Reimagining our futures together: An early bird's-eye view ofinclusive organizational behavior.

Abstract

The world has witnessed high-intensity and low-occurrence crises such as theCOVID-19 pandemic that have radically changed not only the discourses of healthand safety but also permanently changed the realities of the workplace. The COVID-19 pandemic-related new normal has resulted in the exponential increase in theacceptance of "homeplace" or "work from home" in work-related domains. With thissudden dramatic shift in the way the present and future work is being conceptual-ized, there is every reason to believe that employees struggle with a plethora of inter-twined thoughts and emotions, particularly a heightened sense of social isolation andexclusion from their work environment. The present study is an attempt to addressthis concern in the broader ambit of inclusive organizational behavior. Using an inter-pretivist research approach, we dwell on the genesis of organizational behavior inchanging times, particularly digitalization and social isolation. We employ inductiveanalysis of the employee data generated over two waves and use grounded theory toexplain how inclusive behavior could be fostered within organizations. Our study pro-vides an early conceptualization of inclusive organizational behavior by identifyingfour factors, namely, inclusive support, inclusive work design, inclusive culture, andinclusive mindset. Furthermore, based on the findings of the study, a three-tier modelof inclusive organizational behavior is proposed that links individual, group, andsystem-level dynamics in the organizations.