Making the Olympics work: interpreting diversity and inclusivity in employment and skills development pre-London 2012

Abstract

The rising cost of staging the Olympic Games has resulted in closer scrutiny on their potential economic impacts. Employment and skills development are often used at the bidding stage to – at least partly – justify the cost of the Games. This article examines the development and early implementation of employment and skills strategies in the run-up to London 2012, ‘the most inclusive Games ever’. It analyses the efforts made to make the recruitment process for training and jobs more focused on a local, diverse and inclusive labour pool. On the basis of in-depth interviews with key decision makers, it is found that the different organisations involved showed dedication to inclusive labour, but that they operated different definitions of ‘inclusivity’, resulting in some key successes and a few missed opportunities.

Keywords:

• Olympics
• legacy
• employment
• skills
• social inclusion

Notes on contributor

Lynn Minnaert s a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management of New York University. Her research specialism is social inclusion and social sustainability in tourism and events: she has conducted research projects into social tourism, the social impacts of the Olympics and social legacy initiatives in the meetings industry.

Notes

1. It needs to be highlighted here that in contrast, Roberson (2006) defines inclusivity as a broad set of initiatives including employee participation, communication strategies and community relations, which aim to remove the barriers that block employees from using the full range of their skills and competencies in organisations. This definition does not include the dimension of community responsibility that is apparent in Mor Barak's (2000) definition.