Multiple pathways to employee engagement: A configurational analysis of DEI and psychological safety among Indian IT employees

Abstract

This study explores how Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Psychological Safety interact with tenure and organisation size to contribute to high Employee Engagement among Indian information technology employees. It addresses the limitation of traditional linear models that identify the average net effect of isolated predictors but may overlook alternative and asymmetric engagement pathways. The study employs a cross sectional survey of 360 Indian IT employees and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Five validated perceptual constructs, namely Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Psychological Safety and Employee Engagement, were measured using five point Likert type scales. Construct scores were transformed into fuzzy set membership scores, and tenure and organisational size were included as contextual conditions. Necessity and sufficiency analyses were used to identify the pathways to high Employee Engagement. No single condition met the 0.90 level of necessity, indicating that there is no universal condition for high Employee Engagement. The sufficiency analysis yielded nine significant configurations. Psychological Safety emerged as an overarching theme across pathways, while Equity and Inclusion also emerged as key conditions for the development of engagement. Organisation size and tenure served as contextual conditions that shaped alternative paths to engagement. The study adds to the DEI engagement literature by moving from symmetric prediction to configurational explanation, revealing that engagement among Indian IT employees is built on several bundles of fairness, belongingness, representation, psychological safety and organisational context rather than a single direct effect mechanism.