The role of inclusive work environment practices in promoting LGBT employee job satisfaction and commitment

One of the most enduring issues facing public administration and public policy is discrimination against and exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees in the public workplace. Research on how inclusion management influences LGBT public servants’ work outcomes is limited. The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) synthesized a construct of integrated inclusive work environment consisting of five practices thought to be important for public employee work outcomes. Social exchange theory is used in this paper to theorize about the effects of these different inclusive work environment practices on LGBT employee job satisfaction and organizational (affective) commitment. An inclusive work environment approach was found to have a positive effect on LGBT employee job satisfaction and affective commitment in federal government staff in the USA. However, individual inclusive work environment practices varied in their effects on LGBT employee job satisfaction and affective commitment.