Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Status Processes and Tokenism on Organizational Diversity

Pamela TolbertMichelle DuguidCornell大学学者和活动家认为，将妇女和种族/少数族裔安排在组织的最高层将有助于弥补限制他们取得成就的一些条件。这一论点的基本原理部分源于相似-吸引范式，该范式假设人们发现与拥有相似态度和价值观的人互动是有效的。人口统计特征经常被用作态度相似性的指标；因此，当让个人选择伴侣时，个人可能会选择人口统计相似的其他人。然而，不同的实证研究将人口结构相似性与有利、中性和不利的评价联系起来，并与积极和消极的招聘决定联系起来。这表明，相似-吸引模式可能在某些情况下适用，但不是所有情况下都适用，并提出了一种挑衅性的可能性，即那些似乎最有可能对组织多样性和包容性产生积极影响的人可能会选择破坏这一结果，或者至少放弃促进这一结果的机会。该项目将关于社会群体识别过程的理论工作与群体人口学研究的结果结合起来，以了解哪些条件会影响属于少数群体的群体中的个人更喜欢相似的其他群体(反之亦然)，从而倡导将他们纳入新的群体成员。该研究采用实验设计的方法，研究了群体人口学和候选人的相对能力对低地位被试支持将相似他人加入群体的交互作用。本研究通过研究社会地位和象征主义的共同影响如何影响与自我归类相关的心理过程，从宏观和微观两个层面对群体间和群体内的关系进行了深入的研究。这种理论的整合是更完整地理解群体内部关系的重要一步，在这种情况下，群体之间持久的地位差异会在低地位群体的流动成员中对他们的群体身份认同产生负面或矛盾的感觉。研究结果将为旨在减少社会不平等的政策提供信息，特别是在组织中提高妇女和少数群体地位的障碍，因此，可以为可能有助于克服这些障碍的社会和组织政策提供信息。

SES-0728112Pamela TolbertMichelle DuguidCornell UniversityScholars and activists have argued that placing women and racial/ethnic minorities in organizations' top tiers will help remedy some of the conditions that have limited their achievements. The rationale for this argument is derived, in part, from a similarity-attraction paradigm, which posits that people find it validating to interact with others who share similar attitudes and values. Demographic characteristics are often used as an index of attitudinal similarity; thus, individuals are likely to select others who are demographically similar when given a choice of partners. However, different empirical studies have linked demographic similarity to favorable, neutral and unfavorable evaluations, and to both positive and negative hiring decisions. This suggests that a similarity-attraction paradigm may hold true in some situations but not all, and raises the provocative possibility that those who may appear to be most likely to have a positive impact on organizational diversity and inclusion may choose to undermine this outcome or at the very least abdicate the opportunity to facilitate it. This project combines theoretical work on social group identification processes with findings from research on group demography to understand the conditions that affect the likelihood that individuals in groups in which they are numerical minorities will prefer similar to dissimilar others (and vice versa) and thus serve as advocates for their inclusion as new group members. The co-PI will use experimental design to study the interactive effects of group demography and candidates' relative competence on low-status subjects' support for adding similar others to the group.The research advances the macro- and micro-sociological insights on inter- and intra-group relations by studying how psychological processes related to self-categorization are affected by the combined influences of social status and tokenism. This integration of theories is an important step in gaining a more complete understanding of intra-group relationships in situations in which enduring status differences between groups create negative or ambivalent feelings in mobile members of low-status groups about their group identity. Research findings will yield information that could inform policies aimed at reducing social inequality, in particular, barriers to the advancement of women and minorities in organizations, and therefore, could inform social and organizational policies that may help to overcome these barriers.