The influence of ethnocentrism in organizational contexts: perceptions of interviewee and managerial attractiveness, credibility, and effectiveness

Abstract

This paper presents the results of two studies that examine the influence of ethnocentrism on interpersonal perceptions of attractiveness, credibility, and managerial effectiveness. In Study I participants (N=117) watched a video-taped interview of a Korean national student being interviewed for a job in the financial aid office of her United States (US) college. Participants then completed measures of ethnocentrism, interpersonal attraction, credibility, and were asked to give a hiring recommendation. Results reveal that ethnocentrism was negatively and significantly correlated with perceptions of social attraction, competence, character, and hiring recommendations. Study II focused on the influence of ethnocentrism on perceptions of managerial attraction, credibility, and effectiveness in a manager–subordinate conflict situation. Approximately half (N=59) of the participants watched a video of an Asian student manager reprimanding a white student worker. The other half (N=64) watched a nearly identical video of a white student manager reprimanding the same white student worker. Participants completed measures of ethnocentrism, interpersonal attraction, credibility, generalized attitudes about the manager, and managerial effectiveness. In the group of participants who watched the Asian student manager, results reveal that ethnocentrism was negatively and significantly correlated with perceptions of physical, social, and task attraction, competence, and general attitudes about the manager, but not managerial effectiveness. In the group of participants who watched the white student manager there were no significant correlations between ethnocentrism and any of the dependent variables.