Belongingness and employee work behaviours

With Yuli Suseno, School of Management, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.

Our research

Recent studies showed that almost a quarter of Australians have experienced a major form of discrimination. This also coincide with the recent launch of a new social inclusion index and Social Inclusion Australia. In parallel, corporate discourses of 'openness' and 'inclusion' are becoming omnipresent yet more work needs to be done to better understand how to make our organisations more inclusive in practice. Willing to contribute to improve the current issues faced by many Australians, we aim to focus on the workplace in particular and examine the role of work belongingness and inclusion perceived by employees and how those interact eventually with organisational outcomes such as job satisfaction and burnout.

Our Findings

Wechtler, H., Suseno, Y., & Lai, P. (2025). When Inclusion Matters More: Disability, Belongingness, and Affective Experiences at Work. Australian & New Zealand Academy of Management, December 2025.

Our study examines how perceptions of an inclusive organizational climate affect employee well-being and attitudes, with a particular focus on employees with disabilities. Drawing on Organizational Support Theory and Belongingness Theory, we investigate the differential role of perceived inclusion and belongingness in shaping job satisfaction and burnout. Using survey data from 505 employees in Australia, including a subsample of 92 individuals who self-identified as having a disability, we use multigroup path analysis to assess whether the direct and indirect effects of inclusion climate on job satisfaction and burnout differ between employees with and without disabilities. Our results show that while inclusive climates positively predict job satisfaction across all employees, their buffering effect on burnout is limited to employees with disabilities. Belongingness partially mediates the link between inclusion and satisfaction for both groups, but mediates the effect on burnout only for employees without disabilities. These findings extend the theory by demonstrating that the psychological mechanisms through which an inclusive climate operates are contingent on employees' experiences of structural or social exclusion. We argue that belongingness is a necessary but insufficient condition for reducing strain in marginalized groups and that inclusion must be conceptualized in layered terms, encompassing both relational and structural dimensions.

Creative Piece

Title: When Inclusion Matters More Type: Academic paper turned into art (text-based film installation) Author: Heidi Wechtler

Description: This work translates an academic study on disability, belonging, and inclusion in the workplace into an artistic form. The original research investigated how inclusive organizational climates shape job satisfaction and burnout, with a particular focus on employees with disabilities. Using survey data from Australian workers, the study found that inclusion benefits all employees, but its effects are amplified for those with disabilities: it enhances their sense of belonging and offers protection against burnout. For employees without disabilities, inclusion is experienced more diffusely—welcomed but less existentially consequential. The research also revealed that belongingness, while universally linked to job satisfaction, is not always sufficient to shield marginalized employees from strain.

In this film, the findings are reimagined through three letters, presented from above as handwritten text unfolding across the page. Each letter embodies a different stakeholder’s perspective: the employee with a disability, who describes the fragile relief of feeling recognized; the employee without a disability, who experiences inclusion as background reassurance rather than survival; and the HR manager, who reflects at home on whether training and policies genuinely make a difference. Together, these voices give form to the layered meaning of inclusion: as atmosphere, as affirmation, and as a site of responsibility.

The work is part of a broader exploration of the worker and their lived experience in organizations, shaped by who they are and the structures that surround them. By turning research into art, it highlights not just abstract outcomes, but the affective realities of individuals navigating inclusion, belonging, and inequality in contemporary workplaces. In doing so, it also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, by drawing attention to how inclusion practices contribute to fairer, healthier, and more sustainable work environments.

Associated Research and Findings

Supporting Innovative Work Behavior in Times of Crisis: Change-oriented Leadership and the Power of Trust: (here)

Find us

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Heidi Wechtler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-wechtler-9349a647/

Yuli Suseno: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuli-suseno-845b3382/

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