My Reality is Different from Yours: Incorporating Social Identity into Inclusion Climate Analysis

Inclusion climates are increasingly viewed as central in managing the benefits and challenges associated with diversity in organizations. However, as perceptions of inclusion climates have been found to violate some of the assumptions behind climate theory, much remains unclear regarding their appropriate analysis. Through an illustrative study, we offer an alternative way to analyze inclusion climates that provides more insights than has been previously achieved. This study advances conversations in the diversity and inclusion literature and also the organizational research methodology literature by highlighting the importance of combining both climate strength and climate level in inclusion climate analysis, and positing that inclusion climate may be most insightfully studied on the (intersectional) identity group level instead of the unit or organizational level that is most often used in extant climate research.