The Mercuri Urval Research Institute (MU RI) has updated the literature review with research on Inclusion and Diversity within the context of working life, business, management, leadership, and recruitment, covering studies published from 2023-2024. The research in this field continued to grow during 2023-2024, whereas results have remained consistent with those from the preceding years1.
The findings emphasise the positive impact of inclusion on work performance, whereas effects of diversity alone remain inconclusive, thus highlighting the need for prioritising inclusion in recruitment and training processes to enhance organisational outcomes, and promoting inclusive leadership and inclusive workplaces to successfully reap the benefits of diversity.
In recruitment and selection assignments, the prioritised task for MU is to contribute to client result through finding the candidates that will be successful in a specific position in a specific context. An important precondition for a successful recruitment process is to ensure the inclusion of a large group of plausible candidates in the candidate pool that in the selection process can match the requirements for success in the specific position in the specific context. Such an inclusive recruitment process will both increase the base rate in the candidate pool and have a positive effect on diversity2. Inclusion is in this context a necessity for successful leader recruitment and it also brings diversity in the candidate pool and among the selected leaders3.
This publication reaffirms MU's commitment to fostering inclusive leadership and workplaces, advocating for processes that ensure fairness and transparency. The MU stance on inclusion and diversity along with MU Leader Selection Science® has support in the recent research.
For more detailed insights and practical implications of the research, stakeholders and practitioners in recruitment, HR, and leadership development are invited to access the full review; Research on Inclusion & Diversity 2025.
1Jonsson, E. (2023b). Research on Inclusion and Diversity – Review 2020-2022. MU Research Institute.
2 Jonsson, E. (2023a). Diversity Analysis. Gender distribution in the MU Selection process 2019 - 2021. MU Research Institute.
3 Mercuri Urval (2022). MU Key Values and Principles.