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The benefits of green space and nature are increasingly recognized and translated into public health policy and practice. Alongside this trend, inclusion of all people into parks and nature has been an important area of parks and recreation practice. Nature inclusion for those with disabilities, youth, seniors and immigrants has become a focus of Alberta Parks in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism Parks and Recreation in Western Canada. This study was designed to examine the experiences of participants in two such government-supported inclusive nature activities, including day trips and more extensive week-end or week-long nature experiences for adults with disabilities and caregivers.

Two phases of qualitative data collection occurred as part of a pilot project. The first phase was comprised of eight semi-structured interviews (four adults with cognitive, developmental, emotional/mental health or physical disabilities and four caregivers). In a second phase 27 participants (also adults with a range of disabilities and paid, voluntary or family caregivers) engaged in a semi-structured reflective writing process during the existing nature activities (day trip, week-end or week-long inclusive nature experiences).

This is one of the first studies in the field to embrace the benefits of adopting both a human capabilities approach, emphasizing that human diversity is fundamental to equality and development, and an ecopsychological view, with a concern for individual perspectives and well-being as fundamentally interconnected to the environment.

Three dominant qualitative themes of inclusive nature experiences emerged: ‘Sensory Activation’, ‘Reimagined Social Relations’ and ‘Reinvented Self’. Inclusion in nature for both caregivers and adults with disabilities holds promise as an activity that can support mental well-being through a reimagining and equalizing of relationships and one’s experience of self in the physical environment.

Such evidence is important for decision-making and programme development among collaborative partners, including not-for profit disability-related recreation organizations and both public health and parks departments of government. In particular, the findings highlight areas for further activity development targeting those with sensory impairment and relationship disharmony.

Although skilled migrants have a high capacity for integration, many report experiences of exclusion which impacts their ability to contribute fully to the host country. This experience of exclusion, which can diminish their self-efficacy at work, is especially acute for skilled migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds when functioning in a new or exclusionary environment. In this paper, we explore the relationship between workplace inclusion and self-efficacy and identify factors that contribute to perceived inclusion for skilled migrant workers.

Participants were recruited through social network groups representing migrant workers via LinkedIn. Through snowball sampling, participants were asked to recommend recent (3–5 years) skilled migrants to participate. A total of 210 skilled migrant workers to Australia completed the survey. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to test our model on the relationship between inclusion and self-efficacy.

Migrants' perceptions of inclusion at work are related to their self-efficacy at work. We also find that some dimensions of inclusion are more important than others in enhancing self-efficacy for skilled migrants. Meaningful exchanges with supervisors, a sense of belonging at work and workgroup cohesion (being accepted by co-workers) are more important than senior management support or getting involved in organizational social activities as determinants of perceived inclusion.

Although skilled migrants are often assumed to be a self-select group of highly motivated, high achieving workers, many experience poor adjustment and feel excluded after arriving in the host country. Public policies have limited effects in promoting inclusion of skilled migrant workers in organizations. These policies may be supplemented with an inclusive organizational climate to improve migrant worker success. Organizations and employers are thus critical partners in fostering migrant workers' sense of inclusion and supporting the career outcomes of skilled migrant workers in the host country.

This study supports the link between perceived inclusion and self-efficacy among skilled migrant workers. It also sharpens the evidence of organizational-level factors that contribute to perceived inclusion for migrant workers.

The purpose of this study is to determine the nature of financial inclusion for individuals with various types of disabilities.

Data from 2015, 2017 and 2019 FDIC Survey of Household Use of Banking and Financial Services was pooled, and binary logistic regressions were used to investigate differences in barriers to financial inclusion (e.g. unbanked) between people with different types of disabilities (e.g. cognitive) and those without such disabilities.

Using five separate barrier measures, the authors found specific disability types face different barriers to financial inclusion. For example, respondents with cognitive, ambulatory or two or more disabilities were more likely to use nonbank transaction products and alternative financial services. And, those with vision or cognitive disabilities were more likely to be denied or receive reduced credit. When examining aggregate barriers to financial inclusion (total number of barriers faced) respondents with cognitive, ambulatory, hearing or two or more disabilities experienced the lowest degree of financial inclusion in the authors’ dataset.

Causal inference cannot be made due to the cross-sectional nature of the data. The data only covers the US population, and the measurement of disability type could include those with short-term impairments. Further, there may be an omitted variable bias.

Best practices to maximize financial inclusion for those with different disability types should address accessibility issues, bank staff education, financial literacy education and poverty issues. Additional government policies and oversight are also needed to protect and enhance the overall financial inclusion of people with disabilities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the relationship between various barriers to financial inclusion and aggregate barriers to financial inclusion by disability type. Specific disability types are found to face different barriers to financial inclusion.

Inclusion is of critical importance to creating healthier workplaces, if the ongoing dynamic of workforce diversity is taken for granted. The purpose of this paper is to designate the role of spiritual leadership in fostering more humane and inclusive workplaces.

The authors review the extant literature on two distinct research streams, inclusion and inclusive leadership, and spiritual leadership, elaborate a mediation model, identify antecedents and outcomes, and articulate a set of propositions reflecting key findings.

The authors advance a conceptual model according to which inclusive practices founded on spiritual values will mediate the positive relationship between spiritual leadership and a climate for inclusion. They argue that calling and membership as components of spiritual wellbeing will reinforce employees’ experience of both uniqueness and belongingness, thus affecting their perceptions of inclusion and inducing multi-level beneficial outcomes.

Spiritual leadership assumes a preeminent role in embracing and valuing diversity: it embodies a potential for positioning inclusive ideals more strategically, in view of enabling employees unfold their genuine selves and experience integration in work settings.

Spiritual leadership helps inclusive goals to be situated in their societal context; inclusion is thus viewed as both an organizational and societal good, embedded in social contexts, and pertinent to corporate vision, mission and philosophy.

The paper examines spiritual leadership as a predictor of climates for inclusion. Drawing on spiritual values, spiritual leaders display a strong potential for inclusion, facilitating diverse employees to experience feelings of both belongingness and uniqueness in work settings that assume high societal relevance.

The purpose of this research is to explore the role of identity for consumers with disabilities in a retail context. Understanding disability identity is critical to ensuring inclusion in service environments. Despite the growing call to understand the role of identity in consumer services, research on disability identity and the impacts of identity on service inclusion remains minimal.

A qualitative methodology generated data through personal narratives from people with disabilities revealing deep insights into the complexity of identity in a fashion retail context.

Emergent themes detail five consumer disability identities – authentic unique self, integrated self, community self, expressive self and practical self – seen when viewing service experiences from the perspective of people with lived experience of disability. Individual and collective agency also emerged as key themes that enable people with disabilities to feel a sense of inclusion.

This research explores the service experiences of people with disabilities in a retail context through a disability identity lens. The authors contribute to service literature by identifying five consumer disability identities that people with a disability adopt through their service experience and present a typology that demonstrates how each identity impacts on agency, with implications for service inclusion.

This study aims to explore and develop new theories. These theories emerged from combining environmental psychology literature with sustainability literature and the five research questions at the core of the work built upon a central theme of sustainability that argues us and the organizations require a relationship of entwinement rather than separation and the language can reinforce or diminish the path to sustainable outcomes.

The study used an electronic questionnaire to explore five research questions. The study consisted of survey individuals from across the world on their connection with nature using the inclusion of nature in self scale (Schultz, 2002). An adaptation of this scale called the inclusion of environment in organization scale to understand individuals’ views of their organization and then three pairs of questions that had alternative phrasing within each pair.

In total, 632 respondents from across the globe responded to the survey. The results highlight that respondents consider their organization’s conceptual relationship with the environment as far from ideal for sustainable outcomes and that their organization is out of synch with them personally. Further, respondents believe that asking a question that emphasizes proximity and control such as “would I want to breathe this”? is more likely to yield sustainable outcomes than an alternative phrasing that does not emphasize proximity and control, phrasing such as “do the gaseous outputs meeting regulation requirements”?

Given the study was exploratory the number and range of respondents ensure the study has a perspective, that is useful to organizational leaders and academics in exploring new directions. However, at the same time given the exploratory nature of the work, more studies are required to understand the “why” of respondents’ choices and to more fully develop and understand the implications of a wider range of alternatively phrased questions (only three were tested) that emphasize proximity and control such as that shown earlier “would I want to breathe this”?

For organizational leaders, the research highlights that respondents view their organizations as being far from ideal in realizing sustainable outcomes, which, in turn, should be a spur to do more. Further, it indicates that simple phrasing that emphasizes proximity and control could be a tactic in helping an organization pursue sustainable strategies. For academics, the results of this study point us towards phraseology, as a key technique for helping drive organizational strategy towards sustainable outcomes.

See prior implications

The value of this work is that it combines environmental psychology with sustainability management and provides a foundation and confidence for scholars and practitioners to explore the potential of new theories and thus follow new lines of enquiry.

The development of upcoming inclusive leaders requires not just knowledge of inclusion competencies but also knowledge of how to develop them and when to use them. This chapter examines the effectiveness of combining a psychometric assessment tool – the Inclusion Competencies Inventory (ICI) – and an improvement approach that places developmental responsibility in the hands of the student, not the instructor. The increased need for inclusivity in organizations requires business school graduates, who will soon be taking on the role of organizational leaders, to develop inclusion competencies. We seek to enhance inclusion competencies through a model based on reflective development and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). There are several implications for academicians and practitioners who may choose to adopt this unique, participant-driven approach to developing inclusion leadership competencies.