Do the weary care about racioethnic similarity? The role of emotional exhaustion in relational demography.
Diversity theorists have hypothesized that similarity leads to both greater identification among individuals and reduced interpersonal conflict within organizations. Little research, however, has been conducted to identify boundary conditions for this relationship. The authors investigated the interactive effects of supervisor-subordinate racioethnic similarity and emotional exhaustion on organizational commitment in two studies. In Study 1, racioethnic supervisor-subordinate similarity related positively to commitment, but only among employees low in emotional exhaustion. In Study 2, we observed a significant indirect effect of racioethnic similarity on loyalty through supervisor support. Moreover, the support-loyalty linkage was significantly stronger for employees low in emotional exhaustion. Thus, the effects of supervisor-subordinate racioethnic similarity on employee commitment appear contingent upon employee emotional exhaustion.
David
Emily M
EM
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX77204-5022, USA. emdavid@uh.edu
Avery
Derek R
DR
Elliott
Mark R
MR
D000328:Adult; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D005222:Mental Fatigue; D008875:Middle Aged; D010559:Personnel Management; D044469:Racial Groups; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires