Why Organizational and Community Diversity Matter: Representativeness and the Emergence of Incivility and Organizational Performance

Abstract

Integrating sociological and psychological perspectives, this research considers the value of organizational ethnic diversity as a function of community diversity. Employee and patient surveys, census data, and performance indices relevant to 142 hospitals in the United Kingdom suggest that intraorganizational ethnic diversity is associated with reduced civility toward patients. However, the degree to which organizational demography was representative of the community demography was positively related to civility experienced by patients and ultimately enhanced organizational performance. These findings underscore the understudied effects of community context, and imply that intergroup biases manifested in incivility toward outgroup members hinder organizational performance. Why Organizational and Community 3 WHY ORGANIZATIONAL AND COMMUNITIY DIVERSITY MATTER: REPRESENTATIVENESS AND THE EMERGENCE OF INCIVILITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCESocial, political, and technological advancements have given rise to a workforce comprised of people from a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds across the globe (United Nations Statistics Division, 2009). Management research on the implications of this increasing ethnic diversity has yielded mixed findings; some research within teams and dyads suggests diversity can generate innovation and breadth of information (e.g., Simmons, Pelled, & Smith, 1999), while other studies suggest diversity can have negative effects by increasing conflict and reducing cohesion (e.g., Jehn, Northcraft & Neale, 1999). The little evidence that exists at the level of the organization suggests that diversity can have positive effects on financial outcomes under some conditions (Herring, 2009;Richard, 2000;Richard, Barnett, Dwyer, & Chadwick, 2004). Researchers have therefore moved past the question of whether diversity affects outcomes and have instead begun to address the question of when and how diversity can facilitate positive outcomes (Joshi & Roh, 2009).An answer to these questions may be gleaned from one of the potential value propositions espoused by researchers and practitioners of diversity management: diverse employees may be particularly effective in serving similarly diverse populations (Richard, 2000) by bringing unique cultural sensitivity that appeals to a diverse customer base (Cox & Blake, 1991). This reasoning can be grounded in social identity and social categorization theories, which suggest that people unconsciously favor members of their own social groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). On its face, this rationale implies that organizational diversity will yield positive effects when it matches the demography of customers or clients the organization serves. Why Organizational and Community 4Here we suggest that the primary reason why people from one ethnic background may be less effective in serving people from other ethnic backgrounds is that the positive regard automatically afforded to ingroup members is replaced by a subtle disregard when intraorganizational diver...

A Socioecological Approach to Relational Demography: How Relative Representation and Respectful Coworkers Affect Job Attitudes

“…Ultimately, the effects of relative representation also depended on the extent to which coworkers treated each other with respect. The importance of respectful, civil treatment in the workplace is echoed in recent research linking demographic relative representation to hospital performance via the civil treatment of patients (King et al, 2011). Taking these results one step further, it is possible that respectful treatment amongst members of a work team might also facilitate enhanced interpersonal and team outcomes.…”

“…Ethnic group relative representation was captured via the proportional representation values for ethnic group representation in the organization and community (described below), respectively; levels of relative representation are indicated by the degree of alignment between these two scores. This approach follows from the measurement of demographic representativeness, the organizational-level correlate of ethnic group relative representation, which pertains to the alignment of organizational demographic composition and community demographic composition (Avery et al, 2012;King et al, 2011).…”

“…Note that absolute representation is separate from the construct of relative representation-a group could be low in absolute representation but high in relative representation. At the organizational level (Avery et al, 2012;King et al, 2011;Leslie, 2014), high levels of demographic representativeness indicate that there is a high level of congruence between the ethnic composition of the community and the organization as a whole whereas low levels of representativeness denote misalignment between the composition of the community and organization. At the individual level, which is of focus here, ethnic group relative representation is reflected by the degree to which an individualÕs own demographic group is represented similarly in their community and their organization.…”

“…In other words, job attitudes are likely influenced by an individualÕs relative representationÑthe degree to which organizational demographic composition is aligned with community demographic composition (Avery et al, 2012;King et al, 2011;Leslie, 2014). Note that absolute representation is separate from the construct of relative representation-a group could be low in absolute representation but high in relative representation.…”

“…Volpone, & Morris, 2012;King, Dawson, West, Gilrane, Peddie, & Bastin, 2011), we propose that employee attitudes are a function of the demographic characteristics of not only those in their immediate work environment, but also the degree to which these characteristics align with the demography of the community in which their organization is embedded, termed relative representation. More specifically, we anticipate that different evaluative judgments will emerge when an individual is an ethnic minority in their organization but not a minority in the community surrounding their organization as compared to a situation where the individualÕs ethnic group is similarly underrepresented in both contexts.…”