Social Integration and Proactive Attitudes towards the Integration of Immigrants in a Sample of the Swedish-speaking Minority of Western Finland

The relationship between respondents’ personal level of social integration and their proactive attitudes towards the integration of immigrants was investigated in a sample of the Swedish-speaking minority of Western Finland. A questionnaire was completed by 298 respondents (208 females, 90 males, Mage = 31.6, SD = 13.5), consisting of one scale measuring social integration and three scales measuring proactive attitudes. Respondents having high scores on social integration scored significantly higher on recognizing the need of making cultural efforts to support immigrants, making structural efforts in society for the same, and openness to diversity than those with lower scores on social integration. The most prominent difference between the groups was in the case of openness to diversity. Thus, a clear relationship between one’s personal level of social integration and having proactive attitudes towards the integration of immigrants was found. Keywords: social integration, proactive attitudes, integration of immigrants, Finland, Swedish-speakers

Workgroup’s Openness to Diversity and Employees’ Perception of Human Resources Practices: The Moderating Effect of Group Membership

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of a workgroup’s openness to diversity (WOD) in shaping employees’ perception of human resources practices (HRPs), by focusing primarily on three types of diversity, namely visible diversity, value diversity and informational diversity. The study also examines the moderating effect of group membership on the relationship. Cross-sectional data through a survey of 533 employees of various leading information technology (IT) companies in India are used. The results suggest that a workgroup’s openness to diversity is a strong determinant of the perception of HRPs. It is observed that the workgroup’s openness to visible diversity has no significant impact on the perception of HRPs, whereas openness to value and informational diversity has a significant positive impact. The results also show that group membership moderates the relationship. In terms of the originality of this study, we contend that, to date, there is a paucity of empirical studies linking a workgroup’s openness to diversity with the perception of HRPs. Hence, the present study addresses this gap by examining the relationship, as well as the boundary conditions on this relationship.

How Does Adolescents’ Openness to Diversity Change Over Time? The Role of Majority-Minority Friendship, Friends’ Views, and Classroom Social Context

Young people are growing up in increasingly “super-diverse” societies, and show variations in how they approach diversity and embrace differences. Developing a good understanding of why some youth appreciate and value diversity whereas others do not is crucial in identifying ways to promote social interactions among different groups in broader society. The current study examined whether adolescents follow different trajectories in their views on diversity, and identified possible factors behind how they change over time. The sample included 1362 adolescents residing in Sweden (Mage = 13.18, SD = 0.43, 48% girls). Adolescents reported on their openness to diversity and classroom social climate. The peer nominations method was used to measure majority-minority friendship, and friends’ views on diversity. Latent growth analysis showed that adolescents, on average, became more open to diversity over time, but with clear heterogeneity. Three distinct trajectories were identified as: high-increasing, average-increasing, and average-declining. Relative to the high-increasing group, the other two were more likely to be male and immigrant. Relative to the high-increasing group, adolescents on the average-increasing trajectory perceived their classroom climate as less cooperative, while the adolescents on the average-declining trajectory were less likely to have friends with positive views on diversity. The findings suggest that schools may serve as a shared ground for promoting openness to diversity.

Proactive Attitudes towards Integration and Intense Group Identification, in a Sample of the Swedish-speaking Minority of Western Finland

The aim of the study was to investigate proactive attitudes towards integration and intense group identification in a sample of the Swedish-speaking minority of Western Finland. A questionnaire was completed by 298 respondents (208 females and 90 males). The mean age was 32.7 yrs (SD 13.4) for women and 28.9 yrs (SD 13.4) for males. The questionnaire included scales measuring positive attitudes towards cultural and structural efforts to enhance the situation of immigrants, openness to diversity (Phelps, Eilertsen, Türken, - Ommundsen, 2011) and intense group identification. Positive attitudes towards cultural and structural efforts to enhance integration, and openness to diversity all correlated significantly positively with each other, and negatively with intense group identification. Age did not correlate with any of the scales in the study. Females scored higher than males on the three subscales measuring proactive attitudes towards integration, and males scored significantly higher on intense group identification. Respondents with a higher educational level scored higher on cultural efforts and on openness to diversity, and significantly lower on intense group identification. Social integration efforts could be fostered by enancing prosocial traits, especially among males, and by encouraging people to study at the higher degree institutions. This could be applie not only among the Swedish-speaking Finns but also among other cultural groups in Finland and elsewhere.

Moderating role of employee engagement on conflict–politics relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between relationship conflict and the perception of organization politics (POP) and the moderating role of employee engagement. The study hypothesizes that the conflict results in the presence of POP only for those employees who are relatively less engaged with the organization. The paper further explores the mediating role of perceived politics between the relationship conflict and job-related outcome variables including openness to diversity, turnover intent and perception of justice. In sum, the authors contend that employee engagement will act as a moderator between relationship conflict and POP, and POP further will act as a mediator between relationship conflict and its job-related outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive study was carried on to conduct this research. Data were collected at two different points of time from the employees of two public sector undertakings (n=206). About 80 questionnaires were not returned by the respondents, reducing the sample size to be 126. Of these, 115 were usable, resulting in a 55.83 percent response rate. SEM was employed to test the hypotheses with the help of Smart PLS 3.0. A two-step process was followed to test the hypothesized model. Testing the significance of proposed relationships in the structural model was followed by the evaluation of the measurement model. Findings The results of the study highlighted a positive association between the relationship conflict and POP. A moderating effect of employee engagement on relationship conflict and perceived organizational politics (POP) was observed. Further, POP was found to have a positive relationship with the intention to leave and a negative relationship with openness to diversity and perception of justice was observed. POP mediated the relationship between relationship conflict with the intention to leave and the perception of justice. Research limitations/implications The very first limitation of the present study is its cross-sectional design. Since the data were gathered from the same respondents, the causal relationships between variables are subject to biases (Bobko and Stone-Romero, 1998). Further, the data were gathered with the help of self-report questionnaires, and the findings of this study might have been influenced by the social desirability response bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Hence, future work should focus on using a combination of sources for data collection. This study also proposes a possible role of emotional intelligence in employee engagement and their POP, which can be tested in future studies. Practical implications The study suggests that relationship conflict leads to POP, which eventually results in adverse job-related outcomes. In order to control the negative effects of politics perception, organizations should undertake conflict prevention and conflict management techniques. To further reduce the level of POP, organizations shall take steps to better engage their employees because even when the level of relationship conflict is high, people perceive less politics if they are highly engaged with the organization. Originality/value The study is an original work carried out to understand the relationship between relationship conflict and the POP, and the moderating role of employee engagement.