Factors Predicting Inter-Ethnic Friendships at the Workplace

Abstract

This study explored factors that may contribute to inter-ethnic friendships, both in terms of quantity and satisfaction with those friendships. Participants were 200 working adults who were studying part-time in a long-distance program in a university in Malaysia. In general, demographic factors (gender, ethnicity, education, and income) had no significant relationships with number of inter-ethnic friends and satisfaction people had with inter-ethnic friendships. Ethnic identity and stress at work also did not have significant relationships with number of inter-ethnic friends. However, they were significantly related to satisfaction with inter-ethnic friendships. People with higher ethnic identification were more satisfied with inter-ethnic friendships whereas people with more stress at work reported lower satisfaction with inter-ethnic friendships.Keywords: friendships, inter-ethnic friendships, ethnic identification, friendship satisfaction Interpersona, 2012, Vol. 6(2), 191-199, doi:10.5964/ijpr.v6i2.100 Received: 2011-12-19. Accepted: 2012-10-17. Published: 2012 *Corresponding author at: School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, email: hashimah@usm.my This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Friendships can be used as a measure to improve inter-group relations in society with different sub-groups.Friendship that exists among people from different groups can be associated with more positive inter-group attitudes (Pettigrew, 1998;Feddes, Noack, & Rutland, 2009). Ethnicity represents a major construct by which a society can be divided into. Friendships between people of different ethnicities can be an indicator of the health of interethnic relations in that particular society or country. The issue is especially important in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Malaysia where efforts to maintain and improve inter-ethnic relations have always been considered an important national agenda (Tamam, 2009;Mohd Yusof, 2006;Santhiram;1995) mother tongue and practice their own unique customs and ways of life. In daily context, research has shown that these various ethnic groups are further polarized and this is evidenced from friendship patterns among school children which mainly consist of in-group preference (Mohd Yusof, 2006;Santhiram, 1995). Looking at these unsettling segregations and considering the potential conflicts, there is a pressing need for more work to be done in understanding and promoting friendships between people of different ethnic groups in Malaysia.However, current research on issues related to ethnicity in Malaysia tend to take a more sociological and/or political approach. Some of the most current studies on inter-ethnic relations in Malaysia tend to focus on more Ho, 2010;Huang, 2010).Interpersona | An International Journal ...

Racial Microaggression in Multicultural Malaysia: Ethnic-specific Experience of University Students

“…The ethnic 'others' comprises of Eurasians, Thais, Europeans, and others not classified under the three major ethnic groups (Hirschman, 1987). Within this already diverse ethnic distribution, each group generally practices different religions and uses different mother tongues (Hashim, Mohd-Zaharim, & Khodarahimi, 2012). For instance, Malays who represent the majority of the Malaysian populations are mostly Muslims and use mainly the Malay language and have distinctive customs and cultures in comparison to the ethnic Indians, who mostly practice Hindu as religion and generally speak Tamil as their mother tongue (Kessler, 1992).…”