Against all odds: how the institutional context shapes diversity management in the Central and Eastern European Oil and Gas industry

• Date: 16 June 2023
• Pages: 1141-1159
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2022-0308
• Published date: 16 June 2023
• Author: Andreas M. Hilger,Emil Velinov,Mustafa F. Özbilgin

Against all odds: how

the institutional context shapes

diversity management in the

Central and Eastern European Oil

and Gas industry

Andreas M. Hilger

University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Emil Velinov



Skoda Auto University, Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic and

RISEBA, R



ıga, Latvia, and

Mustafa F.

€

Ozbilgin

Brunel University, London, UK

Abstract

Purpose –Due to their multifarious backgrounds, multinational enterprises from emerging economies offer

unique research opportunities to push the boundaries of our understanding knowledge of diversity

management in transitional contexts. In that regard, Central and Eastern European multinationals present a

blind spot in diversity management research.

Design/methodology/approach–This article examines the extent to which context shapes the discourse on

diversity management in the Oil and Gas industry across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) through a

qualitative approach based on content analyses of corporate communication data matched with data on

national institutional contexts.

Findings –The data suggests a lack of effective pro-diversity pressures across CEE except for cultural

pressure in European Union member countries.However, CEE Oil and Gas companies report a broader scope of

diversity management than studies of Western counterparts suggest. Companies with subsidiaries in Western

countries show convergence towards etic diversity approaches, while local and regional companies are more

divergent.

Originality/value –This article defines the boundary conditions of diversity management in the Oil and Gas

industry across nine CEE countries and how they impact the diversity discourse in the industry. This article

also showcases the impact of foreign market presence in the West as a driver for diversity management

reporting.

Keywords Diversity, Diversity management, Europe, Convergence, New institutionalism, Oil and Gas

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

In recent years, global movements have increased the pressure on companies to care about

the diversity of their workforce (OECD, 2020;

€

Ozbilgin and Erbil, 2021). Thus, reporting on

workforce diversity has become an important aspect of a positive corporate image (Johns

et al., 2012). However, findings, for example by Erdur (2020) or Bader et al. (2022), revealed

that due to cross-national differences and local sensitivities, diversity management (DM) is

Diversity

management in

CEE

1141

Funding: This paper is a result of two research grants from the Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency

focussing on Diversity Management in Central and Eastern Europe. The projects focused on contextual

influences on diversity management in CEE and how it is related to Germany and other Western

economies.

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 7 November 2022

Revised 25 April 2023

Accepted 25 May 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 8, 2023

pp. 1141-1159

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-11-2022-0308

often context specific. The pressures to comply with institutionalised diversity expectations

may also differ immensely between advanced and emerging or developing economies (K€

usk€

u

et al., 2021).

Duringsocialist times, womenin Central and EasternEuropean (CEE) countriesfared better

in positionsof power than in the West, while racial and religious discrimination wasrampant

(Weitz, 2002;Metcalfe and Afanassieva, 2005). Sincethen, the CEE countrieshave taken various

directionsregardingdiversity legislation,activism andacceptance, resultingin distinct national

pressureson local companies(Buyantueva and S hevtsova, 2020).This is particularly evidentin

local diversity issues such as traditional gender roles, same-sex marriage or reproductive and

self-determinationrights of women (Morleyet al., 2016) accompanied by prevailing xenophobia

(Kalmar, 2018). Due to a global convergence of management practices (Pudelko and Harzing,

2007), multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the former Eastern Bloc are putting efforts into

westernising their business practices, partially emulating American and Western-European

companies (Latukha and Malko, 2019), where diversity management(DM) is an integral partof

human resourcemanagement (HRM) (Syed and

€

Ozbilgin, 2009). Nevertheless, DiTomaso et al.

(2007) as well as K€

usk€

uet al. (2021) among othershighlight gaps in the literature regardingthe

context-dependency of DM. We also follow calls to contextualize DM beyond the Western

context(e.g. Erdur, 2020), especially in thechallenging diversitycontexts in CEE (Babonea and

Ciora, 2018;Sliwa andTobiasz-Adamczyk,2018;Buyantueva and Shevtsova, 2020) and calls to

advance the convergence versus divergence debate in non-Western MNEs (e.g. Paik et al., 2011).

The global Oil and Gas industry is going through immense changes induced by the

finiteness of its core resources, changing consumer behaviours, consolidation processes and

changes in its workforce diversity (Williams et al., 2014;IEA, 2020). Professional studies that

focus on the topic paint a bleak picture of diversity (Rick et al., 2017). Talent is mostly

underutilised due to discrimination based on disability, race or nationality, among other

attributes (Rafferty, 2020). Across CEE, Oil and Gas is among the top three industries in

revenue (Coface, 2020). Releasing the untapped potential of disadvantaged communities may

help organisations (Tatli et al., 2013;Holck et al., 2016) to combat challenges within the Oil and

Gas industry and social inequalities in CEE (Amis et al., 2020). Despite its global and regional

importance as well as sensitivities surrounding the energy crisis, sustainability, ethics and

diversity (IEA, 2020), diversity efforts in the Oil and Gas industry have received scant

scientific attention (for exceptions, see Miller, 2004 and Williams et al., 2014). There remains a

major public and scientific interest in the diversity performance of this industry.

Consequently, our research goals are to identify the status quo on DM reporting in the

industryas well as the influence of contextualpressures to reporton diversity. Our study draws

on a multidimensional diversity concept and examines the DM discourse based on a content

analysis of corporate communication data from the fifteen largest independent Oil and Gas

companies by turnover across CEE. FollowingYang and Konrad’s(2011)suggestions, we use

new institutionalism as the theoretical backdrop to contextualise the respective contextual

pressures to report on diversity. We make a distinction between global (etic) categories of

diversity, which emanate from dominant Western pro-diversity concepts and local (emic)

categories,which emerge from idiosyncratic local concernssuch as traditionalisedgender roles,

controversy oversame-sex marriage and abortion (Tatli and

€

Ozbilgin, 2012).

Literature review

Diversity management

Academic support for multiculturalism in organizations has resulted in an ideological shift

from corporate homogeneity to diversity (Jackson, 1992). The learning and integration

paradigm by Ely and Thomas (2001) urges organizations to encourage employees to utilize

demographic and cultural knowledge in the solution of organizational problems. Kossek and

EDI

42,8

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