The relational and collectivistic processes of relational demography

Abstract

Prior relational demography research suggests that individuals' demographic characteristics in relation to other members of their teams influence the individuals through a self-categorization process (e.g., Chattopadhyay, 1999; Tsui, Egan, & O'Reilly, 1992). The purpose of this dissertation is to extend the literature by incorporating a relational perspective. Drawing on the dual (collective and relational) forms of social identity (Brewer & Gardner, 1996) and the influence of social hierarchy on self-concept (Kraus, Piff, Mendoza-Denton, Rheinschmidt, & Keltner, 2012), I argue that high-status individuals have a salient collective self and are thus like to work in a demographic context that defines a work team with clear and positive features, whereas low-status individuals have a salient relational self and therefore seek to work in a demographic context where they can develop clear and positive roles in their particularistic relationships with fellow team members. Specifically, I propose that demographic dissimilarity increases relational role clarity and positivity for low-status members more than for high-status members, and that relational role clarity and positivity increase member identification. I also propose that when the permeability of the status hierarchy is high high-status members are more likely than low-status members to perceive teams comprised of more higher-status members as having clearer and more positive prototypes, that when status permeability is low high-status members are more likely than low-status members to perceive teams comprised of more higher-status members as having less clear and less positive prototypes, and that team prototype clarity and positivity increase team identification. I test these relationships in a survey study with 233 employees from 39 work teams of a telecommunications company in Mainland China. Key findings largely support my argument about the relational process of relational demography. The collectivistic process, however, seems to be more pronounced for low- rather than high-status members. These results provide evidence about the relational benefit of demographic dissimilarity. They also suggest that lower-status members are more subject to the influence of team demographic context. These findings yield practical implications on management of diverse teams.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology