Friendships and outgroup attitudes among ethnic minority youth: The mediating role of ethnic and host society identification

This study investigates among ethnic minority adolescents how friendships with ethnic minority and majority group peers are related to their attitudes towards the majority outgroup.Friendships with majority group peers are proposed to be indirectly related to outgroup attitudes through host society identification. Friendships with ethnic ingroup peers are proposed to be indirectly related to outgroup attitudes through ethnic ingroup identification.Hypotheses were tested longitudinally among ethnic minority adolescents (n = 244) who recently entered middle schools in the Netherlands. Lagged structural equation models showed that friendships with majority group peers were related to stronger identification with the host society which was in turn related to improved attitudes toward the majority outgroup. Ingroup friendships and ingroup identification was not related to outgroup attitudes. Additional analyses indicated that the relation between host society identification and majority group friendships was bidirectional.     

Being tolerated and minority well-being: The role of group identifications

In recent decades, a norm of tolerating group differences has been promoted by laypeople and leaders as a way to manage cultural and religious diversity. But whether such a policy is beneficial for the targets’ sense of group belonging and well-being is unknown. This research investigates how being tolerated differs from being discriminated against and being accepted in its associations with affective well-being and ethnic and national identification of ethnic minorities. We test whether being tolerated is related to well-being through its association with both group identifications. With a sample of ethnic minority group members in the Netherlands (N = 518) we found that being tolerated is related to higher well-being through increased national identification, but not as strongly as being accepted. Being tolerated is different from experiencing discrimination against and being accepted, and its relations to well-being and group belonging often fall between those of discrimination and acceptance. Toleration is associated with higher well-being, but only to the extent that its targets feel included in the overarching national category.     

Explaining the relationship between socio-economic status and interethnic friendships: The mediating role of preferences,opportunities, and third parties

Interethnic contact is important for social cohesion and has been shown to vary with people’s socio-economic status (SES). There is some evidence that SES has opposite effects on interethnic contact for non-Western ethnic minorities and for majority members in Western countries. Whereas minority members with a higher SES tend to have more contact with natives, natives with a higher SES tend to have less inter-ethnic contact. To replicate and further understand these contrasting findings, we focused on interethnic friendships in particular and tested simultaneously for majority and minority members whether preferences for cultural similarity, opportunities to meet ethnic others, and disapproval of third parties, mediate the relationship between SES and having interethnic friendships. Analyses of 368 natives and 267 non-Western ethnic minority members in the Netherlands confirmed the contrasting effects of SES on interethnic friendships for these two groups. Importantly, we found that for minority members higher SES was related to more friendships with natives through more meeting opportunities. For natives, higher SES was related to fewer friendships with ethnic minorities, however, this relationship could not be explained by lower meeting opportunities. Preferences for cultural similarity and third-party disapproval did not explain the link between SES and interethnic friendships for any of the two groups.     

Dissimilarity and learning in teams: The role of relational identification and value dissimilarity

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the relationship between team members’ demographic dissimilarity (race/ethnic origin and nationality) from their team and their learning in the team. Drawing from social identity theory and self-categorization theory, it is argued that relational identification with team members and perceived value dissimilarity moderate this relationship. Hypotheses were tested using a survey of individual team members in multiple organizations. Race/ethnic origin dissimilarity negatively influenced learning when relational identification with team members was lower. Race/ethnic origin dissimilarity and national dissimilarity were more negatively related to learning under higher perceived value dissimilarity. Finally, national dissimilarity most negatively influenced learning under lower relational identification with team members and higher perceived value dissimilarity.     

MNC commitment, OCB role definition and intent to leave in subsidiary top managers: The moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance values

The current paper analyses in depth and expands on the study of the consequences of organisational commitment in the MNC setting. To that end the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance as a personal cultural value is studied and two consequences of MNC commitment are analysed: intent to leave and organisational citizenship behaviour. The empirical analysis carried out on a cross-organisational sample of 101 top managers of MNC's subsidiaries located in Spain confirms the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance for the affective and normative commitments, as well as its moderating effect on the influence that organisational citizenship behaviour role definition exerts on intent to leave. Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.     

The role of discordant acculturation attitudes in perceived threat: An analysis of host and immigrant attitudes in Germany

The present research examines discordant acculturation attitudes of host society members and immigrants as an antecedent to intergroup threat. Based on integrated threat theory and the concordance model of acculturation, we posited that discordance on culture maintenance and on desire for contact would predict intergroup threat beyond the influence of other antecedents of threat, such as in-group identification, knowledge, and negative contact. A study with 202 German host society members and 151 Turkish and Italian immigrants was conducted. In line with our assumptions, path analyses revealed that culture discordance and contact discordance contribute independently to the prediction of realistic threat, symbolic threat, and intergroup anxiety for host society members and immigrants. Moreover, differences in threat between cultures were mediated by the discordance in acculturation attitudes.