Status, Participation, and Influence in Task Groups

Abstract

Status generalization theories describe how society’s status advantages and disadvantages can structure group inequality and also can suggest ways to design interventions to overcome its undesirable effects. We address problems of interaction as affected by the status characteristic race, which often disadvantages black members of work teams. Following the lead of Goar and Sell, we devised mixed-race task groups of women aimed at equalizing influence over the groups’ decisions. In baseline groups, white women exerted greater influence than did black women. In experimental groups, we artificially increased the participation of black women, and thereby increased their influence over group decisions. We consider some implications for diversity in natural settings including business organizations.