Feeling a sense of belonging is associated with more motivation within organizations that value diversity and equity

There are two schools of thought about how diversity and equity are related to inclusion. The first argues that diversity and equity foster inclusion. The second argues that diversity and equity engender exclusion. The present research investigated the implications of diversity and equity’s relationship on a component of inclusion, the feeling of belonging, as it is critical for organizational retention and recruitment. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that for students, faculty, and staff at a public university, feelings of belonging were positively associated with perceptions that the university valued diversity, which was related to campus environmental cues. Study 3 demonstrated that interns’ intentions to convert to a fulltime position were related to feeling like they belonged at their employer, which was related to the extent to which they perceived the employer fostered equity. We discuss the implications of these findings for organizational retention and recruitment, especially as they relate to perceptions that the organization values diversity and equity.