Reimagining our futures together: An early bird's-eye view of inclusive organizational behavior

Abstract

The world has witnessed high-intensity and low-occurrence crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic that have radically changed not only the discourses of health and safety but also permanently changed the realities of the workplace. The COVID-19 pandemic-related new normal has resulted in the exponential increase in the acceptance of “homeplace” or “work from home” in work-related domains. With this sudden dramatic shift in the way the present and future work is being conceptualized, there is every reason to believe that employees struggle with a plethora of intertwined thoughts and emotions, particularly a heightened sense of social isolation and exclusion from their work environment. The present study is an attempt to address this concern in the broader ambit of inclusive organizational behavior. Using an interpretivist research approach, we dwell on the genesis of organizational behavior in changing times, particularly digitalization and social isolation. We employ inductive analysis of the employee data generated over two waves and use grounded theory to explain how inclusive behavior could be fostered within organizations. Our study provides an early conceptualization of inclusive organizational behavior by identifying four factors, namely, inclusive support, inclusive work design, inclusive culture, and inclusive mindset. Furthermore, based on the findings of the study, a three-tier model of inclusive organizational behavior is proposed that links individual, group, and system-level dynamics in the organizations.