The Effects of Workplace Inclusion on Employee Assimilation Outcomes

This study investigates the relationship between coworker inclusion and assimilation outcomes. To begin, this paper reviews components of assimilation and inclusion that are thought to co-occur in the workplace. In addition, employees of a large university in the Pacific Northwest were surveyed electronically to investigate the extent to which inclusion and assimilation outcomes are related. Finally, a discussion is offered that details the study’s findings, that is, task- and social-based aspects of inclusion are related positively to assimilation outcomes (i.e., acculturation, job competencies, coworker familiarity, supervisor familiarity, member recognition, involvement, and role negotiation). Moreover, these conclusions remained generally the same for newcomers versus old-timers, as well as for student versus non-student samples.