The social identity and social networks of ethnic minority groups in organizations: a crucial test of distinctiveness theory
研究检验独特性理论在多元组织中的预测：少数族裔成员是否更倾向内部认同与交友，以及是否缺乏网络连接。通过控制社会地位混淆因素，发现内部认同成立但网络连接无差异。
Abstract Distinctiveness theory posits that patterns of social identity and friendship are based on numeric rarity within specific contexts. In ethnically diverse organizations, the theory predicts that members of the smaller ethnic group (relative to members of the larger ethnic group) will: (a) tend to identify and form friendships within their own ethnic group, and (b) lack access to well‐connected individuals in the network of friendship relations. Prior tests have supported these predictions, but they have been unable to rule out the possibility that it was chronic differences in social status and numeric representation in society at large (rather than numeric distinctiveness within specific contexts) that explained the observed patterns of social identity and friendship. In this field‐based study, we examined an organization whose social composition effectively controlled for these confounds. We found that members of the smaller ethnic group tended to identify and form friendships within group, as predicted by distinctiveness theory. However, in contrast to previous work, we found that members of the smaller ethnic group were equally well connected to the center of the friendship network as were the members of the larger ethnic group. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.