Lindsey, A.P., Avery, D.R., Dawson, J.F. orcid.org/0000-0002-9365-8586 et al. (1 more author) (2017) Investigating Why and for Whom Management Ethnic Representativeness Influences Interpersonal Mistreatment in the Workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102 (11). pp. 1545-1563. ISSN 0021-9010
Abstract
Preliminary research suggests that employees use the demographic makeup of their organization to make sense of diversity-related incidents at work. We build on this work by examining the impact of management ethnic representativeness - the degree to which the ethnic composition of managers in an organization mirrors or is misaligned with the ethnic composition of employees in that organization. To do so, we integrate signaling theory and a sense-making perspective into a relational demography framework to investigate why and for whom management ethnic representativeness may have an impact on interpersonal mistreatment at work. Specifically, in three complementary studies, we examine the relationship between management ethnic representativeness and interpersonal mistreatment. First, we analyze the relationship between management ethnic representativeness and perceptions of harassment, bullying, and abuse the next year, as moderated by individuals' ethnic similarity to others in their organizations in a sample of 60,602 employees of Britain's National Health Service. Second, a constructive replication investigates perceived behavioral integrity as an explanatory mechanism that can account for the effects of representativeness using data from a nationally representative survey of working adults in the United States. Third and finally, online survey data collected at two time points replicated these patterns and further integrated the effects of representativeness and dissimilarity when they are measured using both objective and subjective strategies. Results support our proposed moderated mediation model in which management ethnic representation is negatively related to perceived mistreatment through the mediator of perceived behavioral integrity, with effects being stronger for ethnically dissimilar employees.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © American Psychological Association, 2017. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Applied Psychology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | discrimination; mistreatment; signaling theory; relational demography; representativeness |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 02 May 2017 10:45 |
Last Modified: | 15 Mar 2018 11:39 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000238 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Psychological Association |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1037/apl0000238 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:115586 |