Fit In Or Stand Out? The Effectiveness of Race-Based Impression Management Strategies In Salary Negotiations

Authors:

Abstract: Black negotiators achieve worse material outcomes than White negotiators, caused, in part, by expectations that Black negotiators will negotiate less than their White counterparts. In this paper, we examine whether two racial-identity based impression management (RIM) strategies, affiliation and enhancement, can mitigate these race-based expectancy violations for Black negotiators. In an experiment where participants ostensibly negotiate a starting salary with a prospective employee through an online chat box, we find that an affiliation strategy, which focuses on highlighting commonalities and a shared identity, increases perceived similarity and, subsequently, the final negotiated salary. On the other hand, the enhancement strategy, which focuses on highlighting one’s unique strengths derived from one’s racial background, increases perceived value brought to the organization, but decreases perceived strategy appropriateness, leading to opposing effects on the final negotiated salary. These findings are among the first to uncover potential avenues to improve negotiation outcomes for racial minorities.

Track: DEI

Keywords: racial identity, negotiations, impression management, experiment