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The capability to work within a diverse team is of growing importance given the changing nature of work (WEF 2016; WEF 2020), the rise of teams as a site of knowledge production, flatter hierarchies and diverse workforces. To date, however, the dominant focus of diversity and inclusion scholarship, as well as that concerning team effectiveness, has been on the relationship between an individual and a whole group, rather than between peers within the group. The primary objective of this research was to explore the nature of interpersonal inclusion between peers in workplace teams, and thus to illuminate the black-box mediating the relationship between diversity and performance (Lawrence 1997). This study complements and expands inclusion scholarship (e.g. Shore et al. 2011; Shore et al. 2018) and team member exchange theory (Seers 1989; Seers et al. 1995) by foregrounding peer relationships; proposing a taxonomy of three factors which characterise interpersonal inclusion between peers (namely instrumental assistance, emotional bond and embodied connection), as well as their antithesis in relation to interpersonal exclusion; and identifying interpersonal inclusion as a social exchange process. This process enables team members to give and access resources, which contributes to individual job performance and, ultimately, team effectiveness. In addition, interpersonal inclusion acts a gateway to team level inclusion, and thus a more positive psycho-social experience as well as a larger pool of resources. By focussing on peer relationships, the extant research provides a more comprehensive picture of the inclusion/exclusion experience than previously identified. In particular, acts of interpersonal inclusion between peers are highly noteworthy for team members, and occur four times more frequently than acts of interpersonal exclusion. Moreover, the behaviours of interpersonal inclusion are equally salient to, and prevalent for, team members who perceive themselves as more similar to the group, as well as those who perceive themselves as more different. Experiences between peers diverge however in relation to interpersonal exclusion, with those who perceive themselves as different to the group being three times more likely to report acts of interpersonal exclusion than those who perceive themselves similar. This reduces access to resources and thus hampers the ability to perform tasks which are critical to individual job performance. The taxonomy of interpersonal inclusion between peers, and relationship between interpersonal inclusion/exclusion and individual job performance as well as team effectiveness, was developed through an interview-based study, and the taxonomy validated through a second ethnographic case study. The ethnographic study was undertaken with a team working virtually, and thus provides insights into, and practical ideas about how to generate, interpersonal inclusion between peers in a virtual setting. Both studies were conducted within a Global Consulting firm located in Australia. Given the diversity of staff within a Consulting firm, the frequency with which consultants cycle through project teams and thus the importance of high-quality soft skills to high quality peer relationships, this research is relevant to professional service firms which follow a similar "industry recipe" (Spender 1989, p. 6).

Women across many sectors have often found themselves disadvantaged when it came to assuming different managerial positions, with less opportunities in comparison with their male counterparts. This research aims to explore and investigate how leaders and managers as individuals hold positions of dominance in different business sectors can work under certain circumstances and challenging conditions; from experiencing life under rigid settings, to social peculiarities in the Saudi Arabian context. As such, these overlap with other aspects of social, legal, cultural, traditional, and psychological aspects, uncovering the hidden foundations of resources, procedures, authority, work paths and defects that lead to organisational outcomes and divide between genders. Bourdieu`s theory of symbolic capital and symbolic violence, is adopted in this study which would provide empirical support for this study. The Bourdieusian- notion of symbolic capital and symbolic violence would provide a hypothetical foundation for this study's exposure of the social and cultural dynamics which influences the gender experiences of business leader, both male and female. In addition, a conceptual framework was developed for identifying the various constructs and relationships between them (to be investigated and evaluated) in this study, which included leadership traits, social, cultural, legal, and personal factors. A qualitative interpretivist philosophical approach is adopted for achieving the research aim. Accordingly, semi-structured interviews with 33 participants (including both male and female) leaders in Saudi Arabia are conducted. The initial findings of this research have provided an understanding of Saudi leadership experiences in public and private sector. While government policy such as vision 2030 has been a widely used tool in developing and supporting the role of women in the workplace and positions of leadership, evidence in the research suggests that gender misrepresentation and inequality issues still exist in Saudi Arabia. While gender-specific issues in the workplace were believed to have applied only to women, men have equally had their experiences shaped by similar issues. This study confirms that male/female leaders continue to face several challenges preventing them from achieving equitable representation. Male leaders remain advantaged with access to a higher number of opportunities to help them in their careers, yet they are equally anxious about current competition conversely. The focus of this investigation would not be placed on the gender differences by themselves, but on the ways, these differences can influence organisational performance. This study has both theoretical and practical implications. Firstly, it addressed the gaps in the literature, especially the application of western concept of gender equalities in conservative country of Saudi Arabia, by including the opinions of both male and female genders, and also consideration of social, cultural and legal factors of influence, which led to the interesting findings, reflecting the gendered inequalities greatly affecting women and partially affecting men due to the traditional practices at workplace. Secondly, this study has several practical contributions: presenting a comprehensive view on current practices at workplace in Saudi Arabian organizations reflecting the existence of gendered inequalities. Furthermore, this study formulated policy recommendations as well as recommendations for public and private sector organisations wishing to promote gender equality, making a strong practical contribution.

Since the advent of the internet and the subsequent development of online gaming, video games have had the capacity to connect people together in ways never previously imaginable. Despite being an industry with more has three billion players, it has largely gone unrecognised by diversity and inclusion practitioners and remains relatively unexplored. Despite its relative success, white males dominate both in terms of audience and video game developer demographics. Only 28% of the workforce is female, compared to 45% across all industries, with BAME groups equally underrepresented. The problem is exacerbated by newly released games that fail to appropriately address diversity issues, preventing them from attracting a diverse talent pool and reaching broader societal audiences. This study, concentrates on the British video game industry, extending previous research on diversity and inclusion management by investigating the extent to which strategic approaches are used to promote workforce diversity, examining the challenges, and providing a structured framework for dealing with them. This study also investigates the social, cultural, and environmental effects of team diversity (independent variable) and the factors that influence team performance (i.e., product quality, productivity, effectiveness, and ability to achieve the organisation's mission (dependent variable)). The focus diversity dimensions studied in this research are gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnic origin, and level of education. The effects of creativity (mediator variable) and conflict (moderator variable) are also investigated. This thesis is based on a case study analysis conducted in a large company in the British video games industry. The research paradigm is critical realism, and the study draws on mixed methods, due to the exploratory and confirmatory aims of the research objectives and questions. The qualitative analysis is based on data gathered through personal observations, company sources, and 33 semi-structured interviews, with each interviewee contacted using snowball sampling. The quantitative analysis is based on empirical data gathered from a company-wide survey with a sample size of 147. Both analyses were triangulated to answer the research questions. This thesis extends the limitations of existing literature by presenting a six-step strategy for managing diversity, built on practices harvested from case study analysis. Similarly, providing evidence that team performance is enhanced through fostering creativity and effectively managing conflict.

The research aim is to explore, women managers' lack legitimacy with senior management for allocation to CAE management positions and, how this damages women managers' promotion opportunities for partner roles in the elite Professional Service Firms (PSFs). The conceptual frame utilises Bourdieu's theories of cultural capital, habitus and field analysis (1991, 1989, 1986, 1984), to find the symbolic capital or legitimate competence (Ozbilgin and Tatli, 2011, 2005) which male-dominated partner gatekeepers within their networks of power use to confer candidates legitimacy for promotion. A core argument of this Doctorate is these gatekeepers' informal networks reproduce existing gender inequalities (Acker, 2012, 2006, 2004) for partner promotion in the PSFs. The study is multi-level (Layder, 2012, 1998, 1993) and relational (Ozbilgin and Vassilopoulou, 2018) covering macro, meso and micro levels, overcoming the duality between structure and agency (Ozbilgin and Tatli, 2011, 2005), and surfaces hidden gender inequalities. The research methods involves a combination of critical realist ontology (Bhasker, 1989), and a feminist epistemology for the research. The field study includes 76 qualitative semi-structured and, in-depth interviews of female and male partners, female and male middle managers in global PSFs. The study used multiple methods including secondary statistics, observations and memos (Layder, 1998, 1993) from the individual cases embedded within two in-depth cases-study organizations (Yin, 2012, 2003). The research contribution identifies the competing logics which legitimise gender inequalities in the field. Additionally, cultural capitals especially symbolic capital valued by the gatekeepers in their networks of power, and how field logic(s) mitigate against women gain legitimacy for entry to the senior management field. To surface hidden informal practices used by gatekeepers which undermine women managers' legitimacy for promotion, and persistent talent leakage are explored. Women who use their own agency to instigate SIE assignments can enhance their career capital portfolios in early and middle career stages but, this incorporates career capital gains and losses (Duberly and Cohen, 2010).

The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of non-governmental organisations in legitimising inclusion of sexual minorities in Turkey and the UK. The main contributions of this research are to extend the concept of legitimacy that institutional theory has a merely generic view on; and to understand establishing homonormative institutions in heteronormative structures in Turkey and the UK through LGBT Organisations (NGOs). For this reason, the thesis firstly discusses the process from the LGBT movement to LGBT NGOs that encompass three phases of the legitimising process which are the establishment of the movement, community organisation, and creating NGOs. The thesis pays special attention to LGBT organisations in terms of understanding agency of LGBT individuals with regard to institutional legitimacy in society; the challenges and experiences that the LGBT organisations report; and how members of the organisations understand and experience discrimination due to lack of legitimacy in society. This research is based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with 40 individuals who work for LGBT organisations in both countries (20 in Turkey and 20 in the UK). Having adopted the snowball sampling technique, I reached the members of LGBT organisations which are registered in ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) in the context of both countries. However, I additionally conducted interviews with GBAs (Gay Business Associations) for the UK due to the fact that the process of reaching the organisations in the UK was difficult in comparison to Turkey. Having used a thematic analysis of the interviews and a documentary analysis of the grey literature which comes from studies and reports of LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK, I conducted a cross- cultural comparative analysis amongst the countries. As far as theoretical lenses for this research are concerned, having adopted the institutional theory, I also borrowed the concepts of capital and symbolic violence from Bourdieu. The findings demonstrate five key themes that are classified across macro- national, meso- organisational, and micro- individual levels. At the macro national level, the findings suggest that regulations and visibility are pertinent themes in terms of legitimising inclusion of LGBT individuals, facilitated by the visibility of LGBTs. At the meso level, the thesis explores the organisation of LGBT organisations for the purpose of demonstrating main motivation of the organisations to gain legitimacy both before the law and in society. At the micro level, the thesis focusses on individuals' experiences regarding discrimination and violence that provides evidence for understanding the adverse impacts of lack of legitimacy. This research makes a comprehensive contribution to the LGBT literature that mostly focuses on experiences of LGBTs in the workplace and adopts an individual level of analysis. Keywords: Sexual Minorities, LGBTs, NGOs, LGBT organisations, LGBT NGOs, legitimacy, institutional theory, Turkey, the UK.

This research aims to explore how Turkish business leaders tackle and navigate challenges in times of crisis. Recent Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, Turkey triggered a multilayered crisis. These protests lasted more than two months, having long-term effects on Turkey’s social, cultural and economic life. Therefore, this thesis considers these Gezi Park protests as a crisis for food sector business leaders in the neighbourhood. This research examines leaders’ processes of dealing with the protests, by drawing on interviews with 40 leaders in the food sector. First, it investigates how these leaders addressed the protests, as leaders’ responses affected their businesses. Secondly, it discusses challenges experience by leaders during the protests. Finally, it investigates leaders ‘coping mechanisms’ in the face of challenges. The thematic analysis of data suggests that those leaders who helped the protestors by opening their doors prioritised humanity before any ideology. These leaders put humane values first, such as acting with conscience, feeling empathy and feeling compassion despite having opposing political views. This behaviour is considered successful leadership behaviour. Conversely, those leaders who put their self-interests first by closing their doors to the protestors are considered unsuccessful leaders. It emerged that leaders faced emotional, physical, interpersonal and financial challenges during the protests. Leaders coped with challenges by remaining hopeful about the future, by being patient, by being supported by family and friends, by becoming accustomed to the challenges, and by adopting an exit strategy.

This thesis investigates talent management challenges in public and private organizations in Saudi Arabia. The lack of studies into talent management challenges has motivated the researcher’s work, in particular focusing on whether talent management challenges are applicable to both private and public organizations. In order to answer the research questions, the researcher reviews previous research related to talent management in general and talent management challenges in particular. A list of talent management challenges was provided and then those challenges were linked to institutional theory. The researcher used semi-structured interviews to collect primary data. 18 human resource managers, 8 private organizations, and 8 public organisations were interviewed. The researcher after that transcribed the interview one by one. This was followed by applying manual coding. The researcher’s findings suggest that there are three types of challenges, firstly, challenges those can be found in private and public organizations, secondly, talent management challenges that can be found in public organizations, thirdly, talent management challenges that can be found in private organizations.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the KSA) has a rapidly growing and diversifying economy that has made significant progress in manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. However, the KSA remains a difficult place for the practice of human resources management (HRM) because of, among other factors, a large non-native workforce and a majority of family-owned firms. These complicating factors mean that, in Saudi firms, HRM practices are adopted in a gradual manner and specifically, training programs are conducted with a view to develop talents and improve worker performance. The study explored the current state of HRM practices in KSA, perception on the training programs conducted and training effectiveness captured as ‘Intent to participate’. The study primarily used qualitative as well as quantitative data collected from family-owned business firms. It helps to gain a deeper understanding of how perceptions on training programs vary across different organisations and demography of the trainees that include age, qualification and experience. A framework predicting intent to participate by the perception on training programs was developed based on the review of extant literature. In order to capture the differences in the perception on training programs across different organisations, age, qualification and experience, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used. Results show that perception differed across organisations, age, qualification and experience. In order to predict intent to participate by perception on training programs, multiple regression analysis was used. Results show that perception on identification of training needs, clarity of objectives, training design, behavioural modification and performance improvement predict intent to participate. The researcher also explored perception on training programs in family-owned business firms by conducting an interview with 33 HR managers using a semi-structured interview schedule. The HR managers belong to those companies where the employees hail from. The schedule was developed and standardised using content validity and reliability. The study also gained insights into various areas of training required by the employees in order to achieve their business results. It further provides inputs in terms of HR concerns and suggested HR Interventions to make the management training function better aligned and integrated. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for firms on implementing management training effectively. Ultimately, the study proposes a model of training for family-owned businesses in the KSA.