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An increase in workforce diversity emphasizes the value of testing approaches that assess workplace inclusivity. On conducting a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative measures used to evaluate organizational inclusion, a total of fifteen articles comprising eight measures, two models, and one framework were identified. Five common themes included: equal treatment from peers and supervisors; inclusion promoted at an organizational level; empowerment; uniqueness recognized and valued; and belongingness. This review supports the rationale for creating a new scientific process to support organizational efforts to reconfigure existing talent assets to navigate culturally-fluid business landscapes comprised of an increasingly diverse American workforce.
Keywords: organizational inclusion, diversity, inclusion, systematic review, measures, metrics, workforce, culture, well-being, human resources
INTRODUCTION
For the past several decades, diversity and inclusion have been the discussed in the empirical literature. Diversity focuses on bringing diverse groups, including women, people of color, disabled individuals, older workers, and people of other marginalized groups, into the workplace (Shore, Cleveland, & Sanchez, 2018). In contrast, inclusion relates to producing equal access to resources, decision-making, and progress opportunities for these people (Shore, Cleveland, & Sanchez, 2018). While diversity tends to focus on the fairness of organizational processes and how an organization treats minority employees, inclusion tends to focus on the engagement of individuals and learning from diverse perspectives (Nishii, 2013). An increase in diversity in the workforce emphasizes the value of testing approaches that assess workplace inclusivity (Shore, Cleveland, & Sanchez, 2018). As stated by Mor Barak (2005, p. 7), an inclusive workplace is one that "(a) values and utilizes individual and intergroup differences within its workforce, (b) cooperates with, and contributes to, its surrounding community, (c) alleviates the needs of disadvantaged groups in its wider environment, and (d) collaborates with individuals, groups, and organizations across national and cultural boundaries." Workforce diversity is relatively easy to achieve and measure when compared to inclusion (Shore, Cleveland, & Sanchez, 2018). Although diversity presents with the opportunity for innovation, without inclusion, the benefits of diversity are unlikely to manifest (Shore, Cleveland, & Sanchez, 2018; Offerman & Basford, 2014).
There are various available measures of inclusion in the literature; however, due to the sparsity of research, the reliability and validity of each of these measures is unclear. The objective of this systematic...