Working Around Political Divides: A Multidisciplinary Examination of Political Identity as a Factor of Organizational Diversity

In an age of targeted rhetoric and extreme polarization, the political has trespassed into the personal. As a result of this obtrusive integration, disagreements in the workplace are on the rise. Friction caused by inter-employee political diversity has been shown to cause several harmful organizational outcomes including job dissatisfaction, turnover, burnout, and psychological distress. Although this issue is common and harmful, few studies have been published on the subject. In this literature review, I attempt to contribute to the scholarly knowledge on this underresearched concept of workplace political diversity by employing a multidisciplinary approach. To illustrate the components of this issue and provide structural elements for a future theoretical review, I synthesize knowledge from political science, psychology, diversity, inclusion, and workplace mistreatment studies. Using a political identity conceptual framework, I propose the concept of political identity diversity, explain its connection to workplace incivility, and share how organizations can employ diversity management and inclusion strategies to mitigate this process. Finally, I discuss findings, limitations, and directions for future research associated with this review. WORKING AROUND POLITICAL DIVIDES 3 In a political environment marked by dramatically increased polarization (Iyengar & Westwood, 2014), the prevalence of political disagreement at work is escalating. A recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (2019) revealed that most US employees believe that political discussion in the workplace has become more common since the 2016 presidential election. Further, 42% of employees reported experiences of political disagreements at work, and 12% indicated they had experienced bias due to their political affiliation. Recently, this increased prominence of workplace political disagreement has been found to be related to several negative organizational outcomes. Through a 2019 four-wave survey study, He et al. revealed that employees who exhibited a dissimilar political identity were more likely to experience incivility behaviors at work. Additionally, it was found that the experience of these behaviors led to employees’ feelings of psychological distress, turnover intention, job burnout, and job dissatisfaction. Although these findings show that political disagreement can function as a serious threat to organizational outcomes, this paper is one of only a few pieces of research related to this specific topic. Due to the combination of this phenomenon’s increased prevalence, proven insidious effects, and lack of topic-specific research, it is essential to better understand this concept to learn how to avoid its associated negative outcomes. In this review, I attempt to embed the topic of workplace political disagreement into an already-established framework of research by recruiting key findings from related fields, including diversity and inclusion, political science, psychology, and workplace mistreatment. I will introduce definitions and correlates of several salient topics and theories to determine how current scholarship can contribute to our understanding of workplace political diversity. After this, I will provide recommendations to WORKING AROUND POLITICAL DIVIDES 4 organizations for managing political diversity and mitigating its potential negative effects. Finally, I will discuss the findings, limitations, and directions for future research associated with