The Empathic Potential of Diverse Teams: How Member Contact Reduces Disparity in Treatment (WITHDRAWN)

Abstract

Disparity in treatment of customers and beneficiaries from different social groups is a pervasive phenomenon in the United States. To address this issue, we propose that service organizations should form work teams of providers from a diverse range of social groups. Drawing on intergroup contact theory and literature on intergroup emotions, we present a theoretical model articulating how inter-member contact inside diverse work teams reduces member anxiety about , and builds affective ties with, other social groups, resulting in increased empathy and decreases in affective prejudice (or empathy bias). Moreover, we theorize an empathy diffusion process from colleague-to-colleague to service provider-to-service recipient, which ultimately results in reduction of disparity in treatment of extra-organizational individuals at work. Our conceptual model makes important theoretical contributions to the team diversity literature by challenging the assumptions of social categorization process theories to highlight the empathetic potential of diverse teams. This model also has significant practical implications for organizations struggling to curb discrimination and alleviate the disparity in treatment of service recipients.