Interplay of diversity, inclusion, and politics: Impact on employee well-being

Abstract

Workforce diversity literature highlights adverse effects of surface diversity on employee affect. We examine the applicability of surface diversity effects in the Indian social milieu. Since diversity effects are context-specific, in a first, we test the moderating impact of employee's perceived organisational politics on the inclusion mediated diversity-well-being link among 617 employees from Indian organisations. Post ascertaining the measurement model fit using AMOS 22, we used PROCESS to test for moderated-mediation effects. Perception of organisational politics moderated the surface diversity–inclusion–well-being link such that inclusion was found to be weaker for employees who perceived high politics. We discuss the implications for managers.