Leading Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

A Guide for Systemic Change in Multinational Organizations

Rohini Anand

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781523000265
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

This book offers five proven principles so multinational companies can advance diversity, equity, and inclusion with a nuanced understanding of local contexts across countries and cultures. It's easy to fall into the trap of using a single-culture worldview when implementing global DEI in organizations. But what makes DEI change efforts successful in one country may have opposite, unintended consequences in another. How do companies find the right balance between anchoring their efforts locally while pushing for change that may disrupt existing power dynamics? This is the question at the heart of global DEI work. Along with practical advice and examples, Rohini Anand offers five overarching principles derived from her own experience leading global DEI transformation and interviews with more than sixty-five leaders to provide a through line for leading global DEI transformation in divergent cultures. Local relevance—understanding markets and acknowledging local beliefs, regulations, and history—is essential for global success. This groundbreaking book explicitly details how to take local histories, laws, and practices into account in DEI transformation work while promoting social justice worldwide.

Principle

1

MAKE IT LOCAL

FOR GLOBAL DEI CULTURE CHANGE TO BE EFFECTIVE and sustainable, it must be anchored in an understanding of local contexts. This principle suggests that any global framework for DEI change must be rooted in local particulars, informed by the history, culture, language, and laws of each place.

Chapter 1, “Localizing a Global Strategy,” suggests that diversity change is more likely to succeed when an overarching global strategy is adapted to local dynamics. In order to do this, we must consider how identity is defined, expressed, and perceived in different parts of the world. We must be aware of power structures and identify the dominant and subordinate groups in each setting. Understanding how these aspects of diversity are approached in the local context is the first step in finding strategies to advance underrepresented groups in different circumstances. Awareness of our own role—sometimes as that of an outsider to a particular context—can help us discern when and how to challenge resistance and to serve as a catalyst for change. The chapter provides examples from a variety of organizations that have successfully bridged this tension.

Chapter 2, “Understanding Race and Ethnicity,” focuses on racial identity and racism globally. Race can be one of the most difficult identity dimensions to address in varying contexts. There is something both universal and extremely specific about it. While discrimination based on skin color clearly exists in many parts of the world, race and racism are fluid and shaped by culture and history. Even the way that demographics are measured varies across contexts making global target setting challenging. If we expect racism to be expressed in a manner we are familiar with, we are likely to miss important entry points. When we understand how racism plays out locally, we are better equipped to push for change.

1

LOCALIZING A GLOBAL CHANGE STRATEGY

Confined by the walls of the valley, the river runs freely, finding its own course.

—RAY BRIGGS, The Tao of Relationships

EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS OWN LEGACY OF HURT. Every place has its history of exclusion, its discrimination, its web of attitudes and systems that fuel and justify marginalization. Every country has dominant and subordinate groups and unhealthy power structures. As I began the work of rolling out Sodexo’s DEI initiatives globally, I learned that one of my most important tasks was uncovering and seeking to understand those legacies.

Identity—the way it shows up and even the ways we define it— can differ enormously from place to place. I learned that I needed to strike a balance between rolling out a global initiative with a universal vision while at the same time allowing enough flexibility for that vision to be contextualized and take root locally. By doing this, we were able to open space for effective insider-outsider partnerships—allowing outsiders like me and other leaders to play the role of catalyst, while relying on insider change agents and the local ecosystem to determine the best pressure points and rhythm for change.

To make organizations more diverse, inclusive, and equitable, we need to be willing to disrupt the status quo. Making our work local does not mean backing away from the difficult challenges, but it does require that we develop a global mindset, listen to local diversity champions, and constantly fine-tune our own self-awareness and intellectual curiosity. If we do those things, we will be better positioned to grasp the dynamics of a complex interconnected world and find ways to ensure that our efforts resonate locally and contribute to lasting change.

Power Dynamics

Natasha Winkler-Titus, President of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology in South Africa, told me of an international mining company that set up mining operations in South Africa.¹ They invested billions, negotiated with the local chief to operate in the area, and completed the first two phases of development. But they were forced to halt the project due to local protests about the placement of the mine, corruption by the chief, and the lack of economic and job opportunities trickling down to the community. Although they had done thorough research and mapping of natural resources, what they hadn’t realized was that the local chief was not acting in the best interests of the community. Without taking the time to listen to a broad variety of voices, they stumbled into a trap of reinforcing harmful power inequities. Perhaps they believed they were respecting local customs by negotiating with the chief and did not probe further to get more well-rounded advice about how best to navigate the crosscurrents and history of the place. At its essence, the company’s approach was top-down: it imposed its overarching objective without taking time to unpack the local dynamics. Ultimately, the mining company tried to be local but failed because its attempt was too superficial.

For me, this story epitomizes the dilemma of localizing a global change strategy. How do we understand and respect local values and simultaneously push for change? To what extent do we adapt to each context? If our initiatives are purely locally driven, might that not perpetuate the unhealthy power dynamics that already exist, as it did in the mining example in South Africa? Is it better then to enact a more universal, centralized approach to inclusion change efforts? So, if an organization comes with a top-down DEI agenda—in the same way the mining company started without true local buy-in—don’t we risk those initiatives being at best ineffective, and at worst sabotaged? And what happens when a global organization’s values come into conflict with local ways of doing things, or even with local laws?

A Transversal Approach to Global Diversity Management

Mustafa F. Özbilgin, a Turkish-born British sociologist and Professor of Organizational Behavior at Brunel Business School in London, talks about three different global diversity management approaches. The first is a universal approach that rolls out a centralized top-down policy across varying countries and contexts. The second is a local approach that is designed in-country and tailored to a specific context. The third is a blend of the two. Özbilgin calls this a transversal approach in which there is a global framework that shapes and guides the work, along with the flexibility and autonomy to adapt it locally.²

A Local, Universal, or Transversal Approach?

I found the transversal approach was most suited to implementing a successful global change initiative. Although a universal approach seeks to save time and money by using commonly developed tools and strategies, organizations can struggle to get their initiatives embedded and embraced locally. For example, a global food and package delivery company encountered challenges when the company’s US-headquartered lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) employee resource group (ERG) asked that all employees around the globe be given a Pride rainbow badge to display in celebration and support of LGBTQ staff.³ This seemed like a powerful way to make allies visible and to create safety zones for employees who may not be open at work about their sexuality. But employees in Egypt balked. Same-sex relationships were illegal there. LGBTQ employees had learned to be discreet for their safety. No one wanted to carry the burden of a visible label that might endanger them.

In contrast, Subarna Malakar told me that when he led global DEI at Ahold Delhaize, they had a very local DEI strategy, in keeping with their overall segmented business model with twenty-two distinct local brands.⁴ Ahold Delhaize, a Dutch company, is one of the largest food retail groups with supermarkets and convenience stores that have local brand recognition—such as Albert Heijn in Europe, and Giant, Stop & Shop, and Food Lion in the US. Subarna said that to appeal to local consumers, the shops hired people who live within a five-mile radius. They didn’t have global hiring targets; rather, needs were determined with a view toward reflecting the communities they serve. The idea was that if the staff reflects the community, the shop would cater better to its customers. This meant that, for example, in a heavily Muslim neighborhood of Amsterdam, most employees were Muslim, and the shops sold halal food that appealed to the community.

This type of local approach is very appealing, but implementation can be inconsistent without broader accountability measures in place. If it is not a part of an overall global strategy, it may not benefit from tried-and-true interventions nor be enriched and stretched by cross-regional exchanges, best practice sharing, and networks.

A transversal approach customizes strategies to local environments while ensuring a consistent global brand and broader accountability. It is a delicate balancing act between not reinventing the wheel and, at the same time, avoiding the imposition of cookie-cutter tactics that risk replicating the very dynamics of cultural imperialism that DEI seeks to challenge. Imposing aspects of a dominant culture onto another less-powerful community is an easy trap to fall into.⁵ It takes more time and up-front investment, but ultimately a transversal approach benefits from being informed by best practices without imposing them and thus has the greatest potential for lasting success.

The Transversal Approach in Action: Barilla

A transversal approach provides a frame, but also ensures that any global DEI process is consultative. Barilla Group is an Italian family-owned food company with a presence in over one hundred countries. In 2013, Guido Barilla, the chairman, made a homophobic comment on an Italian station, Radio 24. He said, “I would never do a commercial with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect, but because we don’t agree with them.”⁶ The comments sparked outrage as people accused Barilla of homophobia and called for a worldwide boycott. Harvard University in the US pulled the pasta from its dining halls and celebrities pledged to shun the brand. This was a wake-up call for the company, and it began on a long journey to repair the damage and build a more inclusive culture.

Part of their response—and I will be exploring their approach in more detail later in the book—included establishing internal employee resource groups that were organized around particular identity groups. These were first launched in the US with great success, and so Barilla decided to replicate the approach in Italy, and then worldwide. “When we wanted to expand our ERGs outside the US, we learned very quickly that you cannot cut and paste,” Kristen Anderson, Barilla’s Global Chief Diversity Officer, told me.⁷ When over a hundred employees came to a high-profile launch event for an LGBTQ ERG at Barilla’s headquarters in Parma, the levels of enthusiasm and support made Kristen expect a large core group to sign up to take the new ERG forward. But by the end of the event, only twelve people had registered.

“And we said, uh oh, we have a problem,” Kristen remembers. “When we interviewed employees, we discovered that it was not a problem about not wanting to work on LGBTQ inclusion and be an ally. It was more not knowing what ERGs are. There was cultural insensitivity on my part in not understanding that although in America, we’re very comfortable in this idea of forming community to make some change, in other cultures, it’s something new. And we took a step back and basically spent a lot of time educating employees about ERGs: the benefit for you as an employee and the benefit for the company.”

Kristen and her team provided clear guidelines and governance structures; but they also ensured that there was freedom to decide the focus and the approach in each context. In fact, while in the US they had had success in developing ERGs along singular dimensions of diversity—such as LGBTQ, Black, or Latino/a inclusion— in some of Barilla’s smaller branches, they decided to form hybrid ERGs that address multiple identities, tackle issues relevant to the region, or rotate areas of focus.

For example, an ERG named Respeito (Respect in Portuguese) in Barilla’s operation in Brazil focused one year on LGBTQ inclusion and the next year on race and ethnicity. In spite of the fact that Afro-Brazilians make up the majority of the population, it is surprisingly rare to find race addressed directly and substantively by companies in Brazil. This fluid focus of the ERGs offered an entry point into some difficult arenas in Brazil and elsewhere. In Canada, Inclusivo (Inclusive in Italian) rotated its focus on different cultures that represent the main immigrants into Canada. And Greece’s Armonia (Harmony in Italian) concentrated on integrating refugees, particularly pertinent given the surge in refugees coming into Greece at that time. Russia’s ERG focused on LGBTQ one year and then looked at breaking down hierarchical divisions—encouraging managers to work for a day on the factory line and factory workers to come to the office.

Russia’s example is a reminder that our DEI initiatives can miss important dimensions and that staying open to local adaption can go a long way in correcting that. In “every major economy in the world,” according to Paul Ingram, social-class origin has a major impact on career progression, but it is taboo in some cultures (such as the US) and therefore rarely makes its way explicitly onto DEI change agendas.⁸ But some societies, such as the UK and some parts of Asia and Latin America, are much franker about class divides. Flexible ERGs leave room for the very typology of our DEI work to be stretched and strengthened.

Kristen’s outsider perspective allowed her to share and even push for a strategy she believed would work well. Combining her outsider status with a flexible approach that listened to, enabled, and empowered insider diversity champions resulted in some surprising and even radical initiatives. It allowed local changemakers to judge the pulse and rhythm of what transformation might be possible, with a clear platform and firm support from Barilla’s leadership.

Through its ERGs, Barilla introduced a way to address identity, but through collaboration with local staff, they discovered this new flexible and multiple dimensional approach. The overall impact of the ERGs has been extremely positive for Barilla. Voce, the LGBTQ ERG in Italy, now has over 250 members. The diversity and inclusion scores in their biannual employee engagement survey have gone up. Barilla’s leadership credits the ERGs as playing a key role in creating a more inclusive organizational culture. In recognition of their global progress in DEI, Barilla received the prestigious 2021 Catalyst Award for initiatives that have elevated inclusion.

For a transversal approach to be effective, it’s critical to

◆ take the time to understand how identity is expressed in each location,

◆ listen to local change agents,

◆ build collaboration between those change agents and the organization’s outside influencers,

◆ be willing to disrupt the status quo when necessary, and

◆ remember the enablers and obstacles in the larger ecosystem.

Identity in Different Contexts

The type of reluctance Barilla encountered in Italy to form an ERG can be influenced by culture and history. Some societies are organiz...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction: From Class Action to Best in Class: A Personal Journey
• Principle 1: Make It Local
• Principle 2: Leaders Change to Lead Change
• Principle 3: And It’s Good Business, Too
• Principle 4: Go Deep, Wide, and Inside-Out
• Principle 5: Know What Matters and Count It
• Conclusion: Elevating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Long Haul
• Leading Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Discussion Guide
• Appendix: Sample Lead and Lag Measures
• Notes
• Acronyms Glossary
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• About the Author