Organization-level Inclusion Signals: Positive Effects for Both LGBT and non-LGBT Employees

This work examines organizational-level inclusion signals and their subsequent effects on employees. Answering the call for more research on concealable stigmatized identities, we consider the effect of such organization-level inclusion signals for sexual and gender minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees) while also considering the effect on non-target employees. In a time-lagged observational study (N = 1,165 ), archival data (N = 229), and a randomized experiment (N = 380), we show that organizational-level inclusion efforts lead to more positive perception of the organization’s psychological climate for sexual and gender minorities, closing the psychological safety gap between non-LGBT and LGBT employees.. Notably, these intentional inclusion efforts also benefit non-LGBT employees, which contradicts recent theoretical assertions that intentional inclusion can harm majority groups, or that organizational inclusion is a zero-sum game.These signals shaped positive behavioral intentions for all employees, leading to non-LGBT employees engaging in more individual ally work, and LGBT employees feeling more free to share their identities. Unexpectedly, inclusion signals even made non-LGBT employees less likely to conceal intimidating parts of their identity (e.g. religion, parental status) as well. In sum, we show that such signaling improves psychological safety for all employees, reducing or eliminating the deficit between target and non-target employees while also encouraging value-aligned positive behaviors.