REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicTransforming Social Capital: Employee and Organizational Growth Enabled by Digital TechnologiesView all articles
Role of Organizational Network Analyses to Advance Workforce Inclusion and Belonging: A Scoping Literature Review
Provisionally accepted
Patrick Decker-Tonnesen1*
Sherry S. Chesak2
Laura Walker1Katharina Kohler3
Sean M. Phelan4Marshall S. Gunnels4Kara L. Saliba5Anjali Bhagra4- 1Mayo Clinic, Rochester, United States
- 2University of Minnesota Rochester, Rochester, United States
- 3University of Cambridge Department of Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- 4Mayo Clinic Minnesota, Rochester, United States
- 5Mayo Clinic Arizona, Scottsdale, United States
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Organizational Network Analyses (ONAs) are tools used to explore the strengths and challenges in the human relationships that occur within organizations. ONAs consist of matrices of informal and formal connections that help to identify potential patterns of inclusion and exclusion across organizational systems. Understanding the directions of workplace relationships is critical for advancing workforce inclusion and belonging. To better understand the efficacy of organizational networks for inclusion and belonging, this scoping literature review included fifteen studies that met inclusion criteria and were placed into five categories including: Studies With Gender-Related Outcomes; Studies With Race, Ethnicity, and Culture-Related Outcomes; Studies With Cross Gender-Related and Race, Ethnicity, and Culture-Related Outcomes; Studies With Academic Medical Setting-Related Outcomes; and Studies With Miscellaneous Outcomes. Results demonstrated ONAs are a useful tool for organizations to better understand barriers to inclusion and belonging, including for employee gender and race. Additionally, ONAs help provide information to organizations on network differences and connectivity within groups. The findings of this review warrant future research further assess how ONAs interact with dimensions of difference and workplace inclusion and belonging.
Keywords: organizational network analysis (ONA), Workplace inclusion, social networks, Workplace belongingness, Workplace dynamics
Received: 18 Sep 2025; Accepted: 05 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Decker-Tonnesen, Chesak, Walker, Kohler, Phelan, Gunnels, Saliba and Bhagra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Patrick Decker-Tonnesen, decker-tonnesen.patrick@mayo.edu
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