputation, innovation and
studies creativity, productivity, decision-making, problem-
Rohwerder (2017) European Listed companies To improve the overall performance of the firm. solving, financial performance, relationships with
stakeholders, satisfaction, commitment and
empowerment of the workforce, increased feeling of
psychological security.
McKinsey (2018) 346 companies (mostly For strengthening employee empowerment, Gender diversity and inclusion are positively
based in the USA and UK) organizational performance, cordial relationships, interrelated with employee empowerment,
decision-making, company image, innovation, organizational performance, cordial relationships,
talented workforce management. decision-making, company image, innovation,
talented workforce management.
Boston Consulting 171 German, Swiss and Increase in revenues from innovative products and Currently, for high level of innovation and profits,
Group (2017) Australian Countries services using gender diversity. gender based diversified and inclusive manpower
has become the necessarily of organizations.
Larson (2017) Approximately 600 business For better and faster decision making. The combination of gender diversity and inclusion
decisions made by 200 results in better decision making which ultimately
different teams in a wide influence the organizational growth.
variety of companies
PwC & NASSCOM Indian IT-BPM industry For building current women middle managers as
(2016) they are responsible for delivering organizational
results and will strengthen future executive-level
pipelines.
Crouch (2015) Hospital Health System To raise and improve productivity levels. For achieving the targets of high productivity, gender
located in the southeastern diversity and inclusion have become urgency of
part of the US. present business practices.
Forbes Insight 321 executives at large To improve the organizational level of innovation. Gender diversity and inclusion are considered as the

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 ACKNOWLEDGING GENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AS KEY TO ORGANIZATIONAL GROWTH: A REVIEW AND
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(2011) global enterprises (having
more than $500 million in
annual revenues)
Phillips, Kim-Jun, & Study based on secondary For better problem-solving, enhancing creativity and
Shim, (2010) data/previous research innovation.
studies
Acquavita, Pittman, Subscribers of Social Work For raising the employees’ job satisfaction level as it
Gibbons, & Today Magazine helps in retaining talent.
Castellanos-Brown
(2009)
The above table indicates the trend in gender diversity and
inclusion literature from 2009 to 2019 indicating that the
concept of gender diversity and inclusion has taken up
immensely since the period for which this research is concerned.
Recognizing the growing relevance of gender diversity and
inclusion, both concepts are here to stay. Also, the increasing
need for organizations to address gender diversity and inclusion
issues brings forth its essence in terms of bringing advantages to
the organizations that pursue it as a core value. As per the list
issued by the Times Top 50 Employers for Women (2019),
Accenture, Barclays, BP, Deloitte, McKinsey & Co., Shell, Vodafone
and Sky, just to name a few, are the companies across the globe
which are highly diversified on the grounds gender diversity.
These and many other global organizations seek to address
gender diversity and inclusion and imbibe relevant practices for
the holistic growth and success of the organizations.
A statistical look at the data provides an indication of how the
organizations are taking it up for their overall growth. A study
conducted by Boston Consultancy Group (2017) reveals that with
the increase of 20% proportion of female managers, innovation
jumps to 25% from 15%. The Enterprise Decision-Making
Platform: Cloverpop (2017) found that gender diversity and
inclusion at workplace results in 73% better decision-making
which further leads to 60% better outcomes. Knowledge Centre,
Catalyst (2004) and The Business Case for Gender Diversity
(n.d.) released the results of a study conducted on Fortune 500
companies whererin a 25% of presence of women or gender
diversity in senior management helps to yield 30% higher
returns. Infact, numerous studies have reflected that revenue of
the company increases by 3% with every 1% increase in gender
diversity (10 Companies around the World that are Embracing
Diversity in a BIG Way, n.d.). McKinsey & Co. (2018) investigated
and reflected that gender and ethnic diversity respectively
generate 21% and 33% more returns above the targeted mean.
Suzuno (2017), Harvard Business Review (2016, 2019) found
that 67% jobseekers consider gender based workforce diversity
and inclusion as an important factor while looking for job offers,
57% employees expect their companies to make more efforts to
encourage diversity at the workplace. Inclusive organizations are
successful in yielding 2.3 times higher cash flows and are 1.7
times more effective on the grounds of innovation (Bersin by
Deloitte, 2017). Companies with at least 15% female senior
managers can yield 18% higher profitability and companies
having a female CEO are capable of gaining 19% higher
profitability (Business and Sustainable Development
Commission, 2018). Companies with higher gender diversity are
better able to outperform to about 11% companies with lower
gender diversity (Business and Sustainable Development
Commission, 2018).
GENDER DIVERSITY GAP AT WORKPLACES – AN OVERVIEW
OF WORLDWIDE STATUS
As a consequence of growing relevance of gender diversity and
inclusion in present business world, companies have commenced
to take strong and effective actions for closing gender gaps at
workplaces. According to the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report
(2020), gender diversity gap is smallest in Western Europe as
Western Europe has closed 76.7% of its gender gap, followed by
North America (72.9%), Latin America and the Caribbean
(72.1%), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (71.5%), East Asia and
Journal of critical reviews
major forces to boost organizational innovation
level.
High profits, effective problem-solving, enhanced
creativity and innovation, high company reputation
and talent management are the crucial outputs of
gender based diversified and inclusive workforce.
the Pacific (68.5%), Sub-Saharan Africa (68.0%), South Asia
(66.1%) and middle East and North Africa (61.2%) subsequently.
Table 2 reveals the list of top 5 countries and bottom 5 countries
on the grounds of gender gap including economic participation,
education attainment, health and political empowerment.
Table 2: List of top 5 countries and bottom 5 countries on
the grounds of gender gap WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report
2020)
Top-Five Countries Bottom-Five Countries
Rank Country Score Rank Country Score
1 Iceland 0.877 149 Congo, DR 0.578
2 Norway 0.842 150 Syria 0.567
3 Finland 0.832 151 Pakistan 0.564
4 Sweden 0.820 152 Iraq 0.530
5 Nicaragua 0.804 153 Yemen 0.494
No country has achieved the target of complete gender equality
yet but Iceland (88%), Norway (84.2%), Finland (83.2%),
Sweden (82%) and Nicaragua (80%) are closest to achieve
gender equality at workplaces (WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report,
2020). It has been investigated that 29% of senior management
roles are held by women and 87% of businesses have at least one
women in senior management worldwide (Grant Thornton,
2019). Such recent statistical figures are a clear indication of the
growing relevance of diversity and inclusion in organizations
worldwide.
STATUS OF GENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN INDIAN
ORGANIZATIONS
Low representation of women at the workplace is a global
predicament but in India the picture of women at workplace is
gloomy as gender inequality at workplace in India is highly
prevalent (Bhardwaj, 2018). In Indian organizations, the status of
encouraging gender diversity is at its initial stages emphasizing
upon equality in hiring, remuneration and representation in
leadership positions (Das, 2018). Gender diversity and inclusion
in Indian organizations reveals alarming statistics as top-listed
companies have only 20% female workforce out of their entire
permanent workforce (Bothra, 2019). According to the World
Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report (2017) India
ranked 108 out of 144 countries on the gender equality scale
which has slipped from 87 in 2016 (Bhardwaj, 2018). In 2018,
this gap has become more glaring as India ranked 142 among
149 nations (WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report, 2018). Despite
the adoption of numerous initiatives and affirmative actions for
boosting gender diversity and inclusiveness in Indian
organizations, India has not achieved success to raise the status
of women in top and middle level positions (Verma & Basu,
2019). Women constitute only 27% of the total workforce, 17%
of them are in senior management positions and only 3% women
are CEO’s in India (The Economic Times, 2017). Since 2014, out
of every 100 CEO’s and MD’s of companies listed in NSE, only 3
are women and out of 1814 chief executives of NSE-listed
companies only 67 are women (Verma & Basu, 2019). Table 3
throws the light upon annual status of women in leadership
position in India from 2014 – 2019.
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Table 3: Annual status of women in leadership position in lakhs in 2013 (Gupta, 2019). The year 2019 has recorded the
India from 2014 – 2019 (Verma & Basu, 2019) highest increase in the percentage of women holding senior
As on No. of No. of Total No. of % of Total management positions which is 29% (Ahmed, 2019). Also, India
Marc MD/CEO MD/CEO MD/CEO No. of is ranked at 112 among 153 nations in global gender equality
h 31 Women Women Directorshi MD/CEO index (WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020). Accenture
Director Directorshi p Positions Directorshi Solutions Pvt. Ltd., ADP Pvt.Ltd., Barclays in India, Credit Suisse,
s p Positions p Positions Deloitte in India, EY, IBM India Pvt. Ltd., KPMG, Shell India
2014 39 40 1249 3.20 Markets Pvt. Ltd., TCS, Tech Mahindra, Pepsico India Holdings
2015 39 40 1304 3.07 Limited, Verizon Data Services are the top companies in India
2016 46 50 1408 3.55 that are committed to establish women friendly workplaces by
2017 57 61 1554 3.93 promoting gender diversity and inclusiveness (Bhardwaj, 2018;
2018 56 60 1717 3.49 List of Best Companies for Women in India 2019, 2019) and
2019 63 67 1814 3.69 taking initiatives to close the gender gap.

The figure indicates the status of gender diversity in India and
demonstrates an upliftment in the same. Gender diversity and
inclusion have become the key factors of hiring and all other HR
policies to create safe and comfortable workplaces for women
(Bhardwaj, 2018). Now, companies are emphasizing more and
more on greater gender diversity as they don’t want to lose
talent and have become more aware about the fact that executive
teams with high gender diversity generate 21% more
profitability and 27% greater value creation (Salis, 2019).
Dwivedi (2017) found that Indian economy can grow more than
$150 billion in upcoming three years by bridging its 50% gender
gap in workforce. The female workforce in Indian organizations
represents a significant growth of 196 lakhs in 2017 from 98
REASONS FOR BOOSTING GENDER DIVERSITY – THE TOP
MOST PRIORITY OF THE ORGANIZATIONS
Healthy gender diversity at workplaces is not only a moral and
social issue but it also has a critical and economic significance for
the organizations in the present world. Currently, companies
cannot expect to acquire competitive advantage in the global
business landscape by ignoring 50% competitive and potential
workforce (Gant, 2019) as better business require better
leadership. Table 4 demonstrates the reasons extracted from the
literature that why healthy gender diversity have become the top
most priority of the organization.

Table 4: Reasons for boosting Gender Diversity – The top most priority of the organizations
S.No. Source
1 Lowen (2019)
French (2012)
2 Zenger (2017)
3 Goldschmid(2016)
4 Cooney(2016)
French(2012)
5 Madsen & Tanja (2016)
Reasons for boosting gender diversity/Characteristics of women
• More persuasive
• Learn from adversity
• More risk-taking
• Believe in inclusiveness and team-building style of leadership for
decision-making
• Women leaders are highly qualified
• More passionate to find out opportunities to learn, improve and
develop throughout their entire future career
• More productive and creative
• Higher level of competency in exhibiting leadership skills and
motivating others.
• Highly qualified and possess high-potential.
• Better in comparison to their male counterparts in developing,
motivating and inspiring others while creating a favourable work-
culture.
• Equally effective and efficient managers/leaders.
• Better listeners and possess leadership qualities.
• Value work-life balance
• Empathetic in nature
• Great listeners
• Nurture and help others
• Strong focus on teamwork
• Good in multitasking
• Motivated by challenges
• Strong communicators
• Dream big
• Handle crisis situations well
• Check their egos
• High emotional intelligence
• Flexible
• Perform variety of roles
• Lead by setting examples
• Defying the odds
• More adaptable
• Think more holistically
• Seek win-win solutions
• More process-oriented
• Ask different questions

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Al-Shamali, & Al- • Sensitive to nonverbal cues

Khoury(2015) • Comfortable with ambiguity
• Focus on teams and cooperation
• Focus on developing and nurturing others
• Make more ethical decision
• Have higher integrity/honesty
• Focus on self-development
• More creative and innovative in nature
• Have higher social sensitivity
• Connects the group to the outside world
• Communicate powerfully and prolifically
• Builds relationships
• Inspiring and motivating others
• Take initiatives
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY organizations it is essential to understand both the phenomenon
After examining approximately 60 sources of literature including holistically for formulating an effective strategy to achieve high
research papers, web sources and several reports released by profitability as both these concepts are considered as bywords
different renowned organizations in the respective domain of for top most and successful organizations.
research, the following inferences have been drawn:
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