Community Matters: Realistic Group Conflict Theory and the Impact of Diversity

Abstract

We conducted two studies that bring communities into the study of organizational demographics. Reasoning from a realistic group conflict theory base, we predicted (1) negative white reactions to racial and ethnic diversity in organizations and (2) moderation of this relationship by whites' diversity experiences in their communities. Data from the National Organizations Study and an experiment supported our hypotheses. The closer whites lived to blacks (Study 1) and the more interethnic conflict the former perceived in their communities (Study 2), the more negatively they responded to diverse workplaces. Our discussion focuses on understanding organizations as reflections of their environments.