Organizational Justice and the Inclusion of LGBT Federal Employees: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis Using Coarsened Exact Matching

• Author: Morgen Johansen,Kwang Bin Bae,David Lee
• Published date: 01 December 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X20929731
• Date: 01 December 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X20929731

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2021, Vol. 41(4) 700 –722

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X20929731

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Article

Organizational Justice

and the Inclusion of LGBT

Federal Employees: A Quasi-

Experimental Analysis Using

Coarsened Exact Matching

David Lee1, Morgen Johansen1,

and Kwang Bin Bae2

Abstract

Inclusiveness occurs when employees are considered a part of critical organizational

processes, which means that they have access to information (including information

that may be passed around through informal networks), a connectedness to

coworkers, and the ability to participate in and influence the decision-making process.

With an organizational justice framework, this study examines the level of inclusion

federal lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) employees perceive, compared

to their heterosexual counterparts. Using a quasi-experimental method, coarsened

exact matching, we find expected differences in perceptions of procedural and

informational justice but no perceived differences in distributional justice between

LGBT and heterosexual federal employees. The implications of our methodology and

findings for the diversity management literature are discussed.

Keywords

organizational justice, inclusion, diversity, minority, LGBT

A core function of human resource management (HRM) is the managing of a diverse

and heterogeneous workforce. Approaches to managing workforce diversity have

expanded beyond ensuring there is a greater representation of minorities in government

1University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

2Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Corresponding Author:

Kwang Bin Bae, Department of Public Administration, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1-gil, Jung-gu,

Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea.

Email: kbae@dongguk.edu

929731ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X20929731Review of Public Personnel AdministrationLee et al.

research-article2020

Lee et al. 701

and preventing workforce discrimination against historically marginalized or disadvan-

taged minority groups to encompass a broader set of programs and policies geared

toward getting the most value out of a diverse workforce (Roberson, 2006). As such,

scholars have begun to focus on how diversity management contributes to creating an

inclusive workplace in the public service (Ashikali & Groeneveld, 2015; Moon, 2018;

Sabharwal et al., 2019).

Inclusion occurs when employees are considered a part of critical organizational

processes, which means that they have access to information (such as information that

may be passed around through informal networks), a connectedness to coworkers, and

the ability to participate in and influence the decision-making process (Mor Barak,

2014; Pless & Maak, 2004). Inclusion differs from earlier diversity management

efforts in that inclusion includes people being appreciated for their differences rather

than the assimilation of diverse workers into a certain (e.g., White, hetero-normative)

set of norms. On the contrary, exclusion usually occurs for those not in the majority

group, either formally or informally through policies, networks, norms, organizational

culture, or practices and behavior. Even when not overt, exclusion results when

employees perceive that they are not regarded as an integral part of the organization.

As such, earlier diversity efforts were exclusionary in that they focused on minority

workers adapting to and following the status quo. Employee perceptions of exclusion

have been associated with job dissatisfaction and increased turnover intention, lower

trust in supervisors, poor employee morale, and slowed performance improvement

(Cho & Sai, 2012; Moon, 2018; Pink-Harper et al., 2017).

To create a sense of inclusion among workers, effective diversity management

practice requires a greater focus on how organizational behaviors and processes may

affect those who are in the minority in terms of sociodemographic characteristics.

Scholarship related to minority employees and diversity in the public sector has pri-

marily focused on demographically visible minority groups, such as racial and ethnic

minorities and women. Relatively little attention has been paid to invisible minority

groups, which are those with attributes that can be hidden, such as sexual orientation,

marriage status, immigration status, and health status. Invisible groups are difficult to

study because, unlike race or gender, for instance, the person can choose to disclose or

not disclose their invisible minority status (Griffith & Hebl, 2002). As a result, there is

relatively little empirical research on diversity management and invisible minority

groups (although see Federman & Elias, 2017; Jin & Park, 2017; Lewis & Pitts, 2017;

Sabharwal et al., 2019). In this regard, this study examines the level of inclusion fed-

eral lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) employees perceive, compared to

their heterosexual counterparts.

This article makes three contributions to the literature. First, to empirically examine

the broad concept of inclusion, we use an organizational justice framework in which

three dimensions of organizational justice: distributional justice (e.g., pay, rewards,

and performance), procedural justice (e.g., policies and procedures), and informational

justice (e.g., information sharing) are used to measure perceived inclusion. Second,

this study focuses on a recently federally protected, and less visible, minority group,

LGBT employees. LGBT employees are a unique demographic in that “unlike