Addressing diversity and inclusion in project management

Abstract

The principles of diversity and inclusion (D&I), although often neglected in project management, are crucial to the success of the project. Taking these principles into account offers many advantages, from better performance and innovation to a more pleasant working environment.

Although the themes of D&I re covered in other articles, they are regularly studied from a team perspective (http://wiki.doing-projects.org/index.php/Diversity_in_teams). However, to my knowledge, no comprehensive guide for a project manager to address these issues in a project. This guide will try to give all the resources for a project manager who has to lead a project with a new team and with limited time. For the coherence of the article, a time limit of six months will be set.

While inclusion and diversity policies are substantive and therefore long-term policies, the following article aims to propose effective short-term solutions, which are best suited for project management. Indeed, project management presents unique diversity and inclusion challenges due to the typically tight schedule and temporary nature of the teams.

The article begins by explaining the importance and benefits of diversity and inclusion, while providing a theoretical framework. It will then try to provide a tool to give strategies for taking diversity and inclusion into account in project management, and how to monitor and evaluate its implementation. Finally, the article will discuss the limitations of the approach.

Theory

What is Diversity and Inclusion ?

Diversity refers to the presence of difference backgrounds, experiences, and perspective in a team. The most well known examples of diversity are gender diversity, age diversity, ethnic diversity, physical ability and neurodiversity… An even broader definition can be adopted, according to Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler “We tend to think about that in terms of things like racial diversity and gender diversity and ethnic diversity. Those things are all important. But it’s also important to have diversity in how people think.”

Inclusion refers to the active involvement and equal treatment of all team members. According to McKinsey & Company , an inclusive workspace is one that takes into account all employees individually while allowing them to have a significant impact.

Furthermore, the aspects of diversity and inclusion are fundamentally linked; it makes no sense to have a diverse workspace if minorities do not feel included.

Benefits of Diversity and Inclusion

Improves performance

Diversity within the team allows for a variety of ideas, skills and fresh ideas, and even, as we have defined it, a variety of ways of thinking. Diversity brings multiple perspectives when dealing with a problem; if it is difficult for one team member to solve a problem, another member, who will think differently, will certainly find an innovative solution not yet considered. According to a study of over 1,000 large companies , there is a correlation between company performance and diversity.

Also, as the article seems to point out, inclusion is the cornerstone of diversity. Inclusion allows all team members to be equally involved in the decision-making process. This leads to more balanced decisions, avoiding bias and potential errors. It has also been shown, through studies , that a sense of inclusion increases individual and collective performance within a project.

Fosters innovation

Diversity brings new ideas and encourages creativity. The interaction between project members stimulates questioning of guidelines and critical thinking, which encourages innovation. According to the material provided for the second week's course (People-slides-Jan-2023), through diversity “different perspectives can create innovative ideas and consider a wider range of possibilities”. Inclusion encourages the exchange of these different views, stimulates creative thinking and promotes innovation.

Well-being of project members

Ongoing studies show that inclusion is linked to both employee satisfaction and turnover intentions; employees who feel included tend to stay longer with the company. With regard to diversity, it has been shown that in Latin America, companies that are more open to diversity are 75% more likely to adopt a pro-teamwork culture. These results are highly questionable and require further study. For the time being, we can only observe a trend without any real indisputable scientific proof.

Theoretical Frameworks

These theoretical frameworks are tools to be mastered in order to fully understand the resources that the article provides. Knowing these theories is a plus when it comes to diversity and inclusion in project management:

Social identity theory : . Individuals tend to have multiple social identities in order to distinguish themselves from or relate to social groups. Social identity complexity shows how individuals combine multiple social identities; for example, being a member of one group on the basis of social identity (gender) while being a member of another group on another social characteristic (belonging to an ethnic group). Empirical work shows that a complexity of social identity is positively related to tolerance of outgroups. It is important to minimize the exclusionary tendencies of the group in the project, and mastering this theory can be an interesting help for the project manager in this case

Inclusion framework : Thanks to the state of the art , we can present this inclusion framework which is a 2 × 2 inclusion framework in which it is proposed that uniqueness and belongingness work together to create feelings of inclusion.

	Low Belongingness	High Belongingneess
Low Value in Uniqueness	Exclusion Individual is not treated as an inner team member with a unique value in the work group, but there are other employees or groups who are insiders.	Assimilation Individual is treated as an insider in the team when they conform to organizational/dominant culture norms and downplay uniqueness
High Value in Uniqueness	Differentiation Individual is not treated as an inner team member in the work group but their unique characteristics are seen as valuable and required for group/ organization success	Inclusion Individual is treated as an insider and also allowed/encouraged to retain uniqueness within the work group.