20 years of workplace diversity research in hospitality and tourism: a bibliometric analysis

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2022-0046
• Published date: 16 December 2022
• Date: 16 December 2022
• Pages: 551-571
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Zohre Mohammadi,Abhishek Bhati,Eddy Ng

20 years of workplace diversity

research in hospitality and

tourism: a bibliometric analysis

Zohre Mohammadi

Tropical Futures Institute, James Cook University Australia–Singapore Campus,

Singapore, Singapore

Abhishek Bhati

James Cook University Australia–Singapore Campus, Singapore, Singapore, and

Eddy Ng

James Cook University Australia–Singapore Campus, Singapore, Singapore and

Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

Abstract

Purpose –This paper charts the development of diversity research in hospitality and tourism (H&T) as a field

of study. The authors are interested in how diversity has been studied, where diversity scholarship has been

published, who are the leading diversity scholars and whether the scholars work has been influential. In

addition, the authors identified the institutions and countries that contribute significantly to diversity

scholarship in H&T.

Design/methodology/approach–The authors draw from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection, Scopus

and Australian Business Dean’s Council (ABDC) Journal Quality List covering 109 journals to identify the

relevant articles on workplace diversity in H&T. The authors conducted evaluative and relational bibliometric

techniques to assess the prominence of diversity scholarship in the field.

Findings –Diversity research in H&T did not gain traction until 2005. Using Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal as a benchmark, the authors found that diversity research in H&T closely tracked the

diversity topics in general organization and management literature. However, H&T lagged in race and ethnic,

as well as gender identity research. A majority of diversity research is published in leading (top-ranked)

journals, signifying the value of diversity scholarshipin H&T. Hospitality journals published the most articles,

while tourism journals reported the highest impact. Scholars based in the USA, China and the United Kingdom

(UK) contributed the most diversity articles, but one researcher, Osman M. Karatepe (Turkey), stood out as the

most productive and influential diversity scholar in H&T.

Practical implications –The insights from this study aid H&T scholars in identifying trends and

opportunities in diversity research, assessing the productivity and impact of various journals and databases,

locating collaborative opportunities (through co-citations and highly productive and influential institutions

and scholars) and benchmarking the scholars’own work.

Originality/value –Given an absence of prior review and diversity research has only gained ground in the

H&T literature since 2005, this bibliometric study offers a fossil record and documents the trajectory of

diversity scholarship in H&T, identifies the scholars who are active in this area of research and highlights

institutions and countries where diversity research is conducted.

Keywords Diversity, Hospitality and tourism, Workplace, Bibliometric analysis

Paper type Literature review

1. Introduction

The hotel and tourism (H&T) industry relies on the effective utilization of a diverse workforce

to remain productive and profitable (Kim, 2006;Saxena, 2014). We know from past research

that workforce diversity, when properly managed, is associated with positive outcomes such

as increased employee organizational embeddedness (Jolly and Self, 2020), propensity to

innovate (S€

ollner, 2010) and decreased turnover (Peretz et al., 2015). An absence of diversity

Workplace

diversity

research in

tourism

551

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 18 February 2022

Revised 30 August 2022

Accepted 19 November 2022

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 4, 2023

pp. 551-571

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-02-2022-0046

may also suggest poor employment practices, such as a failure to provide fair treatment to

employees from diverse backgrounds and needs.

Given its importance, it is no surprise that the issue of workplace diversity (both its

characteristics and composition) is identified as a major research theme in the H&T literature

(Baum et al., 2016a;Mooney and Baum, 2019). However, we know little about how diversity

has been studied in H&T, where diversity research has been published, who are the diversity

scholars in our field and if their work has been influential. This leaves present and future

scholars with little guidance on how and where to pursue diversity work in the H&T field.

H&T scholars should also be informed if diversity work in our field is keeping pace with

broader diversity discourse in the organizational and management literature.

The purpose of this paper is to chart the development of diversityscholarship in H&T as a field

of study. The knowledge generated here will assist present and future scholars to identify trends

and opportunities on diversity research in H&T; positiontheir work in outlets that are impactful and

locate collaborative opportunities and locations where diversity work is undertaken in H&T.

Workforce diversity is the degree to which a workplace consists of people with different

backgrounds and charac teristics, including ag e, race and ethnicity, gen der, sexual

orientation and identities, abilities, backgrounds and other relevant individual and group

differences (Peretz et al., 2015;Saxena, 2014). Given its prominence, diversity management

has rapidly diffused across national borders and into different industries, including H&T, as

a result of globalization, talent migration and greater awareness of individual needs and

differences (Kalantzis and Cope, 2006).

In our review of 20 years of H&T publications, there have been few reviews undertaken on

diversity research in H&T outlets. For example, Manoharan and Singal (2017) offered a

review on several dimensions of diversity (race, ethnicity and gender) in the hospitality

industry but found research in this domain to be fragmented and underdeveloped. Likewise,

Higgins Desbiolles (2020) and Kalargyrou and Costen (2017) share similar observations, with

Higgins Desbiolles (2020) noting the interconnectivity of several dimensions of diversity and

oppression. Some reviews (e.g. Solnet and Hood, 2008;Sakdiyakorn and Wattanacharoensil,

2018) were also restricted to generational issues, ignoring other dimensions of diversity. An

analysis of past diversity research in H&T can help us document more broadly the multiple

dimensions of diversity in both H&T settings.

In this regard, a compelling case can be made for extending supplementing past reviews

with bibliometric analysis to offer readers a “dashboard”view. This approach offers several

advantages, including tracking research trends, assessing journal and author impact, and

identifying institutions and countries with a high level of diversity scholarship, that are not

available in previous reviews. We thus extend previous work (e.g. Higgins Desboilles, 2020;

Kalargyrou and Costen, 2017) with additional insights and spotlight impactful scholars and

works that influence our field (see Donthu et al., 2021 on value of bibliometric analysis). As the

first bibliometric analysis, it also offers a fossil record of diversity work in H&T.

In order to track the development of diversity research in H&T scholarship, we explore the

three research questions as follows:

(1) What diversity scholarship has been undertaken in H&T: what diversity topics have

been researched, what are the trends, which H&T journals publish diversity work

and which journals are most impactful;

(2) Who engages in diversity work: who are the most productive and impactful scholars

and which are the most impactful articles;

(3) Which institutions and countries contribute most to diversity scholarship: which

institutions are active in diversity research and which countries are represented in

diversity scholarship.

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