Exeter Diversity and Inclusion Workshop Report.

In November, 2015, EASP provided generous support for the Exeter Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Workshop. The workshop brought together an international and interdisciplinary team, consisting of Dr Kim Peters (University of Queensland, Australia), Dr Tim Kurz (University of Exeter, UK), Dr Anne O'Brien (University of Exeter, UK) and Dr Robyn Remke (University of Copenhagen) for two days of collaborative analysis of a substantial qualitative data set. The dataset consisting of 64 face-to-face interviews with high-level managers in a major, multi-site, national research organisation who were asked to share their perspectives on key D&I issues for the organisation, their observations and experiences of D&I in the organisation to date and the implications of these issues for their own leadership work. The aim of the workshop was to use this data set to guide the development of theory that could scaffold successful management of D&I – recognised as one of the most important challenges facing contemporary organisations.

Over the course of the workshop, the team made good progress towards achieving the workshop's aims. Specifically, on Day 1 team members shared insights that resulted from their individual analysis of the data, with a particular focus on the similarities and differences that were associated with their discipline-specific perspectives. On Day 2, the team worked to identify common themes and promising avenues for theoretical development. These ideas formed the basis for a successful submission to EGOS (we will present our paper in Naples, July 2016) as well as a small research grant proposal to ISRF. We are continuing to pursue these ideas collaboratively with the aim of submitting a theoretical paper for the Academy of Management Review special issue on Diversity at a critical juncture: New theories for a complex phenomenon (due 1/02/2017).

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to EASP for facilitating this very productive workshop.