Reactions to the New Minorities by Employees of the Future: An Experimental Study

Abstract

This experimental study examined reactions to managers of different ethnicities as colleagues and mentors. Experimental manipulations were embedded in scripts describing managers with Asian, Hispanic or Anglo-Saxon names who also varied in their level of interpersonal competence. A third variable of interest was respondents' sex. The most significant finding was the effect of managerial interpersonal competence on attraction to the manager as colleague and mentor. There also was no evidence of ethnic bias, though female respondents generally preferred nonAnglo-Saxon managers as mentors.