The role of 'diversity' and 'disability' on the CSR agenda of MNCs

Details

Supervisors

Jammaers, Eline

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

Multinational corporations are increasingly realising the need to act more socially responsible and report such efforts to their stakeholders. At the same time, we observe that specific attention to disability still remains rare in CSR reporting. Although disability is a topic MNCs will want to address in the near future, for instance, one issue being the ageing of the workforce, increasing the number of people with disabilities in the workplace. Accordingly, this thesis aims to answer important questions such as: Do MNCs mention diversity and disability as a CSR issue in their reports? Is disability mentioned elsewhere in the reports? What are the challenges and key success factors for disability inclusion? What are the possible improvements for the future? Using a mixed-method approach, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the existing knowledge of diversity management and CSR reporting. First with a quantitative analysis of 81 reports of MNCs active in Belgium based on 24 indicators. Followed by a qualitative zoom-in on the meanings given to disability thanks to 10 interviews with experts and diversity managers. Findings suggests that a significant number of MNCs developed diversity & inclusion programmes. Besides, 38% of multinationals have shown a specific commitment to disability. However, when we look more into details, we see that mentions in specific employment policies remain very low. Accordingly, this study also provides managerial implications to better manage diversity by looking at challenges and success factors of disability inclusion in MNCs. This study has shed light on the need for managers to act for a strong inclusive culture and foster disclosure of initiatives as well as the need to measure performance in diversity & disability inclusion.