Cross-Cultural Differences in Online Corporate Communication About Diversity A Comparison of Companies From 15 Countries on the Way How They Communicate About the Workforce Diversity on Corporate Websites

A globalization of the modern world and demographic shifts in the society have led to a growing interest of organizations in the topic of workforce diversity. Research in the fields of management and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reveals that managing diversity at the workplace has the potential implications for organizational outcomes, depending on how companies approach it. At the same time, organizations worldwide have started to communicate about diversity issues on their corporate websites, making implicit their motives to tackle workforce diversity. Yet, little to no advancements have been made in terms of researching cross-country differences in the way organizations address and approach the topic of workforce diversity and the role of a national culture in shaping the latter. Applying a theoretical framework provided by Thomas and Ely (2001), the study compares companies from 15 countries with the biggest economies in the world regarding the way they report on workforce diversity on their corporate websites. Countries are compared based on their cultural set of values, defined by Hofstede (2001) as level of individualism. The paper employs quantitative content analysis as a research method and analyses 150 corporate websites by evidence of workforce diversity communication, type of diversity addressed, and diversity management perspective applied by a company. The study contributes to the underdeveloped literature on the topic of online workforce diversity communication by revealing cultural patterns in organizational reporting on the topic. It is then revealed that the level of individualism in the country positively correlates to evidence of online diversity promotion. Moreover, even though for most of types of diversity reported the association with individualism scores was not identified, the analysis showed significance for promoting equal rights for people with any gender identity and sexual orientation, and for those with different educational and professional backgrounds. Finally, there is a significant relationship between diversity perspectives applied by a company and level of individualism in the country.