Creating a Culture of Diversity and Inclusiveness in India Inc. : Practitioners Speak

The book addresses the concept of diversity and inclusiveness (D&I) and brings stories from the corporate, practitioners, think tanks and NGOs. It advocates the need and implementation of the D&I concept to build society of the future. It strives to bring out a focused approach in connecting “Theory to Practice”. Every chapter delves into a different area and presents real-time practices as well as the challenges and the way forward. The book explains the various levels at which discrimination can occur such as demographic profiles, regional differences, religious alliances, college pedigree, marital status, sexual preferences, physical disability and health differentiation, pregnancy or returning mothers and technology competence. The book cites examples of inclusion from progressive organizations such as ABB India, Marico, TCS, PNB Metlife and Alsthom. Presenting the business case of D&I, the book emphasizes on creating a robust D&I strategy with a road map and alignment through internal and external frameworks as well as periodic audits. The Responsible, Accountable, Consultant and Informed (RACI) matrix is discussed while setting up the D&I analytics framework within the organization.

 

The book also presents the growing role of artificial intelligence tools that can empower employees to participate in the D&I journey of an organization. It shares how tools such as Balloonr, Glint, Organization View, Planbox, Pluto and Waggl have been specially designed to allow employees to anonymously provide ideas and respond to ideas provided by others. Going forward, the D&I practices will have to be more customized than generalized, and this book brings up real evidences to make its point

Kakoli Sen is Professor & Director at IILM Institute for Higher Education, New Delhi. She is Ph.D. in Management with 10 years of experience in the corporate and 15 years in academics and has done International consultancy assignments. Dr. Sen has held academic leadership positions and worked on developing international academic collaborations. Her research interests are women leadership and entrepreneurship. She has published research papers and cases in ABDC journals, Richard Ivey and Harvard Business Publishing. She teaches and trains in the areas of Organizational Behavior and People Management. She was conferred upon the World Education Congress award of 100 most dedicated professors in the year 2019. 

Sujata Shahi serves as Vice Chancellor of the IILM University, Gurugram. She has a diverse experience of 37 years in the field of education working in academic and administrative capacities. Dr. Shahi, a Ph.D. in Psychology, is Professor of OB & HR, with extensive research work in the areas of organization development, innovation at workplace and personal value systems. She has been adorned with many awards and accolades including the Chancellor Award for Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism. She is also the Recipient of the Achievers of Academic Excellence in Leadership Award. She has contributed to various journals, publications and international conferences with her research work. Dr. Shahi serves as Member of the key professional bodies like NHRD, FICCI, CII, etc.