Title: Organizational Justice, Cultural Intelligence and Workforce Inclusion in Digitally Transformed Multinationals: A Systematic Integrated Review of Expatriate and Hybrid Workers in Emerging Economies
The fast-paced digital transformation of multinational enterprises, more so in developing markets, has drastically changed the dynamics within the workplace of expatriate and hybrid labour. Technology brings an opportunity for greater connectivity and inclusion, but also raises fresh questions of fairness and equity in the workplace and across cultures. This systematic integrative study examines the complex links between organisational justice, cultural intelligence, and workforce inclusion for digitally-changed MNCs within emerging markets. Based on principles of PRISMA, we performed an extensive search in different databases (Scopus, Web of Science, ABI/INFORM) among literature from 2010 to 2024. Our search methods returned 512 articles, with 42 studies also meeting the inclusion criteria for comprehensive analysis. As we synthesized a set of themes we discern four emergent themes; the development of “digital distance” in perceptions of justice, the role of cultural intelligence as both buffer and amplifier in the context of virtual practice, dual pathways to inclusion through formal as well as informal mechanisms, and unique experiences between expatriate and hybrid worker populations. Our findings suggest that classic principles of organizational justice need flexibility and can be transferred to digital spaces, while intelligence in culture seems more vital in order to traverse technology-mediated interactions. Our holistic framework illustrates how these constructs are related to each other, with practical applicability for global talent management. These studies also highlight important gaps in existing research, specifically longitudinal studies and cross‐ cultural comparisons within emerging economies, paving the way for further empirical work.
