Making Diversity Win: Cultivating Inclusion through Expressing Cultural Identity Differences at Work

The present research investigates how employees can overcome differences and cultivate a climate of inclusion from the bottom up within culturally diverse organizations. Specifically, two experiments examine how minority-group employees (“minorities”) express personally meaningful aspects of their cultural identities to majority-group employees (“majorities”), and how such cultural-identity expressions ultimately influence majorities’ inclusive behaviors. Although past research suggests that majorities fear minorities expressing cultural differences, the present paper found that majorities behaved more inclusively toward minorities who expressed their cultural identities, compared to minorities who discussed topics such as work. Moreover, the richer the cultural-identity expression – i.e., the more insight it provided into a minority’s thoughts, feelings, and less-known experiences relating to his or her culture – the more likely it was to elicit inclusive behaviors from majorities. This research sheds light on the capacity for minority employees to encourage inclusive behaviors in diverse settings through outwardly expressing their true selves.