Organization-Level Inclusion: Evidence of Positive Effects for Both LGBT and Non-LGBT Employees

Abstract This work examines organization-level inclusion signals and their subsequent effects on a broad range of employees. Answering the call for more research on concealable stigmatized identities, we consider the effect of such organization-level inclusion initiatives for sexual and gender minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees) while also considering their reverberating effect on cisgendered, heterosexual (non-LGBT) employees. In a compiled archival data study ( N = 849), a preregistered, time-lagged observational study ( N = 1,165), and a preregistered, randomized experiment ( N = 398), we show that organization-level inclusion efforts lead to more positive perceptions of the organization’s psychological climate for sexual and gender minorities, closing the psychological safety gap between non-LGBT and LGBT employees. Notably, intentional inclusion efforts also positively affect the psychological safety of non-LGBT employees, which challenges theoretical assertions that targeted inclusion policies can harm majority groups, or that organizational inclusion is zero-sum. In turn, these signals shape positive behavioral intentions for all employees, leading non-LGBT employees to engage in more organizational ally work and leading LGBT employees to be more likely to disclose their identities. Unexpectedly, inclusion signals also made non-LGBT employees less likely to conceal sensitive aspects of their own identities (e.g., religion, parental status). In sum, we show that inclusion signaling both increases psychological safety broadly, and reduces disparities between target and non-target employees. This finding suggests that organization-level inclusion initiatives may have wider-reaching benefits than previously assumed.