IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v23y2012i2p386-401.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Categorical Status, Numeric Representation, and Work Group Prestige on Preference for Demographically Similar Others: A Value Threat Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Michelle M. Duguid

    (Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130)

  • Denise Lewin Loyd

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139)

  • Pamela S. Tolbert

    (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853)

Abstract

It is a popular assumption that women and racial minorities who are numeric minorities in high-prestige work groups will advocate for a demographically similar other as a potential work group peer. However, these individuals may face special challenges in fulfilling this role. We discuss how three factors—the general social status associated with a specific demographic characteristic, the demographic composition of the work group, and the differential prestige accorded within organizations to work groups—interact to impact individuals' concerns about being considered valued members of work groups to which they belong (i.e., value threat). Based on an integration of sociological and psychological theories, we argue that value threat adversely affects individuals' propensity to support demographically similar others in selection and promotion processes. We identify three forms that value threat may take in situations involving such personnel decisions: collective threat, favoritism threat, and competitive threat, and we specify factors that may shape the intensity of each form.

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle M. Duguid & Denise Lewin Loyd & Pamela S. Tolbert, 2012. "The Impact of Categorical Status, Numeric Representation, and Work Group Prestige on Preference for Demographically Similar Others: A Value Threat Approach," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 386-401, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:23:y:2012:i:2:p:386-401
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1100.0565
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0565
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.1100.0565?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lewis, Amy C. & Sherman, Steven J., 2003. "Hiring you makes me look bad: Social-identity based reversals of the ingroup favoritism effect," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 262-276, March.
    2. Prithviraj Chattopadhyay & Elizabeth George & Arthur D. Shulman, 2008. "The Asymmetrical Influence of Sex Dissimilarity in Distributive vs. Colocated Work Groups," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 581-593, August.
    3. Kimberly D. Elsbach & C. B. Bhattacharya, 2001. "Defining Who You Are By What You're Not: Organizational Disidentification and The National Rifle Association," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 393-413, August.
    4. Ray Reagans, 2005. "Preferences, Identity, and Competition: Predicting Tie Strength from Demographic Data," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(9), pages 1374-1383, September.
    5. Elizabeth George & Prithviraj Chattopadhyay, 2002. "Do Differences Matter? Understanding Demography-Related Effects in Organisations," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 27(1_suppl), pages 47-55, June.
    6. Pamela S. Tolbert & Tal Simons & Alice Andrews & Jaehoon Rhee, 1995. "The Effects of Gender Composition in Academic Departments on Faculty Turnover," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 48(3), pages 562-579, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kathleen L. McGinn & Katherine L. Milkman, 2013. "Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity Among Professionals," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 1041-1060, August.
    2. Duguid, Michelle, 2011. "Female tokens in high-prestige work groups: Catalysts or inhibitors of group diversification?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 104-115, September.
    3. M. Max Evans & Ilja Frissen & Anthony K. P. Wensley, 2018. "Organisational Information and Knowledge Sharing: Uncovering Mediating Effects of Perceived Trustworthiness Using the PROCESS Approach," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(01), pages 1-29, March.
    4. Arne K. Albrecht & Gianfranco Walsh & Simon Brach & Dwayne D. Gremler & Erica Herpen, 2017. "The influence of service employees and other customers on customer unfriendliness: a social norms perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 827-847, November.
    5. Uju Violet Alola & Simplice A. Asongu & Andrew Adewale Alola, 2019. "Linking supervisor incivility with job embeddedness and cynicism: The mediating role of employee self-efficacy," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 19/091, African Governance and Development Institute..
    6. Skarmeas, Dionysis & Leonidou, Constantinos N., 2013. "When consumers doubt, Watch out! The role of CSR skepticism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1831-1838.
    7. Yildiz, H. Emre, 2016. "“Us vs. them” or “us over them”? On the roles of similarity and status in M&As," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 51-65.
    8. Havard, Cody T., 2014. "Glory Out of Reflected Failure: The examination of how rivalry affects sport fans," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 243-253.
    9. Alexa Bankert, 2022. "The Personality Origins of Positive and Negative Partisanship," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(4), pages 299-310.
    10. Mohammed Kamruzzaman & Sunan Islam, 2021. "Correlating the diversity awareness within the organizations of Bangladesh in the era of industry 4.0-Human resource perspective," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(09), pages 83-97, September.
    11. Xiaolei Zou & Xiaoxi Chen & Fengling Chen & Chuxin Luo & Hongyan Liu, 2020. "The Influence of Negative Workplace Gossip on Knowledge Sharing: Insight from the Cognitive Dissonance Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Heejung Byun & Tae-Hyun Kim, 2017. "Identity Claims and Diffusion of Sustainability Report: Evidence from Korean Listed Companies, 2003–2010," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 551-565, February.
    13. Colatat, Phech, 2015. "An organizational perspective to funding science: Collaborator novelty at DARPA," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 874-887.
    14. Ray Reagans, 2011. "Close Encounters: Analyzing How Social Similarity and Propinquity Contribute to Strong Network Connections," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 835-849, August.
    15. Lock, Daniel & Filo, Kevin, 2012. "The downside of being irrelevant and aloof: Exploring why individuals do not attend sport," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 187-199.
    16. David Neumark & Rosella Gardecki, 1998. "Women Helping Women? Role Model and Mentoring Effects on Female Ph.D. Students in Economics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(1), pages 220-246.
    17. Illong Kwon & Eva Meyersson Milgrom, "undated". "Working for Female Managers: Gender Hierarchy in the Workplace," Discussion Papers 09-006, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    18. Zalata, Alaa Mansour & Tauringana, Venancio & Tingbani, Ishmael, 2018. "Audit committee financial expertise, gender, and earnings management: Does gender of the financial expert matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 170-183.
    19. Yulia Muratova & Jakob Arnoldi & Xin Chen & Joachim Scholderer, 2018. "Political rotations and cross-province firm acquisitions in China," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(1), pages 37-58, February.
    20. Elizabeth Goodrick & Jennifer Ling Bagdasarian & Lee C. Jarvis, 2022. "Not on Skid Row: Stigma Management in Addiction Treatment Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(8), pages 2067-2100, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:23:y:2012:i:2:p:386-401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.