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Purpose: This paper empirically explores the types and extent of cultural diversity strategies in Sweden, a developed economy with many migrant workers. The role of organizational culture as the context and the association with diversity strategy and the selection of international skilled migrant workers is examined.

Design: Empirical data are collected n by surveying 249 Swedish large or medium-sized firms. Cluster analysis is used to explore the configuration of organizational culture, cultural diversity strategy, and selection and development criteria.

Findings: We identify five clusters of organizations. Organizational culture is the main contextual factor that influence the cultural diversity strategy and HR approaches for selecting skilled migrant workers. The profile of the clusters including o organizational culture diversity strategies, the selection criteria, and firm demographics is presented. The empirical results indicate that organizational culture and demographics are associated a with the choice of diversity strategy and, consequently, HR processes.

Originality/value: This study’s main focus is on international skilled migrants, which are among empirically less-studied areas in global mobility literature. Furthermore, b until now more attention has been directed toward studying the consequences of diversity than to understanding the factors that influence choice of diversity strategies and practices. This study focuses on antecedents of diversity and attempts to understand the factors that influence adoption and implementation of different cultural diversity strategies.