Hiring you makes me look bad: Social-identity based reversals of the ingroup favoritism effect

Lewis, Amy C.; Sherman, Steven J.

doi:10.1016/s0749-5978(02)00538-1

Cited by 74 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Perhaps the previously described inconsistency in the effects of age similarity stems from researchers' failure to consider individuals' perceptions of similar others. Our results, in conjunction with those of Lewis and Sherman (2003), suggest that perceived similarity may correspond with in-group favoritism only when similar others are regarded favorably. This seems to imply that older workers, often a stigmatized group, possess an identity affirmation motive that influences their engagement.…”

Section: Practical and Research Implicationssupporting

confidence: 70%

Engaging the aging workforce: The relationship between perceived age similarity, satisfaction with coworkers, and employee engagement.

Avery¹,

McKay²,

Wilson³

2007

Journal of Applied Psychology

325

229

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Business publications and the popular press have stressed the importance of creating conditions for meaningful employee expression in work roles, also known as engagement. Few empirical studies, however, have examined how individual or situational factors relate to engagement. Consequently, this study examines the interplay between employee age, perceived coworker age composition, and satisfaction with older (older than 55) and younger (younger than 40) coworkers on engagement using a sample of 901 individuals employed in the United Kingdom. Results indicated that satisfaction with one's coworkers related significantly to engagement. Moreover, perceived age similarity was associated with higher levels of engagement among older workers when they were highly satisfied with their coworkers over 55 and lower levels of engagement when they were not.Keywords: age, diversity, engagement, similarity, satisfaction with coworkers Two seemingly unrelated workplace trends could have a considerable conjunctive impact on management. First, the global workforce is aging. In the United States, there are 18.4 million workers age 55 or older, a figure representing 13% of the workforce. By 2015, this number is projected to grow to 31.9 million, or approximately one in every five employees (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2001). Similarly, 41% of the Canadian working population is expected to be between the ages of 45 and 64 by the year 2021 (cf. Lende, 2005). In the United Kingdom, 30% of workers are over 50 (Dixon, 2003). Across the European Union as a whole, the proportion of workers over 50 is expected to rise nearly 25% over the next 15 years ("Turning boomers into boomerangs," 2006).Simultaneously, the challenge of engaging employees is mounting (Fleming, Coffman, & Harter, 2005;May, Gilson, & Harter, 2004;Pech & Slade, 2006). Kahn (1990) initially defined engagement as "the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles" (p. 694). Despite its seeming conceptual overlap with existing constructs such as organizational commitment and job involvement, evidence suggests that engagement is a distinct construct (Hallberg & Schaufeli, 2006). According to a survey of 656 chief executive officers hailing from countries around the world, engaging employees is the fourth most important management challenge, behind creating customer loyalty, managing mergers and alliances, and reducing costs (Wah, 1999). Further illustrating the magnitude of this challenge, the Gallup Organization recently found that nearly 20% of U.S. employees were disengaged and an additional 54% were effectively neutral about their work (see Fleming et al., 2005). The authors estimated disengaged employees to cost U.S. organizations more than $300 billion per year in lost productivity. Furthermore, research by Gallup and Towers Perrin (Momal, 2003;Seijts & Crim, 2006) suggests that employee disengagement is equally problematic in other countries as well. In fact, the latter found that only 14% of more than 85,000 employees across 16 countries were eng...

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Section: Practical and Research Implicationssupporting

confidence: 70%

Engaging the aging workforce: The relationship between perceived age similarity, satisfaction with coworkers, and employee engagement.

Avery¹,

McKay²,

Wilson³

2007

Journal of Applied Psychology

325

229

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Those ingroup members who can do so are preferred over comparable outgroup members. In contrast, ingroup members who threaten to undermine the positive ingroup image (for example, because they are less qualified) are not favored (Lewis and Sherman 2003).…”

Section: Social Identity Theory (Sit) and The Threat-based Skill Paramentioning

confidence: 99%

The skill paradox: explaining and reducing employment discrimination against skilled immigrants

Dietz

Joshi

Esses

et al. 2015

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

122

127

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“…Having two or more social identities that are inconsistent in terms of status is not uncommon in modern organizations given their complexity and diversity. For example, Black executives can identify with two groups that may be inconsistent in terms of status: Black (traditionally, a relatively low-status or stigmatized group based on race; Lewis and Sherman, 2003) and executives (a relatively high-status group based on organizational hierarchy). Examining the issue of multiple social identities cannot only enrich social identity theory but also contribute to understanding the mechanisms that influence between-group and within-group processes in modern organizations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Paradox of Dueling Identities: The Case of Local Senior Executives in MNC Subsidiaries

Yan

George

Chan³

2006

Journal of Management

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Hiring you makes me look bad: Social-identity based reversals of the ingroup favoritism effect

Cited by 74 publications

References 51 publications

Engaging the aging workforce: The relationship between perceived age similarity, satisfaction with coworkers, and employee engagement.

Engaging the aging workforce: The relationship between perceived age similarity, satisfaction with coworkers, and employee engagement.

The skill paradox: explaining and reducing employment discrimination against skilled immigrants

The Paradox of Dueling Identities: The Case of Local Senior Executives in MNC Subsidiaries

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