The Psychological Consequences of the Changing Nature of Work and Their Implications for Dominant Demographic Group Members' Support for Increasing Diversity in Organizations

Abstract: Although the changing nature of work has fundamentally shifted the employee-employer relationship, scholars and organizational leaders have treated this shift as independent from efforts to make organizations more diverse. We take a different view. We theorize that the changing nature of work creates a psychological environment among dominant demographic group members that hinders organizational diversity efforts. We argue that the changing nature of work increases uncertainty for many workers. In turn, uncertainty increases dominant group members' denial of group-based inequities, desire to affiliate with entitative groups, motivation to support existing social hierarchies, and focus on short-term thinking. We posit that these consequences undermine support for diversity efforts among dominant group members, making these efforts less successful. Thus, we provide a fuller picture of why diversity initiatives in organizations may stumble. Our theorizing also has implications regarding the consequences of the changing nature of work for organizational–and societal–change efforts more broadly.

Keywords: diversity; changing nature of work; uncertainty; attitudes and cognitions