Belonging in the Workplace: Theorizing and Operationalizing the Mechanisms Behind Cultural Fit

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 20: Workplace Belonging

Abstract

In recent years, scholars and mainstream pundits alike have referred in broad terms to the systemic racism and structural biases that perpetuate inequalities in organizations of all kinds. Yet, current scholarship does not specify the mechanisms that perpetuate such biases in organizational systems. To address this, I offer a theory of belonging in the workplace that hypothesizes that belonging at work hinges on fitting into certain valued identities. I demonstrate that a symbolic “meso boundary” encircles salient work identities, dividing workers who fit into certain valued work identities from those who don’t. Drawing on interviews and observational data I collected at a leading Silicon Valley tech firm, I find that meso boundaries tacitly delineate groups of belonging at the firm, including and advancing those on the inside and hindering those on the outside. I find that exclusion occurs when belonging at the firm depends on fitting into meso group boundaries based on demographic markers such as race, class, and gender. Inclusion tends to occur when meso group boundaries are based instead on technical skills, abilities, values and working styles.

Author

• Rebecca C. Franklin, University of California-San Diego