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Claudia Eger

Associate Professor

Emner
Etik Køn Lighed Mangfoldighed Kultur Religion

Primary research areas

Busi­ness eth­ics as prac­tice
Ad­opt­ing an eth­ics as prac­tice per­spect­ive, I ex­plore how or­gan­iz­a­tion­al, so­cio-cul­tur­al and leg­al prac­tices and norms in­ter­sect and shape sus­tain­able or­gan­iz­ing and eth­ic­al lead­er­ship.
Gender at work and or­gan­iz­a­tion­al change
This re­search is fo­cused on how gender is per­formed in or­gan­iz­a­tions and how in­equal­it­ies are main­tained and chal­lenged with the aim of in­form­ing policy–prac­tice for more in­clus­ive labor mar­kets.
Loc­al­ized di­versity man­age­ment
This re­search de­vel­ops so­cially and cul­tur­ally em­bed­ded DEI (di­versity, equity and in­clu­sion) ap­proaches ex­amin­ing how DEI in­ter­ven­tions travel, and why they suc­ceed or stall, with a par­tic­u­lar fo­cus on Muslim-ma­jor­ity set­tings.

Re­think­ing busi­ness for more sus­tain­able and in­clus­ive fu­tures

My research examines how sustainability and diversity efforts are enacted, negotiated and legitimized in organizations, advancing socially embedded insights for responsible business practice and policy.

My research investigates how organizations enact and sometimes contest commitments to ethics, sustainability, and diversity, and how these commitments become institutionalized or performative within gendered, religious and cultural norms. Based on fieldwork across the Middle East and Africa, I develop context-sensitive theory on inequality, inclusion and organizational change, linking everyday business practice to wider regimes of legitimacy, governance, and labor-market organization. 

Currently, I lead a Carlsberg Foundation–funded project on women’s employment journeys in the Arab Middle East focusing on Saudi Arabia. The project examines how corporate diversity initiatives intersect with labor-market policies and cultural norms, and what this means for developing inclusive employment practices. I also contribute expertise to international organizations, including the World Bank on its public work programs in Egypt and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development on its gender strategy. I serve on the editorial board of Business Ethics Quarterly.

Recent research projects

Wo­men’s Em­ploy­ment Jour­ney in the Arab Middle East

This pro­ject, fun­ded by the Carls­berg Found­a­tion (2024-2028), in­vest­ig­ates wo­men’s em­ploy­ment jour­neys with a par­tic­u­lar fo­cus on Saudi Ar­a­bia. It ex­am­ines how wo­men's ca­reers are shaped by the in­ter­ac­tion of cor­por­ate di­versity ini­ti­at­ives, labor-mar­ket policies, and cul­tur­al norms to sup­port the de­vel­op­ment of loc­al­ized DEI prac­tices and policies.
Project website

Crit­ic­al Re­la­tion­al­it­ies: Writ­ing “With”

This writ­ing "With" work­shop, fun­ded by Re­New in 2023, was aimed at de­vel­op­ing more re­flex­ive and col­lab­or­at­ive ways of writ­ing fore­ground­ing crit­ic­al re­la­tion­al­it­ies as “writ­ing with”. It brought to­geth­er re­search­ers to ex­per­i­ment with voice, meth­od, and eth­ics in writ­ing, which led to the co-ed­ited Pal­grave book “Crit­ic­al Re­la­tion­al­it­ies: With” (forth­com­ing 2026).

In­ter­na­tion­al Part­ner­ship Grant (7 uni­ver­sit­ies)

This SSHRC Part­ner­ship De­vel­op­ment Grant (2020-2022) sup­por­ted the es­tab­lish­ment of an in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­or­a­tion among aca­dem­ics from sev­en uni­ver­sit­ies (three in Canada, three in Europe, and one in Ja­pan) aimed at de­vel­op­ing col­lab­or­at­ive pro­jects and strength­en­ing long-term re­search ca­pa­city.

En­vir­on­ment­al Sustain­ability of Ho­tels in Zan­zib­ar

In col­lab­or­a­tion with Peter Furu, Karin Schiøler, Arne Rem­men, Ad­ri­ana Budeanu, Bukaza Chachage, this Dan­ida Fel­low­ship Centre (DFC) pro­ject ex­amined en­vir­on­ment­al sustain­ability in Zan­zib­ar’s hotel sec­tor from 2018 to 2025. It stud­ied how sustain­ability ini­ti­at­ives are im­ple­men­ted on the ground, how loc­al reg­u­lat­ory and so­cio-cul­tur­al con­di­tions shape out­comes, and what en­ables more dur­able, con­text-sens­it­ive sustain­ability prac­tices.

Evid­ence for Policy: Labor Mar­ket Dy­nam­ics in Saudi Ar­a­bia

Sup­por­ted by the Har­vard Kennedy School’s Evid­ence for Policy Design (EPoD) and in col­lab­or­a­tion with Jen­nifer Peck, Thiemo Fet­zer and Saleh Alodayni, this re­search (2017-2019) ana­lyzed labor mar­ket dy­nam­ics in Saudi Ar­a­bia to in­form policy and prac­tice. The pro­ject con­nec­ted in­sti­tu­tion­al re­forms and or­gan­iz­a­tion­al be­ha­vi­or to lived em­ploy­ment ex­per­i­ences, gen­er­at­ing ac­tion­able in­sights for in­clus­ive and ef­fect­ive labor-mar­ket in­ter­ven­tions.

Outside activities

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