Workgroup’s Openness to Diversity and Employees’ Perception of Human Resources Practices: The Moderating Effect of Group Membership

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of a workgroup’s openness to diversity (WOD) in shaping employees’ perception of human resources practices (HRPs), by focusing primarily on three types of diversity, namely visible diversity, value diversity and informational diversity. The study also examines the moderating effect of group membership on the relationship. Cross-sectional data through a survey of 533 employees of various leading information technology (IT) companies in India are used. The results suggest that a workgroup’s openness to diversity is a strong determinant of the perception of HRPs. It is observed that the workgroup’s openness to visible diversity has no significant impact on the perception of HRPs, whereas openness to value and informational diversity has a significant positive impact. The results also show that group membership moderates the relationship. In terms of the originality of this study, we contend that, to date, there is a paucity of empirical studies linking a workgroup’s openness to diversity with the perception of HRPs. Hence, the present study addresses this gap by examining the relationship, as well as the boundary conditions on this relationship.