How to Manage Stereotypes in Diverse Teams: Examining the Self- regulation Mechanism and its Effectiveness

Abstract

People face a challenge on diverse teams about dealing with the stereotypes of their social identity groups. However, it is less known regarding how people manage the stereotypes of their social category to construct positive social identities. By integrating the literature on stereotype and the social self-regulation theory in relational demography research, we identify a dual-path self- regulation process—self-monitoring on competence and self-monitoring on warmth—and propose a joint effect among demographic dissimilarity, demographic categories, and perceived status permeability to explain when and who are likely to engage in such behaviors. We also examine the effectiveness of these stereotype managing behaviors by proposing its effects on individual respect. The results from a sample of 1,211 kindergarten teachers in 173 groups from 57 kindergartens supported that, perceived education dissimilarity elicited more self-monitoring on competence for those with lower education degree who perceived the big chance to move up the organizational hierarchy. And self-motoring for competence paid off by contributing to individual respect especially for those with a higher education degree. We discuss the implications of this study for relational demography research.