Including Minorities Within Organizations. A Research on Cultural Diversity in Italian Public Administration

The organizations operating in the public sphere can adopt various relational strategies to adapt to transformations linked to the presence of minorities and cultural diversities among its members. The emergence of the concept of diversity in the 1990s and the associated shifting of equal opportunities pose specific challenges in relation to minority employees. The aim of this study is to carry out a primary mapping of the diversity inclusion policies in Italian public administrations, as an emblematic example of the public sector in the Mediterranean area, and to analyse the factors that may favour the inclusion of minorities within organizations. Our approach integrates both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The research was organized in two phases: the first one was a monitoring of those public administrations sensitive to diversity policies; the second one was an analysis of 38 semi-structured interviews with privileged witnesses, including an analysis of the data and information from current activities of their organizations. An important element of originality of this contribution is that it investigates the perspectives and perceptions of the inhabitant of the Italian public administrations. Finally, this study offers concrete recommendations for the implementation of gender equality and diversity & inclusion in Italy, particularly in terms of training policies.