Beyond simple demographic effects: the importance of relational demography in superior-subordinate dyads
Article Abstract:
Previous research on individual demographic characteristics has typically examined only direct effects on outcomes such as work attitudes and behavior. This investigation examined the multivariate effects of six demographic variables - age, gender, race, education, and company and job tenure - on superiors' ratings of performance and liking for subordinates and subordinates' role ambiguity and conflict. A field study of 272 superior-subordinate dyads produced results that support the notion that increasing dissimilarity in superior-subordinate demographic characteristics, referred to here as "relational demography," is associated with lower effectiveness as perceived by superiors, less personal attraction on the part of superiors for subordinates, and increased role ambiguity experienced by subordinates. These effects were found even after we controlled for the effects of simple demographic variables. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Academy of Management Journal
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0001-4273
Year: 1989
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Organizational demography: the differential effects of age and tenure distributions on technical communication
Article Abstract:
Although previous researchers have proposed organizational demography as an important determinant of communication, no one has tested this relationship directly. Further, distinctions between the impacts of different demographic variables on communication have not been explored. This study used sociometric data collected from a U.S. electronics firm to examine such relationships. The results show a relationship between age and tenure distributions and the frequency of technical communication. Moreover, the results suggest that inside project groups, age distributions exert greater influence than tenure distributions on the frequency of technical communication but that the reverse relationship holds for technical communication outside project groups. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Academy of Management Journal
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0001-4273
Year: 1989
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
New wrinkles in the theory of age: demography, norms, and performance ratings
Article Abstract:
Age seems to play an important role in a wide range of employee behaviors. One interpretation of this role is that it depends more on people's beliefs about age than on the ages themselves. Despite the significance of this distinction for human resource planning, it has received little attention in the organizational literature. This article proposes an explanation for socially generated age effects and presents an exploratory study that used data from an electric utility. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Academy of Management Journal
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0001-4273
Year: 1988
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Conceptualizing leadership processes: a study of senior managers in a financial services company. Power, control, and resistance in "the factory that time forgot"
- Abstracts: The human element: the real challenge in modernizing cost systems. OPUS: a new concept for mastering cost
- Abstracts: Justifying the acquisition of automated equipment. AutoMan - decision support software. Accountants on the line
- Abstracts: Testing new direct marketing offerings: the interplay of management judgment and statistical models. Counting your customers: who are they and what will they do next?
- Abstracts: dBase Packages - the new breed of software. Management analysis and planning software. Computers and accounting: profit from the Administrator