Uniting Through Difference: Rich Cultural-Identity Expression as a Conduit to Inclusion
Rachel D. Arnett ()
Additional contact information
Rachel D. Arnett: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
Organization Science, 2023, vol. 34, issue 5, 1887-1913
Abstract:
Although previous research suggests that bringing attention to minority cultural identities in the workplace can lead to professional penalties, this research provides promising evidence that the opposite can occur. I examine how cultural minority employees engaging in rich and meaningful conversations about their racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds (referred to as rich cultural-identity expression ) influences majority-group coworkers’ inclusive behaviors, such as majority-group employees’ willingness to socially integrate with and professionally support minority coworkers. Three experiments found evidence of majority-group employees behaving more —not less—inclusively toward minority coworkers who engaged in rich cultural-identity expression, as opposed to small talk that did not bring attention to a minority cultural background. Even when minority employees richly expressed negatively valenced cultural information that could provoke anxiety (such as issues with discrimination), this form of sharing had positive effects on most measures of inclusive behavior in Studies 2 and 3 (although one exception was found in Study 3). No benefits were observed when minority employees engaged in surface-level cultural-identity expression (Studies 2 and 3) and intimate, noncultural self-disclosure (Study 2). The power of rich cultural-identity expression is its ability to increase majority-group individuals’ status perceptions of, feelings of closeness to, and sense of learning potential from minority coworkers. This research provides promising evidence that minority employees may be able to express valued aspects of their cultural identities while gaining—as opposed to jeopardizing—inclusion.
Keywords: diversity; identity; identity management; inclusion; race; culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1648 (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:34:y:2023:i:5:p:1887-1913
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().