Social inclusion in diverse work settings

Perceiving to be socially included at work is essential for the well-being and performance of employees. Yet, while inclusion is relatively easy to establish in homogeneous work settings, this is more of a challenge when coworkers are very different from each other. This dissertation aims to provide an understanding of how inclusion in demographically diverse work settings can be fostered. To do so, it develops a novel theoretical framework of inclusion and introduces a corresponding measurement instrument. Specifically, inclusion was defined as the extent to which an individual perceives to be an accepted group member that is allowed to be him- or herself within the group. In addition, it reveals how diversity approaches – organizations’ ideological notions about how differences should be dealt with – affect the extent to which majority and minority employees perceive to be included. In particular, the results indicate that the extent to which an organization is open towards and appreciative of employee differences is especially beneficial to minority members. Conversely, it was found that a colorblind approach to diversity, in which differences between employees are ignored, is most effective for majority members. Finally, the results from this dissertation demonstrate that majority members feel more included and show more support for organizational diversity efforts when they are explicitly made part of organizational diversity. Together, this dissertation substantially improves our understanding of how inclusion in diverse work settings can be established and opens many new avenues for investigating and managing inclusion in a diversifying world.