Joyce Rupert

Commitment of Cultural Minorities in Organizations: Effects of Leadership and Pressure to Conform

PurposeIn this study, we investigated the commitment of cultural minorities and majorities in organizations. We examined how contextual factors, such as pressure to conform and leadership styles, affect the commitment of minority and majority members.Design/Methodology/ApproachA field study was conducted on 107 employees in a large multinational corporation.FindingsWe hypothesize and found that cultural minorities felt more committed to the organization than majority members, thereby challenging the existing theoretical view that cultural minorities will feel less committed. We also found that organizational pressure to conform and effective leadership increased the commitment of minorities.ImplicationsOur findings indicate that organizational leaders and researchers should not only focus on increasing and maintaining the commitment of minority members, but should also consider how majority members react to cultural socialization and integration processes. The commitment of minority members can be further enhanced by effective leadership.Originality/ValueIn this study, we challenge the existing theoretical view based on similarity attraction theory and relational demography theory, that cultural minorities would feel less committed to the organization. Past research has mainly focused on minority groups, thereby ignoring the reaction of the majority to socialization processes. In this study, we show that cultural minorities can be more committed than majority members in organizations. Therefore, the perceptions of cultural majority members of socialization processes should also be considered in research on cultural diversity and acculturation.

Being Different, But Close: How and When Faultlines Enhance Team Learning

Although work-group diversity may have potential positive impact on team learning and performance, the way diversity characteristics are distributed, influences whether teams exploit this potential. In this quantitative field study on 52 teams in two health-care organizations, we examined the relationship between informational faultlines (the demographic alignment of the informational characteristics of the members in a group, creating relatively homogeneous subgroups) and team learning. We used a moderated-mediation model to test the interplay between faultline strength (the alignment of characteristics) and distance (between subgroups, based on the characteristics) on task and process learning. We hypothesized and found that strong but close subgroups stimulate task and process learning in teams. This study also provides evidence that transactive memory is a mediator in the relationship between the interaction of faultline strength and distance with task and process learning.

Breaking the Paradox: Understanding How Teams Create Developmental Space:

Past research shows that teams working on a complex task need developmental space to be successful. They can create this space in their interaction by undertaking four activities: creating future, reflecting, organizing, and dialoguing. These four activities refer to two orientations: the performance orientation, limiting the space, and the sensemaking orientation, opening up the space. Teams need them both, yet it seems inconsistent and impossible to achieve together, thus a paradox. In this exploratory research, we address the way in which teams experience and handle that “developmental space paradox,” and how it affects team success. Individual team members (N = 70) from 12 teams were interviewed. Successful (n = 7) and unsuccessful (n = 5) teams were compared. The results show that successful teams experience this paradox differently than the unsuccessful teams, and that both categories choose other coping strategies to handle this paradox.