What do equality plans reveal about workplace equality and diversity in higher education and research performing organisations? : a content analysis approach

In the last two decades implementing Equality/Equal Opportunities/Diversity and Inclusion Plans have been becoming more and more widespread across both private and public organisations (Konrad–Linnehan 1995; Edwin 2001; Kalev–Kelly–Dobbin 2006; Coast 2013; Ali–Konrad 2017). Moreover, as a consequence of internationalisation, globalisation, and growing pressures for excellence, higher education institutions and research performing organisations (RPOs) had to tackle the challenges of growing student and faculty diversity, while addressing dimensions of diversity and inclusion driven by the moral obligation and forces of social justice, and the obligation to comply with legislation of non-discrimination and equal treatment, for protected characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicities, etc. Thus organisations in the research, development and innovation sector (RDI) started putting increasing emphasis on issues of equality and diversity (Otten 2003; Milem–Chang–Antonio 2005; Edwards 2015), and within their efforts of managing equality and diversity, setting up and implementing equality and diversity plans, too (Tandé 2017). Furthermore, in the European context, the European Commission has made important commitments to enhance gender equality in the European Research Area with the concrete objectives to remove barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers, to address gender imbalances in decision-making processes, and finally to integrate the gender dimension in research and innovation content (European Commission 2012, 2019). In the framework of the Horizon 2020 funding programme a large number of higher education institutions gained funds to implement Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) and therewith to induce structural change in the organisations. Introducing GEPs in higher education and research performing organisations became a driving force for the diversity efforts in the European RDI sector in the past decade. However, more research is necessary on how the content and the quality of equality or diversity plans in the RDI sector influence the potential for structural change in higher education and research performing organisations for becoming more diverse and inclusive.