Projects / Programmes
Upravljanje z raznolikostjo v slovenskih podjetjih: raziskovalna analiza (Slovene)
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.01.02 |
Social sciences |
Educational studies |
Adult education |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.03 |
Social Sciences |
Educational sciences |
Researchers (9)
Organisations (2)
Significance for science
As part of this research project we conducted a detailed research, which is the first of its kind for Slovenia (the research had several phases: a case study of two companies, semi-structured interviews with 20 companies and the survey on a sample of more than 300 large and medium-sized enterprises). The results of the analysis answer the question on the attitude of Slovenian companies to diversify (i.e. diverse individual personal characteristics), the extent to which Slovenian companies use individual measures in this area and how they are dealing with a variety of strategic considerations.
The survey results show that the majority of Slovenian companies consider diversity of employees' as positive, but most of them (with the exception of 9 percent of companies) do not deal with diversity systematically. Moreover, most companies have not yet considered a diversity management or have not yet recognized the potential opportunities it might bring. A non-negligible share of the companies, use some concepts of diversity management (e.g. allowing flexible working hours, mentoring scheme for younger staff, extra training leave and unpaid leave for any reason, the promotion of paternity leave and commitment to supplier diversity), even though this comes more or less spontaneous. The results show that domestically owned companies significantly less know the diversity management practices than multinational companies. Companies openly admit that they are lacking of specific knowledge and finances for diversity management.
The results of large survey analysis will be published as an original scientific article in an international scientific journal.
Significance for the country
Slovenia as a small open economy adopts the characteristics of global socio-economic environment and is development is moving towards greater diversity of individuals in the business, educational, cultural and social life. Diversity is inevitably reflected in the increasingly open labor market, to which significantly contribute also migrations, increasing international mobility in the education system, aging population and the development of advanced information and communication technologies that enable new forms of work. In this trends Slovenian companies neglect a natural passenger of these changes - the strategic diversity management.
The research team has significantly contributed to the knowledge and awareness of diversity management, of the potential that can be extracted from diversity management, of best practices of domestic and foreign companies and of guidelines for the development of diversity management strategy in the companies. This has been achieved via a monograph publication and the handbook for managers, which are both publically available free of charge on the internet, public presentation of the research results, organization of the round table with guests from practice and publications in reviews (Manager, Dnevnik, Aktiv). This is to our opinion valuable as the diversity management is undeveloped in Slovenian companies. The results lead to broadening of new knowledge of diversity management and the awareness that diversity of employees is of much importance for the company. The results also imply how a company can use the diversity as a source of its comparative advantage (e.g. higher creativity of the employees, better marketing for a diverse consumer and business partners, better interpersonal relationship on workplace, and consequently lower fluctuation and absenteeism. The improvements on company (i.e. microeconomic) level have significant macroeconomic effects in higher labor productivity and higher economic growth, as diversity management aims at better utilization of human resources.
Most important scientific results
Final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Final report
