When People Would Rather Switch Than Fight: Out-Group Favoritism Among Temporary Employees

Abstract

This article relies on social identity theory to examine the intergroup attitudes held by temporary and permanent employees toward each other. Because temporary employees represent a low-status group with permeable boundaries, temporary employees were expected to show an out-group bias in favor of permanent employees. Survey data from 161 temporary and permanent employees revealed this predicted out-group favoritism on the part of the temporary employees on both implicit and explicit measures of intergroup bias. In contrast, the high-status, permanent employee group displayed typical in-group favoritism on both measures. Implications of these results for workplace relations are discussed.