Diversity and equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Limits to legislation, public debate and workplace practices

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-10-2017-0231
• Published date: 16 September 2019
• Date: 16 September 2019
• Pages: 763-778
• Author: Renate Ortlieb,Zijada Rahimić,Christian Hirt,Almina Bešić,Florian Bieber
• Subject Matter: Hr & organizational behaviour,Employment law

Diversity and equality in Bosnia

and Herzegovina

Limits to legislation, public debate and

workplace practices

Renate Ortlieb

Department of Human Resource Management, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Zijada Rahimić

University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Christian Hirt

Department of Human Resource Management, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Almina Bešić

Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria, and

Florian Bieber

University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge about workplacediversity and equality in

an under-researched country. Focusing on the south-eastern European transition economy of Bosnia and

Herzegovina (BiH), it elaborates on the country’s legislation, public debate and previous research in the field.

Design/methodology/approach –The paper draws on a synopsis of the legislative framework, existing

literature, public media and personal communications with human resource (HR) practitioners.

Findings –There is only limited research on diversity and equality in BiH. Ethnicity and gender are the most

common grounds for discrimination. Although a solid body of legislation addressing anti-discrimination and

equality issues exists, implementation is insufficient. The public debate tends to reinforce inter-ethnic

conflicts and a negative atmosphere regarding sexual minority rights.

Research limitations/implications –Due to the general lack of research on diversity and equalityin BiH,

the findings presented in this paper only can serve as a first approximation of the topic. Further academic

research on concrete business practices and perspectives of HR managers is needed.

Practical implications –Firms not only need to increase compliance with anti-discrimination law, but they

should also focus more on the benefits a multi-ethnic society can offer.

Originality/value –This is the first paper in the management literature that provides comprehensive

insight into workplace diversity and equality in BiH.

Keywords Diversity management, Equality, Women in management, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Diversity,

Ethnic diversity, Anti-discrimination law, South-eastern Europe, Multi-ethnic countries

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Management scholarship in to diversity and equality i n Bosnia and Herzegovina

(thereinafter: BiH) can, without a doubt, be described as under-researched (Velikonja,

2017; Vinkovićand Bešlagić, 2011). To the best of our knowledge, to date there is only one

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 38 No. 7, 2019

pp. 763-778

Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-10-2017-0231

Received 30 October 2017

Revised 23 March 2018

Accepted 16 January 2019

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

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

© Renate Ortlieb, Zijada Rahimić, Christian Hirt, Almina Bešićand Florian Bieber. Published b y

Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution

(CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this

article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original

publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/

licences/by/4.0/legalcode

The authorsacknowledge the financial supportfor Open Access publicationby the Universityof Graz.

763

Diversity and

equality in BiH

scientific publication on diversity management in practice which examined its adoption in a

Bosnian subsidiary of a multinational financial company (Bešićand Hirt, 2016). Apart from

this, we identified a small number of research reports addressing equality and (anti-)

discrimination and a few studies on women in management (see Section 5 of this paper).

The limited attention to research on diversity and equality partly reflects the low priority

they are given by business practitioners in BiH[1]. Paradoxically BiH is a highly diverse country,

politically, economically and socially shaped by the contested nature of diversity. However, we

repeatedly heard from personal communications with human resource (HR) practitioners over

the past few years that these topics are neither on their agenda nor discussed in the largest

HR association in BiH, the “HRM udruženje”. In the case study by Bešićand Hirt (2016),

an HR manager interviewed in the Austrian headquarters stated that managers in Bosnian

subsidiaries, when asked about adopting the headquarters’diversity management concept, said

emphatically: “No thanks, we don’t need that”(p. 131). Consulting firms specialising in diversity

management or initiatives such as a national diversity charter are unknown. A trawl through

the webpages of the largest multinational companies identified a small number of companies

stating that they foster equality and value diversity highly (e.g. Deloitte, Raiffeisen Bank

International, Porr, Erste Group, Vienna Insurance Group, Uniqa, Grawe and Deutsche Post

DHL). However, as we still lack proof of how companies translate such commitment into

consistent action this could be just “window dressing”(Marques, 2010; Vassilopoulou, 2017).

Why then should diversity and equality in BiH be researched? We maintain that for several

reasons this south-eastern European country presents an interesting case. First, BiH is a

multi-ethnic country with areas of strong segregation and inter-ethnic tension. Despite this, it also

has a long-standing tradition of peaceful coexistence among members of different ethnicities

(Kunovich and Hodson, 2002; Morselli and Passini, 2014). Second, BiH has extensive anti-

discrimination legislation comparable to EU standards, but its effectiveness is limited (Kadribašić,

2013; Vinkovićand Bešlagić, 2011). Third, although the country’ssocialist heritage would imply a

relatively high degree of gender equality and little emphasis on social class,the contrary has been

identified (Björkdahl, 2012; The World Bank et al., 2015). Fourth, although one could expect

multinational companies to transfer diversity management to their Bosnian subsidiaries

(Alhejji et al., 2016; Bešićand Hirt, 2016; Hennekam et al., 2017), only a few appear to do so. So

exploring the case of BiH not only informs scholars and business practitioners interested in this

particular country, but it also offers insight beyond the specific geographic area into more general

debates about ethnic diversity, legislation, transition economies and multinational companies.

In alignment with the call for papers for this special issue of Equality, Diversity and

Inclusion, this paper is of descriptive nature. Drawing on the most recent available data, it

addresses the following research question:

RQ1. What are the characteristics of legislation, public debate and existing research on

workplace diversity and equality in BiH?

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we elaborate on the idiosyncratic country

context of BiH, responding to calls for detailed studies of debates on diversity and equality

(Klarsfeld et al., 2014, 2016; Nishii and Özbilgin, 2007; Syed and Özbilgin, 2009). Second, the

paper advances scientific knowledge on more general topics in the international diversity

and equality literature, such as the increasing importance of ethnic diversity ( Jonsen et al.,

2011; Ortlieb and Sieben, 2013); the role of legislation in organisational diversity and

equality practices (Edelman et al., 2001); the specific features of diversity and equality in

transition economies (Gradstein and Milanovic, 2004) and the challenges in global diversity

management (Nishii and Özbilgin, 2007).

The paper is structured as follows. The next section provides an overview of the

historical-political, economic and socio-demographic context in BiH. This background

information is helpful in understanding the extensive legislation which is summarised in

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