Social innovation in managing diversity: COVID-19 as a catalyst for change

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-07-2021-0171
• Published date: 10 January 2022
• Date: 10 January 2022
• Pages: 709-725
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Deni̇z Palalar Alkan,Mustafa Ozbilgin,Rifat Kamasak

Social innovation in managing

diversity: COVID-19 as a catalyst

for change

Deni_z Palalar Alkan

Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

Mustafa Ozbilgin

Brunel University, London, UK, and

Rifat Kamasak

Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Purpose –Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had an adverse impact on workforce diversity

internationally. While in the Global North, many countries have sophisticated laws and organizational

mechanisms and discourses to deal with such adverse impacts on workforce diversity, such structures of

diversity management are either ceremonial or poorly developed in the Global South. The global pandemic

disproportionately impacted Global North and Global South increases the existing gap due to vaccine rollout

inequality and divergence in recoveries. The authors explore social innovation as a possible option for

responding to the challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach –The study draws on interviewsin 26 distinctive organizations operating

in various industries in Turkey. The authors have adopted a qualitative design to explore how social

innovation helps to respond to diversity concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Findings –The authors demonstrate that social innovation presents a viable option for a country with a

poorly regulated context of diversity management. Social innovation could help overcome the challenge of the

absence of supportive legislation, discourses and practices of diversity in poorly regulated contexts.

Originality/value –The field study revealed several distinct forms of social innovation for diversity

management, which emerged as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors demonstrate that in the

absence of supportive diversity management structures and frameworks, social innovation in diversity

management at the organizational level could provide a viable response to the emergent needs in the context of

the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords Global south, COVID-19, Diversity management, Social innovation, Working mothers, Class

diversity, Emic diversity categories

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020.

Since this declaration, studies have identified that the COVID-19 pandemic had an uneven

impact by gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, age, social and economic class, and

other socio-demographic categories. For example, the World Economic Forum (2021) survey

shows that the pandemic had an adverse impact on gender and other forms of equality (UN,

2020). The pandemic exacerbated the inequalities between Global North and Global South

(Worldbank, 2021). We address Global South as countries with less advanced economies and

Social

innovation in

managing

diversity

709

The conflict of interest statement: The authors whose names are listed immediately below certify that

they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest

(such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’bureaus; membership, employment,

consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing

arrangements) or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations,

knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

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 10 July 2021

Revised 4 November 2021

2 December 2021

Accepted 24 December 2021

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 41 No. 5, 2022

pp. 709-725

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-07-2021-0171

institutions, which have less impact in international policymaking and economic decisions,

and the Global North as countries with more advanced economic, social and institutional

systems and regulatory measures. Common to both the Global North and Global South,

COVID-19 has reportedly increased gender gaps in countries such as Brazil, Canada,

Colombia, Costa Rica, where women have been dropping out of the workforce market at a

relatively higher rate than men in the pandemic (World Economic Forum, 2021). Although

few studies were published on organizational responses to the COVID-19 in the Global North

(OOkonkwo et al., 2020;Sokol and Pattaccini, 2020), there is limited research on how

organizations in the Global South innovated to tackle workforce diversity challenges in

COVID-19 (Saad-Filho and Ayers, 2020). Drawing on a qualitative study in a country from the

Global South where diversity management is ceremonially regulated by law, where

organizations are not held accountable and responsible, and where discourses are not always

supportive, we explore how organizations use social innovation for diversity management as

an alternative approach to counteract the adverse impacts of the pandemic on workforce

diversity. Our study reveals three categories of social innovation for workforce diversity:

social innovations for working mothers, class and other emic concerns. There are four emic

social innovation categories specific to Turkey. These are social innovations for diversity by

common birthplace bias, poverty and digital literacy. The study demonstrates how social

innovation could provide a viable alternative in contexts where diversity structures at the

national, organizational and discourse levels are poorly developed, as is typical in the Global

South. Thus, the study could shed light on how organizations in the Global South mobilize

social innovation to promote and manage diversity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Theoretical framework: social innovation and diversity management

The description of social innovation refers to developing innovative programs, services and

models to fulfill a social need (European Commission, 2011). Mulgan (2006, p. 146) defines

social innovation as “interventions to address a social need that is diffused through

organizations whose primary purposes are social.”Social innovation focuses on blending

people and communities’concerns as “integration of two key knowledge domains of business

innovation and social awareness and the process of collective idea generation, selection and

implementation by people who participate collaboratively to meet social challenges”(Dawson

and Daniel, 2010, p. 10). There are numerous reasons why profit-seeking organizations

implement social innovation, such as attaining financial returns, increasing their societal

impact and adopting principles of environmentalism (Smith et al., 2020). Previous research

has primarily explored social innovation within the domain of not-for-profit organizations

(Pol and Ville, 2009;Rueede and Lurtz, 2012;Bridgstock et al., 2010) and elaborating social

innovation within the domain of for-profit institutions needs further attention.

Social innovation can address several social problems and needs of vulnerable groups, i.e.

lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTþ), black and ethnic minority groups, elderly

and people with disabilities (Galego et al., 2021;Kamasak et al., 2020;Moulaert and

MacCallum, 2019). One of many social innovation methods organizations implement includes

building alliances, implementing green management techniques (Mirvins and Googins, 2018),

promoting volunteer work (De Wit et al., 2017) to create a deeper connection with the

community, people and the environment. For example, for-profit companies implement social

innovation via (1) social intrapreneurship, (2) partnering with social entrepreneurs, (3) pro

bono problem-solving via co-creation of innovative solutions with non-governmental

organizations (NGOs) and (4) company-wide adoption of social innovation methods (De Wit

et al., 2017). In addition, Pol and Ville (2009) argue that social innovation is the “generation and

implementation of new ideas that carry the potential to improve the quality and quantity of

work–life.”In this context, social innovation can be a novel method to manage workforce

diversity in organizations.

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