Despite their prevalence, workplace diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices continue to produce inconsistent effects on employee attitudes and behaviors. This shines a light on the need for evidence‐based approaches in understanding how employees enact D&I goals. Drawing on self‐determination theory, we argue that employee D&I motivation is an untapped pathway for understanding how inclusion‐supportive employee outcomes (i.e., more inclusion and less exclusion) emerge. In addition, we leverage attribution theory to inform when employee motivation can be shaped, demonstrating that employee attributions of the intentions behind their organization's D&I practices play an important role in shaping their subsequent D&I motivation. Across two studies, latent profile analysis identified five distinct profiles of D&I motivation, which were differentially related to inclusion and exclusion (Study 1) and predicted by D&I attributions (Studies 1 and 2). Combined, these findings highlight the importance of understanding employee motivations and attributions within the context of D&I. Such knowledge can inform how employees enact inclusion goals, which has the potential to help organizations realize the desired benefits of diversity.

Both men and women who violate gender stereotypes incur backlashes, or penalties, for these transgressions. However, men who engage in warm, communal behaviors occasionally receive a boost (or benefit) for this female‐stereotyped behavior. To understand how and why warmth and gender interact to predict backlashes or boosts, we integrate uncertainty reduction theory with the stereotype content model and examine warmth by gender interactions. In our first study (a field examination of job seekers), we find that men receive a boost in hireability (i.e., an increased likelihood of obtaining a job offer) for exhibiting gender incongruent (i.e., high) levels of warmth, but women do not receive a backlash in hireability for exhibiting gender incongruent (i.e., low) levels of warmth. In our second study (a laboratory experiment), we replicate and extend these findings by elucidating why they occur: warmth reduces relational uncertainty for male, but not female, applicants. In our third study (another laboratory experiment), we again replicate and extend our findings by identifying when these effects are stronger: in male‐dominated roles. Our investigation suggests that the valence of the gender stereotype violation matters when it comes to hiring decisions. Indeed, we find that displaying warmth appears to promote, rather than impede, career outcomes for men.