African -American biculturalism, ethnic identity and acculturation during organizational socialization.
Item
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Title
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African -American biculturalism, ethnic identity and acculturation during organizational socialization.
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Identifier
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AAI3008846
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identifier
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3008846
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Creator
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Lipp, Pamela Anne.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Kay Deaux
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Date
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2001
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Industrial | Psychology, Social | Black Studies
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Abstract
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This study examined the relationship between ethnic identity, acculturation and biculturalism and the ways that African-Americans reduce uncertainty and seek information during the organizational socialization process. Established measures of ethnic identity and acculturation were used while the biculturalism measure was created specifically for the study. The biculturalism measure yielded two unidimensional scales labelled bounded and conflicted biculturalism. The bounded factor focuses on being conscious of one's behavior around white people and code switching. The conflicted factor deals with feeling pulled between work and one's social community.;Three types of uncertainty were examined: referent or uncertainty about tasks, appraisal, which is uncertainty about how one is performing the job and relational, which is uncertainty about personal relationships at work (Teboul, 1994). Seven information-seeking strategies were measured: overt tactics comprised of overt questions and covert tactics comprised of indirect questions, third parties, testing limits, disguising conversation, observation, and surveillance. The extent to which newcomers relied on supervisors, coworkers, direct reports, romantic partners, friends and family when seeking information was also measured.;Most of the 145 participants completed questionnaires on an Internet site, resulting in a well-educated sample representing a wide variety of industries and professions. Overall, the results indicate that ethnic identity and acculturation are related to very limited aspects of socialization and do not appear to have very much influence in the socialization process. Biculturalism is the best predictor of information seeking and source sought for information. It was the low scorers on the biculturalism measure, i.e., those who indicate little conflict and relatively low levels of codeswitching, who have adopted biculturalism as an effective strategy in successful socialization. Low scorers use more covert information seeking strategies, seek internal African American sources and seek more support outside the organization, from family and romantic partners. Moderator effects were found for perceived social costs. When those who are low in conflicted biculturalism perceive fewer social costs, they use more intraorganizational covert and overt information seeking and rely more heavily on intraorganizational sources. Theoretical and applied contributions and directions for future research are discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
