Liu Jiakun, Zhu Yufeng, Wang Huatian
Shandong Youth University of Political Science, Jinan, China.
University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 9;14:1117690. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1117690. eCollection 2023.
The workforce has become more diverse than it used to be. Although organizations actively capitalize on workforce diversity to enhance team innovation and organizational performance, it is found that workforce diversity also has potential risks, among which interpersonal conflict is the most salient one. However, we still know relatively less about why workforce diversity may link to higher interpersonal conflict and, more importantly, how to mitigate the negative impact of workforce diversity. Based on the workplace diversity theories (e.g., the categorization-elaboration model), this study examined how workforce diversity was positively related to interpersonal conflict through impacting one's affective states, and to what extent this indirect effect can be weakened by organization-initiated practices (i.e., the inclusive human resources management (HRM) practices) and employee-initiated behaviors (i.e., employee learning-oriented behaviors). Using two-wave surveys from 203 employees from various organizations in China, we confirmed our hypotheses. Our results showed that perceived workforce diversity was positively related to interpersonal conflict through increasing negative affect (after we controlled for the objective diversity level calculated by the Blau index), and this indirect effect was weakened when the levels of inclusive HRM practices and employee learning-oriented behaviors were high. Our study suggests that it is important for organizations to be aware of the detrimental impact of workforce diversity. In addition, it is essential to use both the top-down (e.g., inclusive HRM practices) and bottom-up (e.g., employee learning-oriented behaviors) approaches to managing the challenges presented by diversity so as to unlock more potential of diversity in the workplace.
如今的劳动力队伍比以往更加多样化。尽管组织积极利用劳动力多样性来提升团队创新和组织绩效，但研究发现劳动力多样性也存在潜在风险，其中人际冲突最为突出。然而，我们对劳动力多样性为何可能导致更高的人际冲突，以及更重要的是如何减轻劳动力多样性的负面影响，了解仍然相对较少。基于职场多样性理论（如分类细化模型），本研究考察了劳动力多样性如何通过影响个体的情感状态与人际冲突呈正相关，以及组织发起的实践（即包容性人力资源管理（HRM）实践）和员工发起的行为（即员工学习导向行为）在多大程度上能够削弱这种间接影响。通过对来自中国不同组织的203名员工进行两阶段调查，我们验证了我们的假设。结果表明，在控制了由布劳指数计算出的客观多样性水平后，感知到的劳动力多样性通过增加负面情绪与人际冲突呈正相关，并且当包容性HRM实践和员工学习导向行为的水平较高时，这种间接影响会被削弱。我们的研究表明，组织意识到劳动力多样性的有害影响非常重要。此外，运用自上而下（如包容性HRM实践）和自下而上（如员工学习导向行为）的方法来应对多样性带来的挑战，从而释放职场中更多的多样性潜力至关重要。
