Integrating Diversity and Knowledge Management in Italian HEIs: A Size-Contingent, Technology-Enabled Perspective

Italian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are required to embed Diversity Management (DM) and Knowledge Management (KM) into integrated strategic plans (PIAO, 2024–2026). This praper advances the essential insight that size is a boundary condition for the effective integration of DM and KM. Based on a targeted reading of the PIAO of 57 state universities grouped by size, the analysis focuses on four dimensions—Inclusivity, Collaboration, Intersectionality, and Technology Integration—and on how KM infrastructures enable equitable participation. Larger universities tend to deploy mature digital ecosystems, formal cross-departmental governance and data-driven monitoring; medium-sized universities emphasize regional engagement and structured but less automated knowledge sharing; small universities rely on proximity and interpersonal practices with limited technological depth. Intersectionality is acknowledged in narrative terms but rarely operationalized in indicators and processes. The contribution specifies a size-contingent heuristic for DM–KM integration that treats repositories, learning platforms and collaboration suites as inclusion infrastructure, links inclusivity goals to auditable metrics, and calibrates technology choices to institutional scale while safeguarding against digital exclusion. The approach is replicable as a concise audit method that any HEI can apply to its PIAO. Theoretically, the paper reframes KM capabilities as enablers of DM outcomes; practically, it identifies governance, investment and evaluation levers for leaders and policy makers.