How are migrant employees manages? An integrated analysis
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: I integrate theories of acculturation, statistical discrimination and social distance with social identity theory to propose a comprehensive theoretical framework that accounts for the differential managerial treatment of social groups. I develop and apply this framework to study the extent to which migrant employees are managed differently than native employees are and to unpack differentials in managerial treatment between specific migrant groups. Hallmark of the framework is that it considers group membership as well as traits of the social group to which an employee belongs and the fluidity of group boundaries. I predict that migrants receive different managerial treatment than natives do but that this difference diminishes with acculturation. I further predict that the level of economic development of migrants’ home country and home-host country (dis)similarities explain differentials in managerial treatment between migrant groups. In a sample comprising up to 13,628 migrants from more than 160 home countries and focusing on job autonomy as a key feature of how employees are managed or supervised, I find strong empirical support for these predictions. This paper helps understand the mechanisms and factors that bias employers to make suboptimal use of human capital resources drawn from a crossculturally diverse workforce.
Source: SOM Research Reports
Author: André van Hoorn
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2503615742