Effinger, Alex

Lynch, John

Zhang, Jingyu

English

Purdue E-Pubs

Dismantling Bias Conference Series Scanning for Inclusion: How Employees Collect Information about their Workplace John Lynch University of Illinois Chicago, jwlynch@uic.edu Alex Effinger University of Illinois Chicago Jingyu Zhang University of Illinois Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgg Recommended Citation Lynch, John; Effinger, Alex; and Zhang, Jingyu () "Scanning for Inclusion: How Employees Collect Information about their Workplace," Dismantling Bias Conference Series: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1, Article 5. Available at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgg/vol3/iss1/5 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact epubs@purdue.edu for additional information.                                                                                                                                                                       Scanning for Inclusion:How Employees Collect Information about their WorkplaceCreating inclusive workplaces has become a grand challenge for organizations. Researchinto diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has primarily focused on organizational initiatives thatcreate an environment where employees—and especially those from marginalized backgrounds—feel welcomed and valued (Shore et al., 2011). Reflecting the multiple levels ofthe organization, these initiatives range from organization-wide policies and practices (Leslie,2019), to inclusive leadership (Shore & Chung, in press), to ally behaviors from immediatecolleagues (Thoroughgood et al., 2021). The influence of such initiatives is highly important toorganizations, as empirical research has shown the benefits of inclusion both for employees and the organization—e.g., improved satisfaction (Nishii, 2013; Thoroughgood et al., 2020), reducedturnover (Nishii, 2013), reduced emotional exhaustion (Thoroughgood et al., 2020), and otheroutcomes (see the review by Shore et al., 2011). Further, inclusive workplaces can create the psychological safety necessary for employees to feel like they can be authentic and express theirbackground (e.g., concealable stigmas; Clair et al., 2005; Jones & King, 2013). Therefore,understanding how employees perceive inclusion is relevant as organizations try to realize these outcomes.Theoretically, the DEI literature has taken a signaling perspective to understand howinitiatives create a workplace of inclusion (see Leslie, 2019). As part of this perspective, employees are assumed to be relatively passive receivers as they perceive and interpret theirworkplace. Missing from this perspective, though, is a consideration of how employees may actively seek information about their workplace. In this current paper, we challenge this passive assumption about employees by suggesting that they can act as active information gatherers. We introduce the concept of employee scanning, which refers to the process by which a person seeksinformation about how their background (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation) may be treated in a social context. Drawing from sociometer theory (Leary, 2005) and research around information seeking (Morrison, 2002), we propose that employees vary in the extent to which they scan their environment. We conceptualize scanning in terms of what kind of information employees seek, how they obtain this information, and where they obtain this information. We theorize that scanning may make employees more (or less) attune to positive and negative signals and thus influence how inclusive they perceive their work environment. Through this work, we aim to contribute to DEI research by providing a more complete picture of what influencesemployee perceptions of inclusion and why initiatives may vary in their effectiveness.In this working paper, we develop a theoretical model to explain how scanning candirectly influence perceptions of inclusion and indirectly employee identity management, engagement, and work attitudes. In five empirical studies, we followed the procedures to Hinkin (1998) to develop and validate survey measures for scanning. Further, we piloted our measuresin two studies that provide preliminary support for our hypotheses. We currently are collectingemployee data to test our full model.ReferencesClair, J. A., Beatty, J. E., & MacClean, T. L. 2005. Out of sight but not out of mind: Managinginvisible social identities in the workplace. Academy of Management Review, 30, 78–95. Hinkin, T. R. 1998. A brief tutorial on the development of measures for use in surveyquestionnaires. Organizational Research Methods, 1, 104–121.                                        Jones, K. P., & King, E. B. 2013. Managing concealable stigmas at work: A review andmultilevel model. Journal of Management, 40, 1466–1494. Leary, M. R. 2005. Sociometer theory and the pursuit of relational value: Getting to the root ofself-esteem. European Review of Social Psychology, 16, 75–111. Leslie, L. M. 2019. Diversity initiative effectiveness: A typological theory of unintended consequences. Academy of Management Review, 44, 538–563. Morrison, E. W. 2002. Information seeking within organizations. Human Communication Research, 28, 229–242. Nishii, L. H. 2013. The benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups. Academy ofManagement Journal, 56, 1754–1774. Shore, L. M., & Chung, B. G. In Press. Inclusive leadership: How leaders sustain or discouragework group inclusion. Group & Organization Management. Shore, L. M., Randel, A. E., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., Ehrhart, K. H., & Singh, G. 2011. Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research. Journalof Management, 37, 1262–1289. Thoroughgood, C. N., Sawyer, K. B., & Webster, J. R. 2021. Because you’re worth the risks:Acts of oppositional courage as symbolic messages of relational value to transgenderemployees. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106, 399–421.

Scanning for Inclusion: How Employees Collect Information about their Workplace

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Scanning for Inclusion: How Employees Collect Information about their Workplace

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