The management of diversity (Diversity Management in Anglo-Saxon companies) has been analyzed differently by researchers. Some of them have emphasized that despite the announcement effects, real human resources management integrating diversity has not yet been achieved, based on the American experience (Pauwels, 2004). Others are more critical and denounce a contradictory injunction consisting in valuing the differences without taking them into account, based on the French example (Marbot & Nivet, 2013). A third approach places diversity policies in that of the company in the broad sense, and more particularly of human resources. Diversity management would be an element of the overall strategy of the company of the future (Garner-Moyer, 2006). We shouldn’t underestimate the European impact (Brussels effect) on the policies carried out by companies, the European market is too large (in terms of number and European purchasing power) not to comply with European standards which combine since the creation of the European Union democracy and economic growth.
Diversity belongs to corporate social responsibility (CSR). France was the first European country to launch a Diversity Charter, in 2004, on the initiative of a report published by the French Think Tank Institut Montaigne. These charters were pioneers and were emulated in Europe - several countries have adopted its principle since 2007. The European approach combines the defense of equal opportunities and the fight against discrimination (combining both a legal and social purpose); it also insists on the idea of innovation and competitiveness resulting from the integration of diversity in business strategies (economic purpose). For it to be effective, business leaders must be trained and the initial training of future leaders (for example in management universities or business schools) must include modules dedicated to diversity management, such as the chairs that exist in France at the University of Paris Dauphine, or in several business schools such as ESSEC (Diversity and performance with the support of very famous French firm such as L'Oréal, Air France or Deloitte), EDHEC (a school bisiness in Lille with a Chair Diversity, Inclusion and Leadership) or other management schools in other cities (such as the Strasbourg School of Management).
The methodological approach proposed by a European project, MigrAID (2016-2019), initiated by the Cypriot Labor Institute (which depends on the Confederation of Cypriot Trade Unions), is interesting. It brought together a European team in five countries with different traditions and a different role played by the social partners (more important in Denmark) but where Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are essential economic players in the economy. It made it possible to emphasize the key role that SMEs must play with the social partners to promote diversity in the labor market where a majority of salaried jobs are in medium or small-sized companies; the craft industry being an exemplary sector in this respect - the leading employer in France with an entrepreneurial fabric of SMEs.