Towards well-being: role of diversity and nature of work
| Published date | 07 January 2019 |
| Date | 07 January 2019 |
| Pages | 158-175 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-11-2017-0279 |
| Author | Akanksha Jaiswal,Lata Dyaram |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Towards well-being: role of
diversity and nature of work
Akanksha Jaiswal and Lata Dyaram
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai, India
Abstract
Purpose –Literature highlights diversity to facilitate cognitive outcomes; nevertheless, there is limited
scholarlyattention on affective diversityeffects. The purposeof this paper is to examine the impact of perceived
diversity on employee well-being (EWB) and contend different types of diversity to yield differentialimpact.
Further, the authorsexplore how nature of employee work canmoderate these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach –With 311 full-time employees representing large manufacturing
organizations in India, the authors test the hypothesized relationships using PROCESS macro.
Findings –Results indicate perception of surface and knowledge diversity having a significant positive
impact on EWB. Further, the authors found nature of employee work to moderate the link between knowledge
diversity and well-being such that perception of knowledge diversity under complex tasks enhanced
well-being; no impact of work complexity was observed on the link between surface diversity and well-being.
Research limitations/implications –Perceived diversity is malleable lending itself to longitudinal
work in this field. Besides nature of work, future research may explore other key contextual factors in
diversity dynamics.
Practical implications –Contrary to the longstanding theories such as social categorization/similarity
attraction, the authors found surface diversity to positively influence EWB. This indicates firms’effective
diversity management strategies in creating inclusive workplace. Further, the authors draw implications
around team design and workforce composition.
Originality/value –While the scholarly attention to perceived diversity is gradually growing, in a first, the
authors empirically examine the impact of diversity perceptions on employee affect in the context of Indian
manufacturing firms.
Keywords Employee well-being, Knowledge diversity, Nature of work, Perceived diversity
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Workforce diversity is burgeoning across the world characterized by a mix of gender,
ethnicity, lifestyle and functional background. In the twenty-first century, diversity often
denotes equality of opportunity and employment without any discrimination on these traits.
While it is in vogue to comprise a diverse mix of employees, organizations have not been
able to succeed on all accounts in managing diversity (Guillaume et al., 2013; Kundu and
Mor, 2016). There are several challenges in upholding diversity even after strenuous efforts
of diversity champions. These challenges often relate to societal mind-sets and individual
psychological discomforts while working with people possessing diverse attributes.
A great deal of research has focused onworkforce diversity particularly,on how diversity
impacts group and organizational levelfunctioning; however; individuallevel outcomes need
more scholarly attention (Kundu and Mor, 2016). While scholars demonstrate how diversity
can be a source of competitive advantage, they also highlight undesirable social processes
such as increased employee turnover,conflict, lowered cohesion and integration (Dwertmann
et al., 2016; Guillaume et al., 2013; Jehn and Bezrukova, 2004). Affective diversity effects are
often considered as processes to explain diversity’s cognitive outcomes and have received
limited scholarly attention as key outcome variables (Jackson et al., 2003; Van Knippenberg
and Schippers, 2007). Additionally, extant diversity literature needs integration with recent
paradigms of howperception of individual dissimilarities contributes to employee affectsuch
as feelings of low acceptance, disrespectand exclusion (Findler et al., 2007; Shemlaet al., 2016).
Further, since empirical evidence of diversity outcomes has largely been mixed and
Employee Relations
Vol. 41 No. 1, 2019
pp. 158-175
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-11-2017-0279
Received 24 November 2017
Revised 1 March 2018
Accepted 21 March 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
158
ER
41,1
inconsistent, several researchers argue for examining the role of moderating effects of
context and situational factors in understanding the complex diversity phenomenon
(Guillaume et al., 2014; Joshi and Roh, 2009; Roberson et al., 2017).
The context of Indian organizations is of particular relevance for this study. Indian
demography and societal context differs significantly from that of Western countries
(Cooke and Saini,2010; Kundu and Mor, 2017). Diversityin India is unique since the plethora
of cultural patternscontributes new dimensions to thewidely studied dissimilarity attributes.
India is a federal union comprising 35 states and union territories where 23 officially
recognized languages are spoken (Census of India, 2011). Most state boundaries have been
organized based on linguistics, and cultural differences are ubiquitous across states.
Furthermore, while Hinduism is the dominantreligion of the vast population, all other major
religions of the world are also well represented (Census of India, 2011). Though this
multicultural set-up readily lends itself to explore how diversity will impact affect-related
outcomes, scholarly work in an Indian organizational context is presently in its nascent stage
(Das, 2014; Kulkarni, 2015). Since scholars have increasingly questioned the universal
applicability of Western diversity management theories and practices (Nishii and Özbilgin,
2007), the present study contributes to the growing indigenous diversity scholarship.
The paper is structured as follows. Briefly reviewing the extant literature around
diversity’s affect-related outcomes, we develop our hypotheses. We contribute to diversity
literature by measuring diversity through employee perceptions rather than deriving
diversity indices. Taking a pragmatic stand, we submit to perceived diversity as the key
direct measure of diversity effects (Harrison et al., 2002; Kundu and Mor, 2017; Shemla et al.,
2016; Zellmer-Bruhn et al., 2008). Specifically, we explore how perceptions of dissimilarity
will impact employee well-being (EWB). We accord with the past work which suggests
different kinds of diversity to produce differential effects (Dyaram and Kamalanabhan,
2011; Mohammed and Angell, 2004). We expect perceptions of surface and knowledge
diversity to have a negative and positive impact on EWB, respectively. Further, we
highlight the nature of employee work as an important contextual factor determining the
outcome of diversity and well-being relationship. We discuss our study findings, its
implications, limitations and outline key avenues for further research.
Theoretical background and hypotheses development
Diversity and EWB
Diversity can be described as differences on any characteristic(s) based on which
organizational members differ or perceive themselves to be different from others (Guillaume
et al., 2014). Diversity on readily visible demographic attributes such as gender or age is
referred as “surface diversity.”Diversity that is highly relevant in organizational set-up is
“knowledge diversity”based on educational/functional background or organizational tenure
(Pelled, 1996; Webber and Donahue, 2001). We respond to Shemla et al.’s (2016) call for
advancing diversity research based on perceptions than following the traditional approach
of assessing diversity through actual differences in member characteristics. The objective
diversity approach is being challenged as scholars believe that people react based on
perceptions of reality than reality per se (Acar, 2010; Harrison et al., 2002; Kundu and
Mor, 2017). We operationalize workforce diversity as employee perception of dissimilarity
with their co-workers on surface and knowledge-level attributes.
Beyond cognitive outcomes of diversity such as performance and creativity, we
contribute to the growing literature on affective effects of diversity ( Jackson et al., 2003;
Van Knippenberg and Schippers, 2007). Specifically, we focus on well-being since it is the
summation of all affective feelings valuable to the individual and a higher order need in
which individuals are ultimately interested (Ng, 2015). Well-being connotes strong
activation and is distinct from satisfaction and commitment which denote mere gratification
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Towards
well-being
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