Graduate School of Communication
Master’s programme Communication Science
Master’s Thesis
How to mitigate negative effects of multicultural
collaboration in CMC: the role of individuation and
disconfirmation of stereotypes
Author: Rossella Claudia Cecchini Student ID-card number: 11373466 Supervisor: Anne Kroon
Abstract
Stereotypes of national groups create obstacles to the organizational environment and the workplace dynamics they operate in, subsequently having an impact on social rating and knowledge sharing processes between colleagues from different cultural backgrounds. The present research proposes two factors able to mitigate negative effects of multicultural collaboration taking place in the workplace, especially through computer-mediated communication, which are Individuation and Disconfirming negative stereotypes. This study shows how presenting a new colleague with a richer, more personal-related portrait significant affects the willingness to collaborate with that person. Moreover, this study shows that, when the new colleague comes from a negatively perceived nationality or culture, disconfirming the negative stereotypes significantly affect the willingness to collaborate with that person. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Introduction
Stereotypes of national groups create obstacles to the organizational environment affecting workplace dynamics, subsequently having an impact on the communication flows between colleagues from different national and cultural backgrounds. This is very often the case when employees mostly communicate through technological devices, where the creation of social bonds is compromised leading to the increase of application of stereotypes and wrong work-related evaluations of colleagues. This has an impact on knowledge sharing thus, it can negatively affect the productivity and the profitability of multinational companies. (Cox, & Blake, 1991; Gelfand, Eres, & Aycan, 2007; Kankanhalli, Tan, & Wei, K. K., 2006; Leonardi, & Rodriguez-Lluesma, 2013; Pelled, 1996; Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008; Zakaria, Amelinckx, & Wilemon, 2004).
In the modern working scenario, the global economy brings most of the highly skilled workers to collaborate with colleagues from multiple countries by having daily working
interactions, not only physically but also through computer-mediated communication, CMC (Leonardi & Rodriguez-Lluesma, 2013). Computer-mediated communication is defined in the present research as interactions that allow workers to share and receive information and procedures from a spatial distance, and not necessarily working simultaneously. When team members are not located side by side and they use technology-mediated interactions to communicate to each other, it is possible to talk about global virtual teams.
Organizations can facilitate knowledge sharing helping the culturally diverse and dislocated workforce to get in touch with each other through online platforms (Haas,
Criscuolo, & George, 2014). Prior research on online knowledge sharing has identified that a variety of social motivations may lead knowledge providers to contribute solutions to
problems, throughout gratification of helping colleagues, reputational enhancement gained by demonstrating expertise, norms of reciprocity, social ties and community identification, etc. This has shown that knowledge providers are often more willing to share information with seekers to whom they feel personally connected with. In general, knowledge sharing online is driven by factors beyond provider and seeker relationships based on willingness to interact, proximity, familiarity, and reciprocity (ibid.). The aforementioned factors are well-described by the concept of social rating. Social rating is defined as the extent to which it feels pleasant to work with a person and how a person is considered to fit socially in the team (Hofhuis, van der Zee, & Otten, 2016). Hence, social rating is directly affected by the perceptions of others and, consequently, social rating can affect the willingness to make knowledge sharing
effective. Understanding what can influence and enhance social rating among co-workers can therefore help organizations to improve knowledge sharing and, consequently, the
productivity of global virtual teams.
As studied by Yoon and Hollingshead (2010), in working environments when it comes to interact with a person from a different cultural background, the tendency is to rate the
knowledge of the person in terms of stereotypes. That is, tasks assignment of co-workers can be influenced by the application of stereotypes based on the nationality of the interlocutor. Moreover, this is especially the case when the co-worker belongs to a national minority group (ibid.). Furthermore, it was shown how assigning tasks and requests of collaborations (i.e. social rating) was affected by the cultural background of an individual.
Additionally, in their study, participants have a scarce possibility to disclose information about the person but the nationality was given (ibid.). This is one of the downsides in computer-mediated interactions in which individuation is difficult to accomplish.
Individuation is defined as the process of acknowledgment of attributes and characteristics of
a person that make possible to distinguish individuals from each other (Bodenhausen, Macrae, & Sherman, 1999).
As stated by Tanis and Postmes (2003), much greater academic exploration is needed about the effect of individuation in CMC on impression formation and what are its consequences (i.e. social rating). According to the authors, it is required to study the influences of social, cognitive and physical aspects in the CMC domains, this is where the aim of the study lays around. Most of the preexisting studies about social rating in computer-mediated communication domains were aiming at investigating whether a more positive perception of an individual belonging to a different cultural group might lead to a more favorable outcome in terms of working relationship, once a candidate is taking part in the assessment process. The focus of the present study is exclusively on the moment in which a new employee is introduced in the organizational work environment of global virtual teams. This adds a contribution to the existing literature on assessment bias due to stereotypes of cultural groups, by giving insights about social rating in the initial phase of collaboration with a colleague belonging to a cultural minority group since this has been proven to have an influence on knowledge sharing processes (Tanis, & Postmes, 2003).
In the present research, it is argued that it is possible to increase the social rating, by communicating information that make possible to individualize a colleague, and by disconfirming negative stereotypes towards his or her national group in relation to the work environment. In addition, the findings may contribute to design an effective intervention that it is going to be proposed. This is thought to help the Human Resources department of global virtual teams by giving directions of the elements that influence the willingness by the national majority group to work with a colleague belonging to the minority group, and the expectations of inclusions of the individual in the cultural-diverse work environment. This study is thought starting from the practical solution proposed by Leonardi and Rodriguez-Lluesma (2013). The authors suggest managers of global partners that interact mostly through CMC to find the budget and the time to visit occasionally each other in the working locations. By doing so, it is possible to disclose working characteristics and working attitudes of each other and it would make the workforce confident that distort judgements based on the application of stereotypes towards their nationality are less strong, since the disconfirmation of negative stereotypes towards the national group can happen easier.
Eventually, the present research intends to propose a new low-budget consumption, and low-time spending solution to overcome the difficulties in multinational organizations where the communication is principally characterized by CMC.
The research question of the present study is stated as follow:
RQ: To what extent do individuation and stereotypes towards a national group in
computer-mediated interactions affect the social rating in a culturally diverse working environment?
In the following section, a literature review of the central concepts of the research is presented. By highlighting what has been already studied around the research concepts, the hypotheses are formulated.
Theoretical Background
Culture affects motivational and affective processes in teams. Nowadays, different ethnic groups are in close contact and they interact together in different social settings, facing differences in linguistic, cultural and historical backgrounds (van Osch & Breugelmans, 2012). Moreover, the intentions of feedback-giving and feedback-seeking vary across different cultures (Gelfand, Erez, & Aycan, 2007). In the case of multicultural teams, the different cultural mix is considered to provide strategic advantages for an organization (Shapiro, Von Glinow, & Cheng, 2005). As studied by Cox and Blake, the presence of
diversity in teams can be considered as an important asset for organizations (1991). However, research and theory on this field highlight negative effects on the internal communication of multicultural groups, including in-group biases (Salk & Brannon, 2000) and emotional conflicts (Von Glinow et al., 2004). Nowadays, many multinational corporations use global virtual teams as prevalent form of work (Zakaria, Amelinckx, & Wilemon, 2004). In this condition, one of the key instrument for an organization to reach a competitive advantage among the competitors is the effectiveness of knowledge sharing. The process of
communicating and of sharing information with co-workers needs to be effective to contribute in solving work-related issues. When the organizational context is characterized by online interactions, the process of knowledge sharing can be weak or ineffective, and these negative outcomes can be enhanced by the different cultural background of the team members (ibid.).
Social Rating
As studied by Hofhuis, van der Zee, and Otten (2016), social rating is a component of assessment determined by the extended to which people belonging to the ethnic minority group are expected to be pleasant to work with, and to be socially integrated in the workforce. The study investigates around the attitude of recruiters on the selection and evaluation of
candidates belonging to the ethnic minority group. In their study, the authors investigate how recruiters are affected by the similarities with the job candidates on a broad number of variables, such as job attitudes and social identity. According to the authors, social rating is strongly influenced by the extent of shared similarities between the two parts. When a candidate is perceived to share more similarities with the recruiters, the better they evaluate the candidate on work-related attitudes. This is in line with previous studies in which is advocated that when the recruiters and the candidate share the same cultural background, the person is thought more positively to collaborate with and to have a better work-relation attitude towards co-workers, so the chances of being selected are higher (Herriot 2002).
Stereotype Activation and Application and the Stereotype Content Model (SCM)
When talking about stereotypes it is important to distinguish between their activation and their application. Stereotype activation refers to the extent to which a stereotype is activated and accessible is someone’s mind (Kunda, & Sinclair, 1999). While, stereotype application refers to the extent to which a stereotype can be used to make judgements about an individual belonging to the stereotyped group (ibid.). People rate others in terms of social categories (i.e. nationality, gender, age). Stereotypes lead to broad evaluations of others, which do not consider peculiarities of individuals.
The activation of stereotypes is mainly formed under two dimensions: warmth and competence, described in the Stereotype Content Model SCM (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2008; Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2002). These authors argue that the dimension of warmth is referred to be associated with being sincere, warm, benevolent and good-natured. While, the dimension of competence refers to being capable, competent, efficient and intelligent. Those are qualities highlighted in the workplace, therefore people are expected to activate stereotypes across these two dimensions when interacting with colleagues. A stereotype to be
applied needs to be first activated, whether it is not always the case the other way round happens.
The effect of individuation on social rating in cross-cultural CMC
Individuation is the process that makes possible to distinguish individuals thanks to the acknowledgment of attributes and characteristics of a person (Bodenhausen, Macrae, & Sherman, 1999). As studied by Ambady et al. (2004), individuation is useful to make an activated stereotype irrelevant. In other words, disclosing different characteristics that build the identity of a person contribute making no longer dominant and central the application of stereotypes. Therefore, it is possible to have a more complex view of the person and differentiate her or him from the larger cultural category, and it is more difficult to apply to the individual the stereotyped belief. In line with that, the process of assuming is influenced by the stereotyped social identity rather than by the real attributes of a person, creating a mismatch between how the identity is built by society, and the actual identity of an individual (Goffman, 1963). Leonardi and Rodriguez-Lluesma (2013) suggest that when it is possible to gain more personal information about an individual, the application of stereotypes based on the nationality of a working collaborator is reduced. Indeed, Tanis and Postmes (2003) showed how individuation, which is defined in their study as disclosure of social cues, has a positive impact on rating processes of colleagues. The authors advocate that, especially in CMC domains, individuation has an impact on social choices and evaluations in the workplace (i.e. social rating).
As cited in the article by Ambady et al. (2004), this is in line with previous studies made by Langer, Bashner, and Chanowitz (1985) and by Locksley, Borgida, Brekke, and Hepburn (1980). The studies propose individuation as a mean to build a more complex identity of individuals and, consequently, to prevent the activation of stigmatizations and
rating bias based on stereotypes towards an ethnic group. The study by Yoon and Hollingshead (2010) suggest to investigate the effect on knowledge expectations and area of expertise when it is possible to individuate more personal information of the interlocutor such as appeareance, verbal and nonverbal behaviors (i.e. individuation). This is in line with what studied by Blommaert et al. (2014). Recruitment processes through CMC, meaning via online résumé database, are even more likely to be subjected of discriminations towards ethnic minorities (Blommaert et al., 2014). The authors’ findings suggest that discrimination towards an ethnic-minority group in recruiting processes takes place in an early stage. In the initial stage of selection of applicants, individuation of candidates is very scarcely, due to lack of time. The curricula, so the process of individuating candidates, are not considered in this phase. According to the authors, assumptions are made mainly towards the candidate’s name impacting his or her social rating. In their study, applicants with an Arabic name are more discriminated on that dimension.
In the context of this study, as stated in the Introduction section, it has been chosen to investigate whether disclosing information that individuate a colleague belonging to the ethnic minority group can increase the social rating.
H1: People in the condition where individuation is present will score higher in social rating towards the colleague than those in the condition where individuation is not present.
The effect of disconfirming negative stereotypes content on social rating
As previously stated, people think about themselves and others in terms of social categories when having interactions. Stereotypes are more likely to be activated when the social categories are different. When interactions happen in mixed-culture groups, it is likely that people think themselves in terms of cultural groups (Hogg & Reid, 2006; Yoon, 2011). Consequently, this is likely to occur also in organizations with a multicultural workforce.
Employees change their behavior when interacting with a member from another culture because they hold cultural stereotypes and at the same time, they use those stereotypes to compare themselves and their capabilities with the interlocutor (Goff, Steele, & Davies, 2008). Furthermore, Leonardi and Rodriguez-Lluesma (2013) argued that stereotypes in organizations play an important role when the interacting members of the same occupation are from different cultures. In the study, it is highlighted how organizational members construct status differences by adding to others cultural memberships. Additionally, members from different cultural background rate the knowledge of others based on stereotypical categories (Yoon & Hollingshead, 2010). In their study, the authors prove that the activation of stereotypes and consequently the process of rating the knowledge of individuals is more likely to be activated when the interlocutor is culturally diverse rather when two people share the same culture. Therefore, in a multicultural work environment, those who are negatively stereotyped due to belonging to a specific cultural background are more likely to be rated low on knowledge (ibid.). This leads to a poor evaluation of the colleagues that share a different nationality, while preferring to interact with colleagues that share the same cultural background (i.e. social rating). Furthermore, the study by Yoon and Hollingshead (2010) prove that when it comes to assign a task, cultural stereotypes play an important role as basis of evaluation, besides the fact that the level of expertise was communicated. This suggests that even if a person is aware of the level of knowledge of someone culturally diverse, this is not enough to overcome the use of stereotypes as criterion to assign an area of expertise and, consequently, knowledge expectations to the interlocutor.
Findings already cited in the previous section, from the study by Blommaert, et al. (2014), additionally suggests that when the résumé of the individual is not taking fully into account (i.e. applicants’ background, skills or experience), the stereotypes towards the national groups on social rating have more room to take place. The authors argue that this
leads to discriminations of recruitment procedures between the ethnic minority and majority applicants according to stereotypical assumptions.
In the context of this research, this is assumed to happen also in CMC working collaborations, mainly in the initial phase of the working interactions. Ramasubramanian’s study (2007) demonstrates that it is possible to alleviate negative stereotypes towards an ethnic group by exposing a single member characterized by favourable attributions. Furthermore, the findings of Mastro and Tukachinsky (2011) support previous studies that advocate the use of positive ethnic media representations to tackle strong stereotypes towards the specific ethnic group.
H2: People in the disconfirming negative stereotypes condition will score higher in social rating towards the colleague than those in the no-disconfirming negative stereotypes condition.
Furthermore, the present study wants to investigate whether the combination of the aforementioned factors could lead to even greater effect on Social rating. Thus,
H3: People in the condition where individuation is present will score higher in social rating towards the colleague than those in the condition where individuation is not present, but this effect will be more pronounced for people in the condition where the disconfirmation of negative stereotypes is present than for people in the where the disconfirmation of negative stereotypes is absent.
The present model needs to consider similarity as strong predictor of Social Rating, as studied by (Hofhuis, van der Zee, & Otten, 2016). Adapting this concept into the purpose of the present investigation, perceived similarity has been added as control variable. In the Method section of the present research it is explained how the concept is considered when testing the hypotheses. For a higher internal validity, work experiences and Moroccan cultural knowledge have been added as control variables as well.
Method Design
An experimental design is considered the most appropriate one to predict how social rating can be enanched by individuation and by the exposition to a positive exemplar that disconfirms negative stereotypes towards his or her national group. The aim of this study is to predict a social behaviour, social rating, manipulating two main factors. It has been chosen to conduct the research trough an experiment to exclude other factors that may influence the dependent variable, social rating. Furthermore, experimental methods allow to better study the causal effect of the independent variables on dependent variables, thanks to the randomization of conditions the participants are exposed to. Therefore, the internal validity is higher when
using this research method. A 2X2 factorial design has therefore been conducted, with Factor Individuation as between-subjects variable (2 levels, namely: Present and Absent) and Factor Disconfirming negative stereotypes content as between-subject variable (2 levels, namely: Disconfirmation present and Disconfirmation absent).
It has been chosen to not have a control group in the present research, because the aim is around the effect of different sets of information communicated through an introduction form, so a manipulation is required in all the conditions. The experimental conditions are provided in
Table 1.
Table 1. The four experimental conditions
Disconfirming negative stereotypes content
Disconfirmation present Disconfirmation absent
Individuation Present Present x Disconfirmation present Present x Disconfirmation absent Absent Absent x Disconfirmation present Absent x Disconfirmation absent
After the experiment description follows the stimuli material, the questions that operationalize the dependent variable, the manipulation check questions, the control variables and, finally, the demographics of participants are asked.
Procedure
After being assured that the anonymity and privacy are safeguarded, and the elements of the so-called ‘Informed consent’ was proposed, people were asked to confirm the willingness to participate in the study; to have been informed; and to be older than eighteen years old.
After agreeing, they have started the participation to the experiments.
During the experiment, respondents are exposed to a fictional scenario. Participants are asked to imagine being at work and received an email from the Human Resources department. Furthermore, they are asked to read the Introduction Form of a new colleague hired in the company they work for. The content of the form varies to meet the manipulations made by the researcher. Only the two main factors are manipulated and randomization of the sample is performed. All the respondents must follow the same set of procedures across the condition they are allocated to. The experiment is embedded in an online survey.
Stimuli
As previously stated, respondents are randomly allocated in the four conditions of the experiment; each group is exposed to one of the conditions. A cover story introduces the participants to the stimuli material. They were asked to imagine a fictional working scenario. It has been made clear that they are employee of a multinational company as sales engineer. A short description of their main tasks was provided, to define what it is the job they need to imagine to do. They have been told that they belong to the national majority group of the company, but that in the workplace there are many nationalities collaborating. Following this, respondents were asked to imagine to have received an email during working hours from the Human Resources department, in which an introduction form, described as a short summary, of a new employee from Morocco is attached. It was specified they will have worked with him remotely to give the computer-mediated communication context. Finally, participants were told that, in recent field studies, Moroccan workers are describes by their colleagues as low-skilled and low-educated, hardly open to dialogue and to exchange idea. Participants were told to read carefully the introduction form appearing in the next screen of the survey and that, after seen it only once, some questions about the new colleague and his introduction were formulated.
Selection of Moroccan as nationality and Dutch context. In the Netherlands, many
organizations present a multicultural work environments. In this context, workers with a non-western background are a consistent composition of the minority group. There are poor studies around specific minority groups in the Netherlands (Hofhuis, van der Zee, & Otten, 2016). Although there is evidence that Muslim minorities face negative stereotypes in both warmth and competent dimensions in the SCM (Lee & Fiske, 2006; Velasco Gonzelez, Verkuyten, Weesie, & Poppe, 2008).
Selection of the engineering context: As already described in the present study,
interactions in knowledge-intensive jobs, such as engineering related work positions, are mainly characterized by computer-mediated communication. Therefore, it has been chosen to select sales engineer as occupation for both people participating to the experiment and the colleague introduced as new colleague belonging to the minority national group.
The experimental design involves the manipulation of the introduction form. Four different introduction form were included in the survey, participants randomly allocated to the four conditions were exposed to only one introduction form.
Individuation. In order to manipulate the factor Individuation, the research by Ambady
et al. (2004) has been used as basis. The authors created a questionnaire in which they asked participants in the individuation condition to self-describe themselves. The authors asked the participants to indicate their favourite food, their favourite movie, their favourite book and any special interests or hobbies. As cited in their study, this procedure has been adapted from the research previously made by Maslach (1974). In the present study, it has been chosen to provide context or background to the list of interests and hobbies expressed to make individuating information less likely to drive to stereotypes activation, based on the study by Kunda and Thagard (1996). Following this, in the condition where Individuation is present, it has been chosen to give personal information such as date of birth, favourite food, favourite
movie, favourite book special interests and hobbies of the new employee the respondents are exposed to. Furthermore, it has been included also the date of birth, a photo of the colleague and his name, as well as the internal organizational mail with his name included. The name has been selected from the most common Arabic names used in the study from Blommaert, Coenders, & van Tubergen, (2014). The photo of the new employee in the Individuation conditions has been retrieved from the LinkedIn profile of a Moroccan engineer, with the authorization of the person contacted by the researcher.
In contrast, in the conditions in which Individuation is absent, no name, photo and date of birth was given. The employee was indicated under a possible employee account number and the email with the same employee account was given. Broad general responsibilities of the new colleague were given, in line with the position of sales engineer. This information was retrieved from a job vacancy for that position on LinkedIn.
Control variable across all the conditions: negative stereotypes content. As studied by
Cuddy, Fiske and Glick (2008), Turkish and Moroccans are seen as Muslim immigrants that perform low-wage jobs. In the SCM, Arabs score low both in the warmth and competence dimension compared to other social groups (Fiske et al., 2002), meaning that the stereotypes towards people with this cultural background is acutely strong and negative. To confirm the low-level on warm dimension, it has been included “hardly open to dialogue and “exchange of ideas” in the cover story. To confirm the low-level in competence dimension, it has been included “low-skilled and low-educated” in the text of the cover story proposed to all the participants (see Appendix).
Disconfirming negative stereotypes content. To manipulate conditions in which
Disconfirming negative stereotypes content was included, it has been chosen to insert the section “what former colleagues say about him” in the introduction form. In this section, information against the negative stereotypes reinforced in the cover story was provided. In
particular, the disconfirmation of negative stereotypes was manipulated by highlighting favourable characteristics that increase the rate on warmth and competence dimensions, based on the study by Cuddy, Glick, & Beninger (2011), and the items of the scales that measure warmth and competence in the SCM (Fiske et al., 2002). In the manipulation on this condition, former colleagues were reporting working related attitudes of the Moroccan newcomer that ascribed to being helpful (“helping his peers”), good-natured (“he builds major trust in a short time”) and tolerant (“his ability in understanding others”) for what concerns the warmth dimension. The same has been made towards the competent dimension by including working related attitude that ascribed to being independent (“has driven success”), confident (“his leadership”), intelligent (“unbelievable work”).
In the conditions in which this factor was not present, no section was included. So, the participants do not receive a working-related disconfirmation of the negative stereotypes towards Moroccans presented in the cover story, which was a stimulus all the participants were exposed to (For the four Introduction Forms, see Appendix A).
Measures
Dependent Variable
Social Rating has been operationalized through the scale offered in the study by Hofhuis et al. (2016). The items of the scale are adapted by changing the word “candidate” with the word “colleague” for a better understanding of the situation by the respondents, but no changes have been made to the number of the items of the scale. They were asked “To what extent do you expect this new colleague to fit well socially with you?” and “To what extent would you like to work together with this new colleague?”. The two questions were anchored on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much). Eventually, mean scores of the two items were calculated (M = 4.75, SD = 1.81).
The manipulation check has been performed through two questions. For the factor Individuation, it has been asked “to what extent do you think the Introduction Form you have seen provides personal information, such as hobbies and interests, about your new colleague?” (M = 4.08, SD = 2.45). For the factor Disconfirming negative stereotypes content, it has been asked “to what extent do you think that the Introduction Form you have seen disconfirms negative stereotypes about Moroccan workers?” (M = 4.47, SD = 2.25). Both the questions are measured on a 7-points Likert scale, 1 stands for “not at all” and 7 stands for “very much”. In order to declare the manipulation successful, respondents allocated in the conditions where Individuation is present are expected to score significantly higher than respondents allocated in the conditions where Individuation is absent. Similarly, respondents allocated in the conditions where Disconfirming negative stereotypes content is present are expected to score significantly higher than respondents allocated in the conditions where the factor is absent.
In order to check whether the manipulation of Individuation and Disconfirming negative stereotype content was effective, two independent t-tests were conducted. A first analysis was conducted with the individuation check item as dependent variable and the two individuation conditions as independent variable. Without assuming equal variances, on average participants in the condition where individuation was present perceived the introduction form as more complete and personal-related (M = 6.13, SE = 0.17) than those in the condition where individuation was not present (M = 1.78, SE = 0.12). This difference, 4.34, was significant, t (132.87) = -20.85, p < .001. A second analysis was conducted with the disconfirming negative stereotype content check item as dependent variable and the two related conditions as independent factors. Without assuming equal variances, results showed that the mean difference between the condition where disconfirming stereotype content was present (M = 5.41, SE = 0.21) and where disconfirming stereotype content was absent (M =
3.44, SE = 0.27 ), 1.96, was significant, t (136.80) = - 5.72, p < .001. Taken together, the results suggest that both manipulations were successful.
Attention check
An attention check has been performed to verify whether respondents were filling in the survey in full consciousness and attention. It has been asked to select the answer that states “I’m ready to complete the survey” out of seven different options.
Control measures
Perceived similarity has been measured in a similar manner as studied by Hensher and Murphy (1997). Following their approach, participants were asked “To what extent would you say that you and your new colleague…”. This question was anchored to 3 items (“...are similar in terms of outlook, perspective, and values”; “...are alike in a number of areas of interest”; “...are likely to come up with a similar solution for a problem”) ranging from 1, ‘Strongly disagree’, to 7 ‘Strongly agree’. Eventually, mean scores of the two items were calculated (M = 4.21, SD = 1.11). Additionally, work experience of the sample has been assessed. It has been asked to participants if they have ever worked in a multicultural workplace and if they have ever worked in team. For both the questions, respondents could answer “Yes” or “No”. Overall, 86.9% of the sample has worked in a multicultural environment, while 97.7% has worked in a team. In addition, Moroccan cultural knowledge has been assessed through the question “How much do you know about the Moroccan culture”, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much), M = 3.20, SD = 1.40. Furthermore, age and gender were included in the confounding analyses as basic demographic measures.
In order to control for possible confounding variables, a randomization check was conducted. An ANOVA for each control variable (except for work experience and gender) as dependent variable and the four conditions as between-subjects factor was conducted. Results showed that conditions did not significantly differ with respect to: perceived similarity, F (3,
152) = 2.19, p = .100; cultural knowledge, F (3, 152) = 0.76, p = .521; and age, F (3, 152) = 0.136, p = .938. In addition, crosstabs analyses demonstrated that gender and both working experience in a multicultural and in team working environment did not statistically differ across the four condition, 𝜒2 (3) = 0.25, p = .970, 𝜒2 (3) = 2.25, p = .523, 𝜒2 (3) = 0.92, p = .821, respectively.
Participants
Most of the respondents were recruited on a voluntary and confidential basis through the network of former classmates; current classmates; former colleagues; and friends of the researcher. An Anonymous Link to the online questionnaire has been distributed through several social media; email; instant messaging platforms. Respondents were required to understand English and to be at least 18 years old in order to take part in the online experiment. 177 respondents were initially recruited, but it has been applied criteria of selection to the data obtained. Two participants who did not finish the questionnaire were not considered, while 22 participants were excluded as they failed a simple attention check. Therefore, the sample for conducting the analyses was formed by 153 respondents. 55% of the final sample was male, and the most represented country was Italy (50.9%). The majority of the sample had a Master’s degree as higher level of education (49.7%).
Results
In order to test H1, H2, and H3, which state that individuals in the condition where individuation is present will score higher in social rating than those in the condition where individuation is not present (H1); that individuals in the disconfirming negative stereotypes condition will score higher in social rating than those in the no-disconfirming negative stereotypes condition (H2); and that the effect of individuation on social rating (H1) is more pronounced when the negative stereotypes contents are disconfirmed (H3), a two way of
analysis of variance was conducted to compare the main effects of Individuation and Disconfirming stereotype content and the interaction effect between those on Social Rating.
Table 1. Social rating per Individuation and Disconfirming stereotype content
n M SD Individuation Present 79 5.31 1.39 Absent 74 4.03 2.12 Disconfirming stereotype content Present 81 5.21 1.73 Absent 72 4.10 1.90
Prior to conducting the two-way analysis of variance, all the related assumptions were tested. The histogram and the corresponding P-P plot suggested that social rating scores are normally distributed. Nonetheless, the assumption of the homogeneity of variance has not been met: Levene’s F (3,149) = 8.75, p < .001. However, as the groups’ sample size are nearly the same, ANOVA can be considered robust to heterogeneity of variance (Box, 1953).
Table 1. Results of the two-factor analysis of variance
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F p η2 Overall Model 110.42 3 36.81 12.68 p < .001 Individuation 63.29 1 63.29 21.80 p < .001 .12 Disconfirming stereotype content 46.58 1 46.58 16.04 p < .001 .09 Interaction 1.41 1 1.41 0.48 p = .487 .00 Error 432.59 149 2.90 Total 543.00 152 Note. N=153
The analysis showed that a significant main effect of Individuation on Social Rating, F (1,149) = 21.80, p < .001, indicating that the mean change score in Social Rating was significantly greater for the group where individuation was present (M = 5.31, SD = 1.39) than for the group where Individuation was absent (M = 4.03, SD = 2.12), and representing a
medium effect size, η2 = .12. Similarly, there was a significant main effect of Disconfirming stereotype content on Social Rating. It yielded an F ratio of F(1, 149) = 16.04, p < .001, indicating that the mean change score in Social Rating was significantly higher for the group where Disconfirming stereotype content was present (M = 5.21, SD = 1.73) than for the group where Disconfirming stereotype content was absent (M = 4.10, SD = 1.90), and representing a medium effect size, η2 = .09. The interaction effect was non-significant, F (1, 149) = 0.48, p = .487.
Conclusion Implications and Discussion
The main purpose of the present research is twofold. First, it investigates how to mitigate negative effects of multicultural collaboration taking place in the workplace in CMC. Second, this study proposes two factors that can help in overcoming these issues, namely Individuation and Disconfirming negative stereotypes, designed in an Introduction Form. The experiment conducted lead to important findings with significant implications for corporate communication theory, intercultural management.
First, this study shows how presenting a colleague with a richer, more personal-related portrait significantly affects the willingness to collaborate with that person. These results are in line with this research’s hypotheses, and they recommend practitioners to adopt this strategy when presenting a new member of a team. Therefore, instead of saying and in addition listing what the new colleague’s tasks will be, it is here suggested to implement an individualizing approach. This approach has been shown to be effective with a culture belonging to the minority group of the workforce such as the Moroccan one. However, further research is needed to support this claim (see Limitations and Future Research).
Second, this study shows that, when the new colleague comes from a negatively perceived nationality, disconfirming the negative stereotypes activated in one’s mind
significantly and positively affect the willingness to collaborate with that person. Therefore, multinational corporations should always try to introduce a new employee by disconfirming what normal work-related prejudices are regarding to that nationality and cultural background. These results may be confidently extended to gender stereotypes, but further research is also needed to support this claim.
Third, the present study investigates the interaction between Individuation and Disconfirming negative stereotypes content. In contrast with the hypotheses, the results show no significant interaction term. It means that combining both factors does not enhance the willingness to work with a colleague and the perceived fit within the workforce, named in this study as social rating. Even though this result contradicts what is suggested by common sense (that is, “the more, the better”), trying to combine different sections within an Introduction Form and analysing how they relate each other remains a viable path for future research.
Finally, the present study has shown that a communication mean such as the Introduction Form could be a viable option for multinational corporations in order to relate employees each other, and to overcome some issues around knowledge sharing processes that can arise when the interactions happen in global virtual teams.
Limitations and Future Research
The way how the research has been conducted affects, to a certain degree, results and the practical implications illustrated.
Firstly, the research method selected is an experimental design that required a fictional scenario. In addition to that it must be pointed out that experiments lack in external validity when the settings and contexts are recreated, and a reduced number of participants is taking part to study, as it is the case of this research. For future research, it is suggested to recreate the experiment by including in the sample real workers of multicultural organizations that
communicate mostly through technological devices. Moreover, the time assigned to the data collection and, consequently, the number of respondents, could have been longer, giving the possibility to future researchers to collect a bigger amount of data.
Secondly, the model proposed takes into account relatively few aspects that arise around the thematic discussed and that could have made visible other possible effects on the dynamics studied. The choice to have a rather simple design is because the attempt is to propose an innovative approach to the topic. The present research should be interpreted as a first step in studying a technological internal communication, such as the introduction form, that attempts to overcome initial difficulties for mainly communication-mediated jobs, in intercultural interactions. Future research can use the model for further implications. For instance, it should be consider to study cultural intelligence as moderator of the main effects. Cultural intelligence is defined as the ability to adapt to other cultures, and facilitate the performance in multicultural environment (Earley, & Ang. 2003). In their article, Gelfand et al. (2007) suggest that those with higher cultural intelligence are more facilitated to adapt themselves to a multicultural organization environment and to balance that with the personal national identity. The authors suggest to investigate the effect of Cultural Intelligence on behaviours in organizations.
Finally, generally surveys are highly biased by social desirability. The topics discussed in the research can have had an influence on evaluations from the respondents. A qualitative method can be also developed based on the model presented.
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Appendix
In this section, the text of the survey is attached. To help the reader, it has been added after the data collection labels before each question for a better understanding of the survey flow.
Terms and Conditions
Dear participant,
Below you'll find a so-called 'informed consent'. Click on 'I Agree' if you agree with the terms of the study. Otherwise, click 'I disagree' to end your
participation.
To be able to take part in this survey, you need to be 18 years or older. As this research is being carried out under the responsibility of the ASCoR, University of Amsterdam, we can guarantee that:
1) Your anonymity will be safeguarded, and that your personal information will not be passed on to third parties under any conditions, unless you first give your express permission for this.
2) You can refuse to participate in the research or cut short your participation without having to give a reason for doing so. You also have up to 24 hours after participating to withdraw your permission to allow your answers or data to be used in the research.
3) Participating in the research will not entail your being subjected to any appreciable risk or discomfort, the researchers will not deliberately mislead you, and you will not be exposed to any explicitly offensive material.
you with a research report that explains the general results of the research. For more information about the research and the invitation to participate, you are welcome to contact the project leader Rossella Cecchini - actually, the only member of the research team - at rossella.cecchini@student.uva.nl at any time.
Should you have any complaints or comments about the course of the
research and the procedures it involves as a consequence of your participation in this research, you can contact Rossella Cecchini at
rossella.cecchini@student.uva.nl or the designated member of the Ethics Committee representing ASCoR, at the following address:
ASCoR Secretariat, Ethics Committee, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 15793,
1001 NG Amsterdam; 020‐525 3680;
ascor‐secr‐fmg@uva.nl.
Any complaints or comments will be treated in the strictest confidence. By clicking on the 'I agree' button below you indicate that you have read the information above, that you are 18 years or older, and agree to take part in this survey.
Do you consent to participate to this research project?
Experiment Description
Welcome aboard!
The present study is about intercultural communication at work. Imagine you work for a multinational company as a sales engineer. Your main task in the corporation is to provide technical support to your customers about the products your corporation sells. Within your
corporation, most of your colleagues share your nationality. However, in the workforce, there are also some employees coming from other countries.
Now imagine that it is morning, you are at work and you turn your computer on. You have received an email where there is an introduction form (that is, a short summary provided by the Human Resources department) of a new employee from Morocco you will work with remotely.
Recent field studies have reported that Moroccan workers are described by their colleagues as low-skilled and low-educated, hardly open to dialogue and the exchange of ideas.
The introduction form will be shown on the next page. Please, read it carefully: you will have the chance to read it only once. Afterwards, some questions about your new colleague and the email will be asked.
Condition: Individuation PRESENT x Disconfirmation PRESENT:
Dependent Variable: SOCIAL RATING
all
To what extent would you like to work together with this new colleague?
much
MANIPULATION CHECK INDIVIDUATION - To what extent do you think that the
Introduction Form you have seen provides personal information, such as hobbies and interests, about your new colleague?
Not at all Very
much
Not at all
Very much
DISCONFIRMATION - To what extent do you think that the Introduction Form you have seen disconfirms negative stereotypes about Morrocoan workers?
Control Variables
Not at all Very
much
PERCEIVED SIMILARITY: To what extent would you say that you and your new colleague...
...are similar in terms of outlook, perspectiv e, and values ...are alike in a number of areas of interest ...are likely to come up with a similar solution for a problem
Strongly disagree Disagree Somewhat disagree agree nor disagree Somewh at agree Agree Strongly agree
MULTICULTURAL WORK EXPERIENCE: Have you ever worked in a multicultural workplace?
TEAM WORK EXPERIENCE: Have you ever worked in a team?
Yes No
MOROCCAN CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE: How much do you know about the Moroccan culture? Not at
all
Very much
ATTENTION CHECK: Please, select the answer that states "I'm ready to complete the survey" I enjoy spending time with my friends over time with my family
I've been very successful in my career
I prefer the ocean to the the mountains
My children are the most important thing in my life
I'm ready to complete the survey
I enjoy traveling to other countries I've had a long day and I'm feeling tired
Demographics
GENDER: What is your gender? Male
Female
EDUCATION: What is the highest level of school you have completed or the highest degree you have received?
Less than high school degree High school degree
Some college but no degree
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree
Doctoral degree
Professional degree
NATIONALITY: Where are you from?
OCCUPATION: Please indicate your occupation (if you have more than one, please indicate the more time-consuming):
Management, professional, and related Government
Education, research, and related Student
Services, sales and office Retired Farming, fishing, and forestry Unemployed
Construction, extraction, and maintenance
Production, transportation, and material moving
