Putting Workplace Demography in Context : A Cross-Level Perspective

Abstract

The workforce in most organizations has become increasingly demographically diverse. Demographic differences can cause discrimination and undermine the individual, team, and organizational success or they can facilitate creativity and decision-making when managed effectively. To allow for more effective diversity management, this dissertation advances our understanding of the effects of gender and age on the individual, team, and organizational level. Most importantly, the three empirical studies in the dissertation move from a single-level focus to a multi-level perspective and consider how cross-level investigations can add context to our understanding of gender and age demography at work. Study 1 with a primary focus on the individual level provides a better understanding of the emergence of the female leader by considering organizational-level factors. Based on 11,673 turnovers from 2,182 firms, the study uncovered that firms in a precarious financial state are more likely to appoint female executives when the firm is at the same time subject to high public visibility. Study 2 integrated team- and individual-level aspects and, using a dataset of 2,711 newcomers to 820 blue-collar teams tracked over seven years, found that dissimilar individuals (i.e., dissimilar women and older employees) increase their absences more strongly over the years. Study 3 offers a better understanding of diversity climate effects on organizational performance by highlighting the role of idiosyncrasies in employees’ diversity climate perceptions. In 82 companies with 13,695 surveyed employees, diversity climate was positively related to organizational performance (via collective positive affect) only when employees’ perceptions of diversity climate were in agreement. Overall, the findings of the dissertation highlight the unique insights gained by considering multiple levels rather than one single level in the study of workplace demography. The unique insights can inform practitioners about how demographically diverse organizations can thrive.