Page 87 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

3. RELATIONAL DEMOGRAPHY
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depicted in Figure 3.1, the majority group's reactions to dissimilar others
could easily be tempered by the organizational practices, diversity culture,
or norms, as suggested by Ely and Thomas (2001; Jackson et al., 2003). One
might expect more negative reactions to demographic dissimilarity in or­
ganizations with weak diversity climates than in organizations with strong
diversity climates (Ely & Thomas, 2001), or in organizations with more in­
dividualistic rather than collectivist cultures (Chatman et al., 1998). The
presence or absence of organizational practices and policies for diversity
might moderate the outward display of behaviors by majority members
toward demographically dissimilar others.
There are also other potential moderators from the minority perspec­
tive that need to be tested. If an individual is demographically dissimilar
to his/her workgroup, but that workgroup is high status, the demographic
dissimilarity might not have the same negative effects as when the indi­
vidual is demographically dissimilar and in a low-status workgroup (cf.
Chattopadhyay, 1999; Elvira & Cohen, 2001; Ely, 1994). In a similar fash­
ion, greater interdependence or interaction between diverse individuals
will reduce conflict, prejudice, and negative stereotyping and will increase
feelings of interpersonal attraction, familiarity, and group cohesion (Ellison
& Powers, 1994; Sigelman & Welch, 1993). As a consequence, interdepen­
dence and interaction appear to reduce the negative impact of being de­
mographically dissimilar in surface-level characteristics such as age and
gender (Chatman & Flynn, 2001; Harrison et al., 1998, 2002; Vecchio &
Bullis, 2001). Finally, future research might further examine the role of per­
sonality or dispositional variables such as personal comfort with diversity.
For example, it may be that for individuals with a low personal comfort
with diversity, being in a demographically dissimilar workgroup will lead
to greater feelings of discrimination and more negative attitudes about
the workgroup than for individuals with a high personal comfort with
diversity.

SUMMARY

The proposed model attempts to provide an integrative view of relational
demography through the lens of discrimination. It is obvious that future re­
search needs to examine the impact of the majority's reactions/behaviors/
characteristics on the outcomes for the individuals who are demographi­
cally dissimilar; examine multiple demographic characteristics at the same
time; expand the view of relational demography to include more proximal
outcomes related to discrimination; and heavily explore the role of personal
and contextual variables as moderators.