Graduation Year
2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
D.B.A.
Degree Granting Department
Business
Major Professor
Diane Kutz, D.B.A.
Co-Major Professor
Joann Farrell Quinn, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Douglas E. Hughes, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Hemant Merchant, Ph.D.
Keywords
diversity management, inclusive leadership, leader-member exchange, optimal distinctiveness, organizational citizenship behaviors, psychological safety
Abstract
Workplace inclusion both maximizes the benefits of a diverse workforce and simultaneously reduces its negative consequences. However, a majority of the inclusion research takes an explicit or implicit management-focused perspective. This is problematic because management has more power than employees and executives are usually exemplars of the dominant organizational culture. In order to be more holistic, inclusion research should be much more deeply informed by a subordinate-centered understanding of workplace inclusiveness. Those with less power, those who are minoritized, and those who are marginalized have critical perspectives that must be brought to bear on the construct of workplace inclusivity.
This study adopted a subordinate-centered approach and used an interpretive phenomenological analysis to explore the nature of inclusive managerial interactions between leaders and employees at a single organization. The results demonstrated that five aspects of inclusive interactions generated a sense of meaningful inclusion for employees: psychological safety, uniqueness, belonging, authenticity, and discretionary effort/time. The first three aspects affirmed existing theories of inclusive leadership. The last two aspects indicated ways to expand our theoretical understanding of inclusive leadership. Practical implications for leaders are discussed, specifically when, how, and to what effect they should engage subordinates using inclusive managerial interactions.
Scholar Commons Citation
Kober, Gregory M., "Make the Effort, Take the Time: A Qualitative Study of Inclusive Managerial Interactions at a Canadian Energy Company" (2022). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10396
