Inclusion Organisation in Universities : How Commitments Work

This open access book questions whether universities ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to diversifying their student and staff bodies towards including historically underrepresented social groups in higher education. Universities talk inclusion in terms of formally committing to principles of inclusion, equality and diversity and by joining equality charters and engaging with equality legislation and other inclusion-oriented organisations. Using the case study of the UK university sector, the author notes that whilst the empirical evidence for whether commitments work to make universities more demographically diverse is scant, organisational commitments play a role in helping universities meet the demands of a world where individual empowerment and organisational proactiveness are valued. The book proposes that organisational commitments have a ‘two-way function’ i.e., that of including people in universities (Function 1) and that of including universities in the organisational fields in which they operate (Function 2). A theoretical framework and an empirical research programme for investigating these two functions, the synergies and the tensions between them, is outlined. The book draws on a range of primary and secondary statistical data and on sociological institutionalist and organisational theories to move the discussion surrounding the talk and the walk of inclusion beyond rhetoric. It informs academic research in the fields of sociology, organisational studies, higher education and social inequalities. Additionally, the book offers practitioners a tool to understand and evaluate the perceived gap between the talk and the walk in universities when it comes to pursuing inclusion, but also in other settings where organisations formally commit to societal goals.