MIT Sloan Management Review Article on What Managers Everywhere Must Know About Caste

As globalization and workforce mobility make many organizations more multicultural, managers find themselves having to broaden their understanding of workplace discrimination’s possible forms. In particular, issues of bias related to caste identity are making headlines around the world more frequently, and maintaining a healthy and productive culture will require leaders to be able to identify, prevent, and mitigate caste-based discrimination.

The caste system is a sociocultural-economic hierarchy that is pervasive in South Asia and the sizable South Asian diaspora all over the world. An individual’s caste, inherited from their father, is determined solely by their birth and is unchangeable.

About the Author

Hari Bapuji (@haribapuji) is a professor of management at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a cofounder of Action to Improve Representation. Kamini Gupta is a lecturer of management at King’s College London, where she also hosts the India Series, fireside chats focused on topics of urgent relevance to India’s growth and place in the world. Snehanjali Chrispal is a lecturer of management at Monash University, Australia, and researches inequality and organizations, particularly human rights issues like gender and caste. Thomas Roulet is a professor of organizational sociology and leadership at the Judge Business School and a fellow of King’s College, both at the University of Cambridge.

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