Well-being in the context of workplace ethnic diversity

Abstract

This research examined the relation between the effects of workplace diversity (defined as the proportion of coworkers of same ethnicity as the respondent) and psychosomatic complaints, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and job satisfaction. A sample of 648 African American and Latino workers was surveyed in Chicago and New York City. A nonlinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship between co-ethnicity and the outcomes was found, such that poorer psychological functioning was observed among workers with a very small or a very high proportion of co-ethnic coworkers. The importance of disentangling the meaning of diversity in light of occupational segregation issues is discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.