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Exploring the antecedents of perceived diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Samir Shrivastava  and
Janet Gregory
Samir Shrivastava
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business & Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne VIC, Australia
Janet Gregory
Affiliation:
Faculty of Higher Education, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne VIC, Australia
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Abstract

We explore whether differences in perceptions of diversity might emanate from the characteristics of perceivers themselves rather than from the characteristics of those observed. Grounding our arguments in self- and social-identity theory, we hypothesize that individuals respond differently to the same diversity stimuli because they differ in their ‘propensity to stereotype’ and ‘diversity experience.’ Since individuals tend to gravitate towards similar others, we also hypothesize that perceived diversity can predict an individual's ‘desire to group’ with others. Over 200 individuals – staff and students – from a university were exposed to diverse stimuli in an online experiment in a bid to test the hypotheses. Structural Equation Modeling of the data generally supported the hypothesized relationships.

Keywords

perceived diversitypropensity to stereotypediversity experiencedesire to grouphomophilysocial cognition
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , September 2009 , pp. 526 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2009

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