IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/125329.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

“But the fellows are simply diversity hires!” How organizational contexts influence status beliefs

Author

Listed:
  • Portocarrero, Sandra
  • Carter, James T.

Abstract

We demonstrate how organizational contexts influence status beliefs. Specifically, we draw from in- depth interviews conducted with current and former U.S. Foreign Service officers to explain how recipients of the U.S. Department of State Pickering Fellowship learn to accept a devaluing status belief about this accolade once they enter the Foreign Service. Within this organizational contex is an established belief that Foreign Service officers who are not the prototypical “Male, Pale, and Yale” workers must be “diversity hires” who have entered the department through a “back door” and have a “leg up” because of their race. This racialized negative evaluation becomes linked to the Pickering Fellowship and affects all fellows. Our study offers insights into the intersection of racial diversity and status processes in organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Portocarrero, Sandra & Carter, James T., 2022. "“But the fellows are simply diversity hires!” How organizational contexts influence status beliefs," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125329, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:125329
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/125329/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Portocarrero, Sandra & Carter, James T., 2022. "Diversity initiatives in the US workplace: a brief history, their intended and unintended consequences," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125330, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Ya-Ru Chen & Randall S. Peterson & Damon J. Phillips & Joel M. Podolny & Cecilia L. Ridgeway, 2012. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Bringing Status to the Table—Attaining, Maintaining, and Experiencing Status in Organizations and Markets," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 299-307, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Zhiqiang & Yan, Miao & Fan, Youqing & Chen, Liling, 2021. "Ascribed or achieved? The role of birth order on innovative behaviour in the workplace," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 480-492.
    2. Natalia Levina & Manuel Arriaga, 2014. "Distinction and Status Production on User-Generated Content Platforms: Using Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Production to Understand Social Dynamics in Online Fields," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 468-488, September.
    3. Russo, Angeloantonio & Vurro, Clodia & Nag, Rajiv, 2019. "To have or to be? The interplay between knowledge structure and market identity in knowledge-based alliance formation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 571-583.
    4. Yi-Ju Lo & Tung M. Hung, 2017. "Is a powerful rival a right partner?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 661-690, July.
    5. Li, Weiwen & Lu, Yuan & Makino, Shige & Lau, Chung-Ming, 2017. "National power distance, status incongruence, and CEO dismissal," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 809-818.
    6. Yildiz, H. Emre, 2014. "Not All Differences Are the Same: Dual Roles of Status and Cultural Distance in Sociocultural Integration in Cross-border M&As," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 25-37.
    7. Gokce Basbug & Ayn Cavicchi & Susan S. Silbey, 2023. "Rank Has Its Privileges: Explaining Why Laboratory Safety Is a Persistent Challenge," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 571-587, May.
    8. Maria Rouziou, 2019. "The contingent value of pay inequalities in sales organizations: integrating literatures in economics, management, and psychology," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 9(3), pages 184-204, December.
    9. Duan, Jinyun & Peluso, Alessandro M. & Yu, Linhan & Pilati, Massimo, 2021. "How employment relationship types influence employee work outcomes: The role of need for status and vigor," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 211-221.
    10. Junghyun Lee & Se-Hyung Oh & Sanghee Park, 2022. "Effects of Organizational Embeddedness on Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: Roles of Perceived Status and Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 111-125, February.
    11. Wołoszyn, Maciej & Kułakowski, Krzysztof, 2023. "Status achieved in an organization—Rank dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 610(C).
    12. Cheng-Hua Tzeng, 2023. "How employees respond to client feedback on their creative work: a microfoundations approach to absorptive capacity," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 1155-1184, July.
    13. Liu, Yang & Dong, Jiuyu & Ying, Ying & Jiao, Hao, 2021. "Status and digital innovation: A middle-status conformity perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Jana Oehmichen & Daniel Braun & Michael Wolff & Toru Yoshikawa, 2017. "When Elites Forget Their Duties: The Double‐Edged Sword of Prestigious Directors on Boards," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(7), pages 1050-1078, November.
    15. Yan Liu & Long Lam & Raymond Loi, 2014. "Examining professionals’ identification in the workplace: The roles of organizational prestige, work-unit prestige, and professional status," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 789-810, September.
    16. Zhi Huang & Marvin Washington, 2015. "Assimilation or Contrast? Status Inequality, Judgment of Product Quality, and Product Choices in Markets," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1752-1768, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    race and ethnicity; organizations; diversity; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:125329. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.