@phdthesis{01KVWE0ASQ9TQY8477KFRVTK67,
  abstract     = {{In recent years, organisational inclusion has become a central topic in organisations, public policy, and academic research. Organisations increasingly invest in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives based on the assumption that inclusive workplaces contribute to fairness, employee wellbeing, and organisational performance. At the same time, research and practice show that many employees continue to experience subtle forms of exclusion in everyday workplace interactions.
These everyday forms of exclusion often manifest not as explicit discrimination but as microaggressions: brief and often ambiguous comments, behaviours, or interactions that communicate negative or stereotypical messages about particular social groups. Although such interactions may appear minor, they can have significant consequences for how individuals experience legitimacy, recognition, and belonging within organisations.
Despite the growing attention to inclusion, an important question remains insufficiently understood: why do everyday forms of exclusion persist even in organisations that actively pursue inclusion? Much research conceptualises inclusion primarily as a perception, such as feeling a sense of belonging or being able to be oneself at work. Less attention has been paid to the organisational structures and interactional processes that shape these experiences.
This dissertation starts from the premise that examining everyday forms of exclusion provides an entry point for understanding inclusion within organisations. By analysing microaggressions, the research reveals how organisational norms, power relations, and identity processes shape how employees experience their place within organisations and how they respond to situations of exclusion. The central aim of this dissertation is therefore to examine why microaggressions persist in organisations that seek to promote inclusion, and how organisational structures and individual responses determine whether inclusion remains primarily performative or becomes structurally transformative.
In this dissertation, performative inclusion refers to situations in which inclusion is affirmed at the level of policy, discourse, or perception while everyday legitimacy structures and inequality regimes remain largely intact. In contrast, structurally transformative inclusion refers to changes in organisational norms, practices, and recognition structures that alter how competence, authority, and belonging are distributed across social identity groups. From this perspective, the dissertation addresses three research questions:
1.	How is organisational inclusion conceptualised in the management literature in relation to everyday exclusion and social identity?
2.	How do organisational structures influence how employees interpret microaggressions, cope with them, and regulate their emotions, and to what extent do these responses contribute to maintaining or disrupting such structures?
3.	How do recurring microaggressions influence the identity work of leaders from historically marginalised groups, and how does this identity work shape their engagement with inclusion initiatives?
To address these questions, the dissertation adopts a qualitative and abductive research approach. The research combines multiple data sources and methods, including a systematic literature review, narrative data on microaggressions collected through the SenseMaker® platform, and in-depth interviews with female directors. The dissertation consists of four studies that together examine different dimensions of inclusion and exclusion within organisations.
The first study presents a systematic review of organisational inclusion and examines how the concept is defined and operationalised in management research. An analysis of 190 articles published between 1999 and 2024 reveals three recurring patterns: ambiguity between levels of analysis, limited attention to social identity as a structuring mechanism, and a tendency to study inclusion without systematically addressing exclusion. Based on these findings, the study proposes a conceptual clarification of organisational inclusion centred on two core dimensions: identity-based insider positioning and organisational handling of exclusion. From this perspective, experiences of inclusion, such as belonging or authenticity, are understood as outcomes of underlying organisational processes.
The second study examines how everyday exclusion manifests in workplace interactions. Based on nearly 700 accounts of microaggressions shared by 125 participants, the findings show that responses to microaggressions develop through a dynamic process of interpretation and coping. Five response patterns are identified: ignorance, awareness, hypervigilance, resignation, and psychological control. Importantly, these responses are shaped not only by individual reactions but also by structural silencing mechanisms embedded in organisational inequality regimes, which often discourage individuals from addressing exclusion directly.
The third study investigates how employees emotionally process microaggressions and how these emotions shape behavioural responses. Based on 207 narratives, the findings show that employees interpret microaggressions as different forms of identity threat, including threats to status, belonging, and professional legitimacy. These interpretations evoke emotional reactions such as fear, shame, sadness, and indignation. However, emotions do not directly translate into behaviour. Instead, employees actively regulate their emotions before responding. Four emotion regulation strategies are identified: self-protection, fighting for legitimacy, maintaining self-integrity, and collective action. These strategies shape how individuals respond to microaggressions within organisational contexts.
The fourth study shifts the focus to leadership and corporate governance by examining how female directors position themselves in relation to gender inclusion in boards of directors. Based on 40 in-depth interviews, the study identifies six strategies of engagement with gender inclusion: internal activism, external activism, pragmatism, neutrality, meritocracy, and system rejection. The findings show that these strategies emerge from processes of identity work through which directors reconcile their gender identity and professional identity in light of earlier career experiences.
Together, the four studies demonstrate that the persistence of everyday exclusion in organisations cannot be understood without considering the interaction between organisational systems, daily interactions, and individual meaning-making.
This dissertation makes three key contributions to research on organisational inclusion. First, it shifts the focus from inclusion as an individual perception to inclusion as an organisational and relational process in which social identities are positioned and everyday exclusion is produced or challenged. Second, it provides new insights into interpretation, emotion, and emotion regulation as key processes shaping how employees respond to microaggressions. Third, it connects research on microaggressions with literature on leadership and corporate governance, showing how recurring experiences of exclusion influence leaders’ identity work and their engagement with inclusion.
By linking these levels of analysis, the dissertation contributes to a better understanding of why everyday exclusion persists in organisations that pursue inclusion and which mechanisms determine whether inclusion remains performative or becomes structurally transformative}},
  author       = {{Mensitieri, Delia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{256}},
  publisher    = {{Ghent University. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{Through the looking glass : an investigation of how organisational context and identity interact in shaping responses to microaggressions}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}