Poor-inclusive workplace model: A relational perspective

Purpose: The theory building of inclusive workplace is still in its early stages, particularly concerning the inclusion of the poor in the developing countries. Through the exploration of social entrepreneurial inclusion, this study extends the inclusive workplace theory by featuring the inclusive dynamism of organizations for the poor in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach was selected, as the goal of this study is to build on the theory in an under-researched area. This qualitative study is described as theory elaboration as it expands upon theoretical links that have received little attention among workforce diversity scholars. Findings: We have established a conceptual framework of social entrepreneurial inclusion, which encompasses the following normative themes: organizational perspective for promoting social equality, empowering relationships, a sense of inclusion, organizational access to valuable resources and empowered inclusion. Research limitations/implications: Although we have taken an exploratory qualitative approach and made efforts to report our data neutrally, we acknowledge that the ethical and theoretical positions taken in analyzing the data may have influenced the outcome of this research and, therefore, our findings can never be truly objective. We also acknowledge that this study was conducted in developing countries, thus the poor inclusive workplace model is not generalizable for the poor in developed countries due to different institutional and ecological settings. Practical implications: We have illustrated the importance of business leaders leveraging the opportunities in the space between interdependency of individuals and organizations through doing well by doing good. Poor-inclusive workplaces need business leaders who can demonstrate the effective interpersonal skills to develop constructive and personalized relationships with the workers, the family and community members to encourage the idea that the poor be included in the workplace. Social implications: The findings from this study also infer how corporations may collaborate with SEs and humanitarian agencies for inclusive growth so they can simultaneously unleash economic value and social value to develop more effective poor-inclusive business models in both sectors. Social entrepreneurs (SEs) and humanistic agencies tend to have situated knowledge of the poor in terms of locally embedded needs and knowledge of the community that corporations do not have. Originality/value: This paper promotes the integrative workplace models of inclusion where inclusion of poor is empowered through involvement of multiple parties inside and outside workplaces. The empowered inclusion outcomes are strengthened through organizational access to valuable resources at the institutional level.