JOURNAL OF BUSINESS DIVERSITY


The Role of Work Group Status as a Contextual Variable in Relational
Demography Research




Author(s): Bryan S. Schaffer, Christine M. Riordan

Citation: Bryan S. Schaffer, Christine M. Riordan, (2011) "The Role of Work Group Status as a Contextual Variable in Relational Demography Research," Journal of Business Diversity, Vol.11, Iss. 1, pp. 19 - 32

Article Type: Research paper

Publisher: North American Business Press

Abstract:

In relational demography research, hypotheses predicting unfavorable effects for demographic
dissimilarity have not always been supported. A need exists for the identification of contextual variables
that further specify the conditions under which such effects would occur. Work group status is introduced
here as an important moderator variable. Three theoretical premises support its use: Social identity and
self-categorization theories; Common Ingroup Identity Model; and, downward comparison theory. The
general proposition is that as work group status increases, the effects of dissimilarity will be mitigated
because status itself (as opposed to demographics) is likely to become the primary delimiter of ingroupoutgroup
classifications.