Organizational‐Level Gender Dissimilarity and Employee Commitment
| Published date | 01 December 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00644.x |
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| Author | Hyun‐Jung Lee,Riccardo Peccei |
Organizational-Level Gender Dissimilarity
and Employee Commitment
Hyun-Jung Lee and Riccardo Peccei
Abstract
This study explores the extent to which gender dissimilarity in the workplace
affects employees’ commitment to their organization, using data from the
British (1998) Workplace Employee Relations Survey. The results showed that
the effects of organizational-level gender dissimilarity on organizational com-
mitment were more complex than has commonly been assumed in the literature.
The relationship between organizational-level gender dissimilarity and
employee commitment was U-shaped for women whereas it was not significant
for men. The relationship was moderated by the respondents’ status as
measured by their level of pay. For men, the relationship between gender
dissimilarity and commitment was negative for high-paid individuals but not for
low-paid ones, while for women the U-shaped relationship was weaker for
high-paid individuals than for low-paid individuals.
1. Introduction
The literature on workplace diversity and organizational demography sug-
gests that workforce heterogeneity in terms of such factors as gender, age and
ethnicity influences workforce social integration and, hence, overall organi-
zational effectiveness (Tsui and Gutek 1999; Williams and O’Reilly 1998).
Research has found, for example, that demographic heterogeneity can lead to
a variety of negative social psychological and behavioural dynamics includ-
ing communication difficulties, interpersonal conflict and low group cohe-
sion (e.g. Jehn et al. 1999; Pelled 1996). In this study we focus explicitly on
gender as a key dimension of demographic diversity and examine the rela-
tionship between gender dissimilarity at an organizational level and
employee commitment. Organizational-level gender dissimilarity is closely
related to the gender composition of a work setting and refers to the degree
of employees’ similarity to or difference from others in that setting in terms
Hyun-Jung Lee is at the London School of Economics. Riccardo Peccei is at King’s College
London.
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00644.x
45:4 December 2007 0007–1080 pp. 687–712
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
of gender. Our interest in the present study is to examine the extent to which
individual employees’ sense of commitment to their employing organization
is affected by the gender composition of their workplace or, more precisely,
by the proportion of same-gender employees that are employed at their place
of work. Specifically, our concern is with the impact of organizational-level
gender dissimilarity on employee affective commitment to the organization,
defined as the relative strength of individuals’ emotional attachment to,
identification with and involvement in their employing organization (Meyer
and Allen 1997; Mowday et al. 1982).
The reason for focusing on the organizational gender dissimilarity–
organizational commitment (OC) link is that organizational commitment is
a key indicator of employee integration and attachment at work and
organizational-level gender dissimilarity has long been hypothesized, in both
the relational demography and gender diversity literatures (Tsui et al. 1992;
Tsui and Gutek 1999) to have an important effect on employee psychological
attachment and commitment at work. Two broad interpretations of the effect
of gender dissimilarity on employee attitudes at work, including affective
attachment and commitment, can be identified in the literature. The first is
what has come to be known in the gender diversity literature as a generic
interpretation, while the second is a so-called compositional approach
(Konrad et al. 1992; Tolbert et al. 1999). As we discuss more fully below,
common to generic approaches is the presupposition that there is basically no
difference in the way men and women react to gender dissimilarity and that
the impact of gender dissimilarity on employee commitment, therefore, is the
same across the genders. Generic interpretations take a variety of forms.
These include, for example, both self-categorization (Turner 1987) and simi-
larity attraction-based (Byrne 1971) approaches that suggest that the rela-
tionship between gender dissimilarity and employee commitment is likely to
be linear and negative. They also include, however, group competition
theory-based (Blalock 1967) arguments that suggest a more complex non-
linear relationship.
In contrast to generic interpretations, compositional approaches view
gender as a potentially important moderating factor affecting the gender
dissimilarity–commitment relationship. Specifically, as we explain more fully
below, based primarily on so-called master status or status expectation argu-
ments (Chatman and O’Reilly 2004), the central thrust of the compositional
perspective is that men and women are likely to react differently to gender
dissimilarity at the workplace. Hence, the gender dissimilarity–commitment
relationship is likely to be asymmetrical between the genders.
Gender, however, is not the only factor that is likely to moderate the
relationship between gender dissimilarity and commitment. Particularly
important in this respect is individuals’ status at the workplace reflected, for
example, in their level of pay. As we discuss more fully below, a direct
corollary of status expectation arguments is that the gender dissimilarity–
commitment relationship is likely to vary depending on the actual status of
the individual involved. However, the extent to which individuals’ status does
688 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007.
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