Diversity and Homophily at Work: Supportive Relations Among White and African-American Peers

Abstract

Dividends from employee diversity may require intergroup knowledge and information sharing, which in turn may depend on supportive peer relations. Yet little is known about the antecedents of such supportive relations among the racially dissimilar. We posited that the relative prevalence of supportive relations among dissimilar peers will be higher in work units with high task interdependence and a strong peer support climate but will decline as the proportion of racially different others increases (a “homophily” effect). An inverse relationship between the proportion of racially different others and supportive relations among whites and blacks was found; it was curvilinear and moderated by support climate.