Given the reality of a diverse and multicultural workplace in Canada, and the benefits of inclusion for both employees and employers, it is reasonable for employers to consider the inclusion of immigrants. This study explored (a) skilled immigrants’ perceptions of inclusion in an energy company in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, (b) what these perceptions revealed about the diversity climate in the workplace, and (c) how these perceptions could inform and challenge the inclusion practices in the company. Eighteen participants were interviewed in-depth to determine their perceptions of a number of indicators of inclusion. The participants identified that communication (language and culture-specific communication styles), relationships, and organizational practices were salient in their experiences. Immigrants who had previous relevant work experience in the country reported the most positive experiences. The climate of the company led to strong perceptions of satisfaction and belonging, but low perceptions of fairness and equity. Suggestions for the company to improve its diversity and inclusion climate included attending to the experiences and development of women, contractors, and immigrants who are new to Canada or the company. Recommendations included initiatives to support relationships amongst employees, intercultural training and support for internationally educated professionals and Canadian colleagues including leaders, and talent management that would result in more cultural diversity at the senior leadership levels of the company.

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Thesis advisor: Christopher R. Matthews / Thesis advisor: Matthew Monnig / Much previous scholarship approaches Luke’s narrative of God’s salvation in Jesus as either salvation history or practical-apologetic history. Some Lukan scholars, like Robert C. Tannehill, Ernst Haenchen, Ben Witherington III, and Jack T. Sanders, argue that Luke offers an anti-Jewish interpretation of the gospel. They say that the inclusive nature of the gospel of Christ narrated in Luke-Acts implies a discontinuity with the Jewish origins of early Christianity. The problem under view in this study is the neglect in Lukan scholarship of the portrayal of diversity, universality, and inclusion among the Christ-believers in Luke-Acts. The literary approach to studies of Luke-Acts has not given enough attention to Luke’s implied audience as an ethnically diverse and inclusive Christ-believing group. This study asks how one navigates the relationship between ethnicity and inclusivity in the Lukan narrative of early Christian groups in Luke-Acts. This work performs a literary analysis of key pericopes—Luke 1:46-56, 67-79; 2:8-14, 29-32; 4:16-30; 7:1-10; and Acts 2:1-13; 10:1–11:18; 15:20, 29; 28:1-31—to discover Luke’s theological views regarding an ethnically diverse and inclusive Christ-believing group. My dissertation argues, from a literary perspective, with attention to ethnic reasoning and the Greco-Roman context of the late first and early second centuries CE, that Luke’s implied audience offers a good fit with an ethnically diverse and inclusive Christ-believing group that nurtures continuity with the God of Israel’s saving plan for all peoples, Jews and non-Jews alike. Luke’s narrative theology of God’s saving plan for the inclusion of Gentiles into the people of God connects with a/the “Jewish” story that is shown in Luke’s continuing interest in things “Jewish.” In this way, Luke shares a “Jewish” faith in that the God of Israel offers salvation to everyone by giving each a place in Christ as they relate together and fellowship in love. It demonstrates that Luke’s Christ-believing theology is a cosmopolitan Jewish “Christian” theology that is inclusive of Jews and Gentiles. It shows that in Luke-Acts, Jesus and the witnesses to his gospel are employed by Luke to build and consolidate a Gentile-inclusive Hellenistic Jewish Christ-believing theology. The rivalries among particular Jews and their fellow Jewish Christ-believers, and between Jewish Christ-believers and people of other ethnicities within the fold of Christ-believers, are expressions of sibling rivalries that reflect different perspectives of the Jewish way of life and other social, cultural, and ethnic differences. This does not create a structural dichotomy between positive early Christ-believers and negative non-Christian ethnic groups. This is important because, through Luke’s narrative, my work demonstrates the interconnection between ethnic diversity and inclusion among Christ-believers in Luke-Acts. In addition, this kind of separation is dubious because this dissertation does not presume a split between Judaism and Christianity at the time of Luke. My contribution shows that Luke’s indicators of a universalistic theology of ethnic inclusion do not deny interest in “Jewish” practices throughout Luke-Acts. My main point is that, for Luke, early Christ-believers were ethnically diverse and inclusive. Although some were Jews in the diaspora, they were also Greeks or Romans; they spoke like devout Gentiles who interacted with them. There were also Gentile Christ-believers who upheld and practiced the Jewish faith in Christ and recognized Jesus as the Spirit-anointed Messiah. It is precisely in this that Luke establishes his universalistic and inclusive theology of Hellenistic Jewish “Christian” faith in Jesus, the Lord and Messiah. This study concludes that Luke’s universalistic theology is grounded in Jewish ethnicity. Luke portrays in literary terms a form of Jewish Christ-believing ethnicity that constructs access for Gentiles to become part of the “Jewish” people of God. Therefore, Luke’s literary portrait of ethnicity can be viewed as broad, constructed, and ever-changing. The issue of Jewish identity in Luke-Acts can be seen from a constructivist perspective that opens up the Jewish ethnicity to include people of other ethnicities. Thus, Luke constructs his Jewish Christ-believing ethnicity universally and inclusively without ascribing negativity to particular ethnic heritages. An attractive hypothesis is that Luke writes in the context of a group that mirrors the mixed believers of the narrative. Contrary to some scholars, this work insists that Luke’s stories do not portray an anti-Jewish interpretation of the gospel and its spread. It affirms that a mere narrative analysis of Luke’s two books is insufficient to understand Luke’s theological narrative and rhetoric in Luke-Acts. Paying attention to the social context and situation portrayed within the narrative, Luke’s work shows that his Christ-believing way is participating in some form of “Jewishness.” When one considers the social framework of ethnic diversity and inclusion, however, one finds that it is precisely in the inclusion of Gentiles that continuing interest in things “Jewish” is upheld and legitimated. In this way, Luke demonstrates through his narrative a relationship between Christian origins and ethnic diversity. Based on my findings, the idea of a Lukan replacement theology is untenable because Luke’s theological narrative and rhetoric of sharing the gospel with Gentiles shows a continuous participation in Jewish life and practice. Furthermore, the scholarly dichotomy between Christian universality and Jewish particularity should be discarded because it is inattentive to the complex process of social belonging and identity construction. Using subtle rhetoric, Luke’s universalistic and inclusive perspective is expressed in literary and rhetorical terms without communicating that non-ethnic “Christian” universality is better than ethnic “Jewish” particularity. This implies that scholarly investigation into Jews and Jewish things, as well as other particular ethnicities in Luke-Acts, requires considering Luke’s theological narrative, literary and rhetorical interests, and social situation. This study proposes a way of reading Luke-Acts that considers the complexities and social circumstances reflected in the narrative of the two books and their intertextual connection. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Despite heightened efforts to increase gender parity, organizations in the technology industry are struggling to implement and enact Gender Diversity and Inclusion policies (GDIPs). This purpose of this dissertation was to enhance understandings of obstacles to policy enactment and unearth ways in which organizations can create more equitable work environments. Specifically, this project investigated how members of technology organizations construct knowledge about Gender Diversity and Inclusion policies through their personal experiences, attitudes and beliefs, and interactions with others within and external to their organization. Utilizing a critical-interpretivist and intersectional feminism as ontological and epistemological frameworks, this dissertation study draws from structurating activity theory (SAT; Canary, 2010) and theories of organizational identification (Scott, 2007) to explore issues of policy knowledge construction, implementation, and enactment. Completed in two phases,this dissertation employed a mixed-methods design. Phase One used DeVellis’ (2017) framework to develop a Gender Diversity and Inclusion policy attitude scale (GDIPAS) to evaluate how personal opinions about GDIPs and larger constructs like sexism, feminism, identification, and social desirability contribute to the policy knowledge construction process. Phase Two used a parallel analysis design to quantitatively (i.e., surveys) and qualitatively (i.e., interviews) investigate how members of tech-based organizations construct GDIP knowledge through intra- and extra-organizational interactions, as well as personal beliefs and attitudes (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). Phase One resulted in five-factors underlying Gender Diversity and Inclusion policy attitude: perception of policy abuse, policy familiarity, perception of workforce gender inequity, policy support, and perception of organizational gender diversity. Results from Phase Two indicated that members of technology organizations interact within and across activity systems to construct knowledge about GDIPs through structural contradictions that (re)produce barriers to policy implementation and enactment.This project contributed to organizational communication theory by investigating the role of organizational identification in the policy knowledge construction process. Further, this dissertation extended SAT by identifying two new structural contradictions and a primary system-level contradiction, and by centralizing power in the investigation of policy knowledge construction. Methodologically, this dissertation offers a new policy attitude measure for scholars and practitioners. Finally, results of this project provide practical insights into barriers to policy implementation and enactment.

While the number of African American women filling executive level positions in Fortune 500 companies in America has improved, there is still a need for significant improvements in increasing their access to corporate chief executive officer (CEO) positions. African American women occupy only 11.7% of the board seats, and their representation as CEOs has steadily declined. Throughout the history of Fortune 500 companies, there have been only 14 African American men with CEO titles. As of January 2017, there are no African American women CEOs. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences and perceptions of 15 African American women who aspire to be chief executive officers in corporate America. The experiences and perceptions of these women were examined to understand why there is a limited number of African American women CEOs despite their increase in executive level roles. The responses from 15 African American revealed that the increased numbers of these women in the executive leadership level resulted from diversity initiatives that made it possible for these women to return to school, and provided a context in which organizational leaders could recognize their talent. The organizations' use of diversity initiatives contributed to practices that legally allow them to minimize the number of minorities they hire at the executive level. The theoretical framework included elements from critical theory, critical race theory, and black feminist theory. The increased representation of these women at the executive level contributes to positive social change because the information adds to the existing literature on the lack of African American women CEOs in corporate America and may provide knowledge that will guide other women pursuing this role.

This thesis analyses the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) practices in international organizations, especially in the Hilti Group with a special focus on the Czech and Slovak market organizations. The goal is to develop recommendations for the improvement of Hilti's existing practice in gender, generational, global diversity and inclusion. The theoretical part provides an overview of the academic background of D&I, its management, evolution and trends with a special focus on gender and generational diversity. It is followed by best case practices for selected D&I benefits. As a next step, in cooperation with Hilti, a thorough analysis of gender, generational, global diversity and inclusion was conducted with the purpose of comparing global, regional and local outcomes. Moreover, this empirical part aims to get a deeper understanding of the current situation regarding D&I for the market organizations in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The hypothesis that Hilti has developed appropriate initiatives to further implement D&I into its culture, has been confirmed. For further improvement, some suggestions have been proposed. The recommendations for each diversity dimension (gender, generations, global) are based on the literature described in the theoretical part of this paper, best case practices, and also the own ideas of the author.

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<p>Racial tension in the United States has moved to the forefront in social discourse with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and elections of far-right wing politicians who provide support and empathy for White supremacist groups. In higher education, colleges and universities often serve as microcosms of the broader society’s racial climate. Experts have revealed that 56% of U.S. university presidents believed that inclusion and diversity had grown in importance between 2015-2017. Additionally, 47% of presidents at 4-year institutions stated that students had organized on their campus amid concerns about racial diversity. In attempts to combat the divisiveness present in American culture, colleges and universities have begun appointing Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) administrative positions to lead their inclusion and diversity missions to better support minoritized and marginalized communities. Experts estimate that nearly 80% of CDO positions were created in the last 20 years. Despite efforts to develop CDOs, higher education institutions sometimes struggle to foster inclusive and diverse environments. Recently, a small body of literature has been developed to better understand the CDO role in higher education. Predominantly White Land-Grant Universities (PWLGUs) have also seen an influx of issues related to diversity and inclusion over the years. The purpose of the current study was to uncover how CDOs see their role and responsibilities in the context of Predominantly White Land-Grant Universities. This study used Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework to examine how CDOs navigate their identities, the presence of racism, and the social climate of their university and the broader United States. This study was guided by five research questions, including one topical question which served to provide demographic information of the CDOs. The other four research questions covered barriers and successes of CDOs, how CDOs navigated their own identity while in the role of CDO, and how they observed the presence of racism at PWLGUs. Two rounds of interviews were conducted with seven CDOs at PWLGUs. Topic and pattern coding were used to analyze data via NVivo qualitative data analysis software. There were four findings for this study. First, racism has had a constant presence on, and at times has been supported by, land-grant universities further complicating the jobs of CDOs. Second, CDOs of color often connected elements of their identity to the responsibilities of the CDO position. Third, CDOs described ways in which inclusion and diversity were part of the purpose of land-grant universities and ways in which race factored into academic achievements of the institution, but then become afterthoughts in other elements of campus life. Finally, PWLGUs often invoke liberal processes and decision-making that further limits the capabilities of the CDO to foster inclusive and diverse campuses. Future study recommendations include comparing and contrasting CDOs of Color and White CDOs, CDOs at Minority-Serving Institutions with CDOs at Non-Minority Serving Institutions, and perception of satisfaction by people of color with the job of the CDO at their institution. </p>

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First-generation and low-income college graduates are an invisible minority within medicine that has gone largely unstudied. I explored their unique experiences to better understand how diversity and inclusion can be improved. Through gathering stories from students, residents, and attending physicians, I identified unique challenges that they face, and formulated strategies to address them. First-generation college graduates in medicine have a unique set of strengths, challenges, and opportunities that position them to be valuable physicians in the communities that they serve. The American Medical Association states that when minority students finish medical school and residency, they go on to serve society in a way that has not been done before. Furthermore, they are more likely to serve underserved and minority populations, in turn fostering justice and equity in medicine. Some of the qualities that most first-generation college graduates possess that make them well-suited to become successful physicians are resilience, self-motivation, and efficacy. Paving the path for future physicians is a tremendous pressure that can motivate or overwhelm them as they trailblaze their way through medicine. There is an accumulated disadvantage as they are more likely to be underprepared academically, to have less guidance, and to have more financial struggles. First-generation students have several traits that characterize them as an at-risk population in higher education; they take longer to complete their bachelor’s degree and have lower degree aspirations when compared with their peers. They also face moral distress and a growing disconnect as they balance their familial obligations with academics and experience social mobility. Though these are factors that impact their success in college, they do not cease to pose issues when they successfully enter medical school and have to navigate the culture and hierarchy of medicine, as well as the disparate allocation of resources in medical school as they are not deemed as underrepresented in medicine. By understanding these factors, administrators can strengthen pipeline programs and support systems. In supporting the next generation of first-generation physicians at all stages of their training, they can promote a workforce as diverse as the patients it serves. / Urban Bioethics