A purpose-driven approach to diversity, equity and inclusion: An investigation on Italian companies

Most companies are adopting programs to manage diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) pushed by internal and external pressures. While DEI is a moral and ethical imperative as well as a business and strategic opportunity, there are both cases of success and failure when companies embrace DEI programs. This paper delves into the challenges that may undermine the implementation of DEI programs: organizational barriers, internal criticisms, and backlashes of DEI efforts, including the risk of reduced organizational cohesion. Moreover, it explores the potentiality of a purpose-driven approach to DEI to experience its benefits while minimizing its countereffects. The paper leverages the findings of a pluriannual and multimethod study conducted in Italy and based, in its explorative stage, on case studies, focus groups and interviews, followed by a survey involving 103 Italian companies. In particular, it focuses on the outcomes of the survey to investigate if and how Italian companies perceive the possible challenges related to their DEI commitment and try to connect DEI efforts to their purpose as a strategy to boost effectiveness. Despite the non-generalizability of the results, this study makes it emerge that Italian companies seem to be quite aware of the organizational barriers and the internal criticisms of their DEI efforts, with a lower awareness of the countereffects and especially of the risk of loss of cohesion. Additionally, results suggests that Italian companies seem to act proactively in order to adopt a purpose-driven approach that can frame DEI in a more effective way.