Organizational Demographic Faultlines: Their Impact on Collective Organizational Identification, Firm Performance, and Firm Innovation
Journal
Journal of Management Studies
ISSN
0022-2380
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2021-12-01
Author(s)
Abstract
In this study, we seek to understand the consequences of demographic faultlines at the organizational level. Drawing from the faultline and cross-categorization literature, we suggest that organizational demographic faultlines (based on age and gender) have the potential to either reduce or enhance employees’ collective organizational identification and, thereby, indirectly influence firm performance and innovation. Whether organizational demographic faultlines have detrimental or beneficial effects depends on the functional heterogeneity within faultline-based demographic subgroups, where heterogeneity is defined as the extent to which subgroup members belong to different functional departments. We theorize that this functional heterogeneity alters the degree of social integration between demographic subgroups. Results from a multisource field study of demographic faultlines among 5,495 employees in 82 small and medium-sized firms (< 250 employees) support our model. We demonstrate that organizational demographic faultlines have important consequences, and we show that functional heterogeneity changes whether these consequences are negative or positive.
Funding(s)
Language
English
Keywords
organizational demographic faultlines
functional heterogeneity
collective organizational identification
firm performance
firm innovation
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SoM - Responsible Corporate Competitiveness (RoCC)
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Limited
Volume
58
Number
8
Start page
2240
End page
2274
Pages
34
Official URL
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
264225
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
Leicht-Deobald, Huettermann, Bruch & Lawrence (2021).pdf
Size
600.85 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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