Gender and Ethnic Dissimilarity and Organizational Embeddedness: A Study of Team Climates

Abstract

Drawing upon relational demography and conservation of resources theory, we study the relationship between gender and ethnic dissimilarity and organizational embeddedness to understand why dissimilar employees stay in their work organizations. Further, we study the role of team justice climate and climate for inclusion as moderators ameliorating this adverse effect. The study was conducted on 82 work teams in Malaysia. We conducted this study in a unique national context where a societal numerical minority—Chinese—has higher socioeconomic status than the Malay majority, as well as less gender egalitarianism than Western countries. The results show that climate for inclusion ameliorated adverse ethnic dissimilarity effects on organizational embeddedness, but not for gender dissimilarity, and that justice climate ameliorated adverse gender and ethnic dissimilarity effects on organizational embeddedness. Further, the ameliorating effects of justice and inclusive climates were more pronounced for women and non-Chinese employees, demographic groups who are more sensitive to justice and inclusion due to lower status and relative lack of social and material resources in the workplace. Our study points to the importance of fostering positive team climates for justice and inclusion to retain traditionally underrepresented employees in Malaysia and other nations.