Applying Procedural Justice Theory to Successfully Manage Ethnic, Religious, and Cultural Diversity across the Local, Organizational, and Societal Landscape

Colloquium
Tess Heirwegh,  Cathérine Van De Graaf,  Barbara Valcke,  Kim Dierckx  

Our multidisciplinary research team, based at Ghent University, has consistently aimed to contribute to scholarship on how multicultural issues can be managed at three distinct levels: the local, organizational, and societal level. As such, the project positions itself at the intersection of the central themes of this conference. The colloquium intends to offer a new perspective on ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity management, by addressing how procedural justice enactment can facilitate multicultural conflict resolution. We approach this objective from various methodological angles (surveys, interviews, and lab experiments), incorporating views and insights from social psychology and human rights law. After introducing the theory and our joint project, the participants will engage with elements and effects of procedural justice in four different settings and, thus, operationalise the empirical understanding of this concept for diversity management. To conclude, common grounds and practical implications will be discussed. Presentations: Optimizing human rights realization by exploring and developing local authorities’ procedural fairness approaches to prevent and address multicultural conflicts: a case study analysis in four Belgian municipalities (Heirwegh); How bias contributes to perceptions of discrimination and procedural (in)justice. A study of discriminatory incidents across public and private organizations through the narratives of those who reported them to the Belgian National Equality Body (Van de Graaf); The complex relationship between organizational diversity, procedural fairness, team member psychological safety and team performance: evidence from a multinational company (Dierckx); Societal actors shape collective identities of minorities: procedural fairness climate effects on identification, subjective well-being and psychological health (Valcke)