Dear SIM members and colleagues,
I will welcome proposals for this special issue of the EJIR (read details
below),
Best regards,
Alain Klarsfeld
Employment Research Group (ERG)
Professor of HRM
Head of the Specialized Masters in HRM
Groupe ESC Toulouse - Toulouse Business School
Recent publications in the field
-Klarsfeld, A. (editor) International handbook on diversity management at
work : country perspectives on diversity and equal treatment, E. Elgar
Publishing, July 2010
-Klarsfeld, A., The diffusion of diversity management : the case of
France, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Vol. 25/4, December 2009, p.
363-373
Call for papers: the social regulation of diversity management:
dimensions, levels, typologies, antecedents, effects
Proposals are invited for a special issue of the European Journal of
Industrial Relations, under the guest editorship of Alain Klarsfeld, Rana
Haq, Eddy Ng, and Marloes Van Engen.
Papers will preferably explore a transverse research question from a cross-
national comparative perspective. Research questions should address the
interplay of diversity policies at various levels: international, state,
business sector, corporate, plant; and/or, their antecedents and outcomes.
For instance,
• What dimensions of diversity are relevant, to the international,
national, business sector and corporate rules promoting equal treatment,
equal opportunity and affirmative action? Such dimensions include for
instance, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual
orientation or disability. How do dimensions covered at one level (for
instance, the EU level) influence the dimensions adopted at the level
immediately below (for instance, the national level) ?
• What dimensions of diversity are absent/emerging/declining in the
various regulation processes? Why? And with what consequences?
• What are the different ways to comply with diversity policies?
Typical compliance of regulations and policies may include the type of
obligation (no incentive nor obligation, just positive incentive such as
subsidy, binding obligation with penalties , i.e., sanctions), the type of
action required or at least encouraged (statement, dedicated office or
administration, data collection, data consolidation and reporting, goals
and timetables, action plan, meeting a strict quota, etc.), the type of
sanction for not taking action (no sanction, improvement suggestions from
controlling body, orders to align on law, blame and shame, financial
penalty, disbarment from contracts, closure), the enforcement mechanism
(no enforcement mechanism, enforcement based on court and individual
litigation started by individuals and/or class actions, enforcement based
on random audits by an external authority, enforcement based on a
systematic review and systematic sanction by an external authority)?
• Is it possible to cluster diversity practices together? Is there
a continuum of policies from the most ‘passive’ ones simply ignoring the
diversity dimension altogether, to focussing on strict equal treatment
(stating that there should be no discrimination based on this criterion),
to positive or affirmative action focussing on the promotion of
traditionally segregated or ignored constituencies through the use of
improvement objectives with outcome quotas at the highest level of
constraint? What are the potential limitations of such a continuum and
areas of refinement?
• What is the latitude to interpret the law and what strategies are
considered best practices in fulfilling organizational obligation under
the law? How is legislation being implemented/translated by companies and
how effective are control mechanisms put in place by state administrations?
• Is there a parallel between policies at various levels, i.e., are
policies identical with the only difference that they apply to different
levels? Or on the contrary, are there level-specific characteristics: for
instance, it could be assumed (though it remains to be verified) that the
more ‘international’ the level, the less binding the policy (ILO
conventions for instance, are very difficult to enforce and provide only a
standard for desirable practice, whereas state legislations can count on
more enforcement tools, such state administrations and courts, similar to
corporate practices which can count on internal dedicated departments
and ‘cascading’ management mechanisms when top management is devoted to
seeing diversity management implemented internally).
• Who are the actors of - promoters/opponents, the diffusion of
equality and diversity discourse and practice? What is the role of trade
unions, professional organizations, governments, international
institutions, corporate leaders, work councils, pressure groups and how
does this affect the regulation of diversity management in different
contexts?
• What is the meaning of such words
as ‘equality’, ‘diversity’, ‘discrimination’ in various contexts and
levels?
• Are there macro-economic or institutional ‘predictors’ of equality
and diversity management policies?
• What is the efficacy of equality and diversity policies in various
contexts and levels in terms of effectively improving representation of
different identity groups ?
• What is the social acceptability or perceived distributive and
procedural fairness of equality and diversity policies in various contexts
and at various levels?
• How do equality and diversity policies affect social cohesion,
affective commitment and well-being of different identity groups, besides
organizational performance?
It should be noted that EJIR is European in focus and papers should
include European countries and debates. We invite work that is conceptual,
or empirical, and ideally both. Likewise, both qualitative and
quantitative methods are welcome. Also, as an industrial relations journal
we expect authors to show how industrial relations institutions affect the
phenomena they are investigating.
Paper length should be less than 8000 words including tables and
bibliography. First drafts of full papers should be sent to Alain
Klarsfeld, guest editor,
a.klarsfeld@esc-toulouse.fr by January 2011. They
will be reviewed by the guest editors and the Journal’s editor Richard
Hyman, and authors of proposals will be notified by April 2011 of their
decision: unconditional acceptance, rejection or acceptance subject to
revisions specified by the editors. The deadline for second drafts of
papers will be December 2011.
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