New Study of Race in the Workplace Finds Whites the Most Uncomfortable
FORT WORTH, Texas
White employees with Black supervisors experience greater racially based discomfort than do Blacks with White supervisors, finds one of the first studies to directly examine the relationship between worker perceptions of discrimination and demographic differences between workers and their bosses.
“Relational Demography in Supervisor-Subordinate Dyads: An Examination of Discrimination and Exclusionary Treatment” was authored by Dr. Bryan Schaffer of the University of North Carolina at Asheville and Dr. Christine M. Riordan of Texas Christian University.
The research analyzed the results of a survey of 1,059 employees at a large Southeastern insurance company, looking at how employee/supervisor dissimilarities in gender, race and age affect employee perceptions of discrimination, supervisor support and relationship quality between workers and their supervisors.
The study revealed no significant differences in opinion in regards to gender or age, but found notable results for racial difference. According to the authors, worker/leader relationships are particularly crucial to organizational success and especially vulnerable to the effects of racial dissimilarity.
The study included 125 White employees with Black supervisors, 179 Black employees with White supervisors, 620 Whites with White supervisors, and 76 Blacks with Black supervisors. Seventy-one percent of the respondents were White and 25 percent were Black.
