Workplace racial/ethnic similarity, job satisfaction, and lumbar back health among warehouse workers: Asymmetric reactions across racial/ethnic groups

Abstract

Summary Racial and ethnic minority employees constitute a significant proportion of the U.S. workforce. The literature on demographic similarity in the workplace suggests that the proportion of co‐workers who share the same racial/ethnic background (racial/ethnic similarity) can influence job attitudes and employee well‐being and that the reactions to racial/ethnic similarity may differ between the racially dominant and subordinate groups. This study applies status construction theory to examine the extent to which racial/ethnic similarity is associated with job satisfaction and lumbar back health among warehouse employees. We surveyed 361 warehouse workers (204 whites, 94 African‐Americans, and 63 Latino workers) in 68 jobs in nine distribution centers in the United States. Multilevel analyses indicate that white and racial/ethnic minority groups react differently to racial/ethnic similarity. For job satisfaction, white employees experience higher job satisfaction when they are highly racially/ethnically similar to their colleagues, whereas Latino employees experience higher job satisfaction when they are racially/ethnically dissimilar to others. As for lumbar back health, among Latino and African‐American employees, higher racial/ethnic similarity is associated with better lumbar back health whereas for white employees, the association is the opposite. Across all groups, moderate levels of racial/ethnic similarity were associated with the best lumbar back health. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organizational Context and the Well-Being of Black Workers: Does Racial Composition Affect Psychological Distress?

“…Enchautegui- de-Jesús et al (2006) analyze a sample of Black and Latinx workers in New York City and Chicago and find that psychological well-being is lowest among workers in token jobs and improves with the proportion of same-race coworkers, but begins to decline slightly at the highest levels of proportional representation (inverse J-shaped). Finally, Hoppe et al (2014) examine the effect of workplace racial similarity on lumbar back health among warehouse workers. They find a positive relationship between racial/ethnic similarity and back health among Black workers.…”

“…From the stress process health perspective, and consistent with the MCB literature, supportive workplace relationships, as a key resource, are presumed to offset stressful circumstances and therefore positively affect psychological well-being. Of the three studies to examine racial composition and well-being, only Hoppe et al (2014) incorporated a measure of social support. They find that greater coworker social support is associated with better lumbar back health.…”

“…In the first tract (Panel A), three studies have explicitly linked work group racial composition to Black workers' health and well-being (Enchautegui- de-Jesús, Hughes, Johnston, & Oh, 2006;Hoppe, Fujishiro, & Heaney, 2014;Jackson et al, 1995). These studies find, in general, that increasing racial homogeneity tends to promote health and well-being and suggest that this stems from the erosion of majority group power, which presumably reduces stereotyping, in-group preference, and social isolation.…”

Who is More Injury‐Prone? Prediction and Assessment of Injury Risk

“…Workplace environment includes several characteristics such as ethnic climate, leadership, safety climate, competition level, facility infrastructure, workplace interaction, and trade type (e.g. mining, manufacturing, warehousing) (Hoppe, Fujishiro, & Heaney, 2014). Workplace features such as safety climate (Probst et al, 2008), trade (Baradan & Usmen, 2006), leadership (Vries, Koster, & Stam, 2016), and ethnic climate (Hoppe et al, 2014) have been shown to influence injury risk in workplaces.…”

“…mining, manufacturing, warehousing) (Hoppe, Fujishiro, & Heaney, 2014). Workplace features such as safety climate (Probst et al, 2008), trade (Baradan & Usmen, 2006), leadership (Vries, Koster, & Stam, 2016), and ethnic climate (Hoppe et al, 2014) have been shown to influence injury risk in workplaces. Task-related characteristics include factors such as ergonomic design, task characteristics (e.g., hazard level, cognitive complexity, physical effort), task exposure, equipment quality, IS technology design factors (e.g., interface design, usability features), multitasking, loading factors, mental overload, task response, information sharing, handoff (e.g., shift change), number of transfers, etc.…”