Embedding Social Justice in Diversity Management: Lessons from a Global Company

ABSTRACT

Despite recent political backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, many organizations and managers remain committed to advancing a social justice agenda. Yet translating social justice principles into practice remains challenging, with many well-intentioned efforts falling short. This paper aims to guide those managers in actively embedding social justice into their DEI initiatives. We conduct a detailed analysis of people management policies at a leading global company, which has received numerous awards for excellence in people management yet failed to truly implement social justice in its DEI initiatives. With a practical diagnostic tool, we uncover the origin of three mechanisms that explain why and how the social justice logic for diversity gets lost or diluted when translated into corporate DEI policies. To address these mechanisms, which are common in DEI implementation, we propose three recommendations. First, integrate DEI and social justice outcomes into people management key performance indicators (KPIs); second, expand DEI interventions beyond individual empowerment to include the systematic redesign of core organizational processes; third, rethink performance evaluation indicators and include a broader set of social justice criteria. Key words: Diversity management initiatives; social justice; equity; corporate policies, talent management.