While prior diversity management research has extensively focused on having a representative workforce in public organizations, recent discussions on racism and social equity have shed light on the importance of an inclusive work environment, where individuals feel integrated into organizations and involved in organizational processes. Perceived inclusion in the workplace, defined as the extent to which individuals perceive they are part of significant organizational processes, is the core theme of this dissertation. This study focuses on the perceived inclusion of academic scientists in the US. Inclusion of Scholars of Color (SOCs) and women in science is of particular importance given the low representation and retention of SOCs and women as well prolonged marginalization in academic science.This dissertation aims to understand what shapes perceived inclusion in the workplace by looking at how the demographic and social compositions of one’s social environment shape individuals’ perceptions of workplace inclusion. Focusing on race and gender, the dissertation recognizes the relative and contingent relationships among individuals and networks that affect perceived inclusion. To investigate, I ask two key questions, each focusing on different social structures and their interplay: 1. How do different aspects of social structure in networks (demographics, social network structural characteristics, social network compositional characteristics) influence perceived inclusion in the workplace? 2. How do individuals’ demographic attributes shape the impacts of social structures on workplace inclusion? To explore these questions, I draw from social identity theories, focusing on intergroup relations, and social capital theory to develop hypotheses. To investigate how social network structures shape inclusion in the workplace, I use a 2011 National Science Foundation-funded national survey of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) faculty in four science fields (biology, biochemistry, civil engineering, and mathematics) at diverse types of higher education institutions. I find that perceived inclusion is a function of social network structure, but the effects depend on the demographic characteristics of the individual and the network. I conclude this study with a discussion about the implications of findings for future research and diversity and inclusion policies.

This dissertation examines gender differences in career advancement outcomes among academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) scientists. In particular, this research examines effects of gender, PhD advisors and postdoctoral supervisors mentoring resources and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on the career advancement outcomes at early career stages.

Female academic scientists have disadvantages in the career progress in the academic STEM. They tend to fall behind throughout their career paths and to leave the field compared to their male colleagues. Researchers have found that gender differences in the career advancement are shaped by gender-biased evaluations derived from gender stereotypes. Other studies demonstrate the positive impacts of mentoring and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads. To add greater insights to the current findings of female academic scientists’ career disadvantages, this dissertation investigates comprehensive effects of gender, mentoring, and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on female scientists’ career advancement outcomes in academic science.

Based on the Status Characteristics Theory, the concept of mentoring, Social Capital Theory, and Ingroup Bias Theory, causal path models are developed to test direct and indirect effects of gender, mentoring resources, and gender homophily on STEM faculty’s career advancement. The research models were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with data collected from a national survey, funded by the National Science Foundation, completed in 2011 by tenured and tenure-track academic STEM faculty from higher education institutions in the United States. Findings suggest that there is no gender difference in career advancement controlling for mentoring resources and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads and other factors including research productivity and domestic caregiving responsibilities. Findings also show that the positive relationship between gender homophily in mentoring dyads and the reception of the mentoring resources, especially regarding providing help on career development and research collaboration, lead to enhanced early stage career advancement. Insights from the findings contribute both to theoretical understandings of the overall effects of gender, mentoring, and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on female academic scientists’ career advancement at early career stages and to provide evidence of positive effects of same-gender mentoring dyads to universities.

This dissertation examines the use of social media technologies by US local governments for internal and external collaboration. Collaboration is defined as the process of working together, pooling resources, sharing information and jointly making decisions to address common issues. The need for greater collaboration is evident from numerous examples in which public agencies have failed to effectively collaborate and address complex challenges. Meanwhile, the rise of social computing promises the development of ‘cultures of participation’ that enhance collaborative learning and knowledge production as part of everyday work. But beyond these gaps and expectations, there has been little systematic empirical research investigating the use of these powerful and flexible technologies for collaboration purposes. In line with prior research, my dissertation draws on sociotechnical and resource dependence theoretical approaches to examine how the interaction between technological and social context of an organization determine the adoption and use of a technology for a task. However, in a break with prior work that often aggregates social media technologies as one class of technology, this dissertation theorizes different classes of social media based on their functionality and purpose. As a result, it develops more explicit means by which organization, technical, and environmental context matter for effective collaboration. Based on the aforementioned theoretical approaches, the dissertation develops a theoretical model and several hypotheses, which it tests using a unique 2012 national survey of local governments in the US conducted by the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies at ASU. Overall, the findings of this dissertation highlight that the adoption and use of social media technologies for collaboration purposes can be understood as an outcome of stakeholder participation, innovativeness, and social media type. Insights from this dissertation contribute both to our theoretical understanding about social media technology adoption and use in government and provide useful information for agencies.