Diversity and Social Sustainability: A Systematic Review and Integrative Framework for Advancing Socially Sustainable Diversity Management

Abstract

Diversity is essential for social sustainability, yet its role in advancing social sustainability remains underexplored. This systematic and integrative review aims to integrate diversity literature with social sustainability and two key processes driving organisational sustainability—CSR and sustainable HRM. Drawing on 461 papers across three key literature streams—diversity-SS, diversity-sHRM, and diversity-CSR—we critically juxtapose the corporate-driven approach to diversity management, which conceptualises diversity as a business tool operating from an ‘inside-out’ profit-oriented perspective, with a socially sustainable approach. The latter, which we advance as an ‘outside-in and from within’ perspective, is anchored in the Common Good paradigm. This reconceptualisation positions diversity management as a pivotal interface between CSR and sustainable HRM, offering a framework through which global diversity challenges may be better addressed. Our contributions are twofold: first, we offer a systematic integration of the literature on diversity, social sustainability, CSR and sustainable HRM; second, we advance an innovative framework that reorients the diversity management research agenda through the lens of the Common Good, thereby supporting corporate social sustainability.