Future Research

Managers’ Attributions for Subordinates

There is a need to investigate the attributions that supervising managers make for minority-ethnic employees and whether minority-ethnic employees can easily determine the causes of others’ behaviour towards them (Crocker & Major, 2003). To compare interpersonal attributions of supervising managers was an original aim of this thesis. However, practically researching ethnicity at senior management levels is very challenging because the potential participant pool can be very small. In the host organisation for this research, just 5-7% of middle and senior managers were minority-ethnic. It became apparent that there were not sufficient numbers of

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minority-ethnic managers who managed enough subordinates whom they could discuss. Therefore the original proposed study was not feasible in the host organisation.

Lower minority-ethnic representation at management levels also means it can be particularly difficult to gain enough participants to enable statistically meaningful conclusions to be drawn. That said, there is clearly a need for more research on ethnicity at higher organisational levels, not only to allow for a better understanding of the factors that allow for career success, but to counter inherent bias in existing research, which is almost entirely focused on ethnicity at lower levels (Kenny & Briner, 2007).

Differentiating Between Ethnic Groups

In the present study, the analysis compared minority-ethnic and majority-ethnic groups. However, researchers suggest that group differences in attributional style may develop as a consequence of factors like upbringing (Choi, Nisbett, & Norenzayan, 1999) and past experiences (Furnham, Sadka, & Brewin, 1992; Rosenthal, 1995; Spector, 1982). It is therefore important that future research examine the attributional styles of different ethnicities, such as Black African, Indian or Chinese, rather than combining them into one minority-ethnic group. Research should also study intersectionalities, such as the effect of gender and ethnicity on attributional style. In this study gender was controlled for and there were found to be no differences between male and female attributions. However, future research should aim to examine the attributions of specific populations, such as Black African women. Despite the importance of such research, examining differences between ethnic groups and intersectionalities, particularly at senior organisational levels, is difficult in regards to the number of available participants for such studies.

Longitudinal Research

Longitudinal research is essential in order to test whether the relationship between attributional style and career success is causal and to investigate the impact of

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attributional patterns on differing career trajectories over time. Do employees who make external, uncontrollable attributions for negative events experience slower career progression than those who make internal, controllable attributions? Does attributional style influence both subjective (e.g. career satisfaction) and objective (e.g. salary, promotions, grade) career success?

The relationship between self-esteem and self-efficacy also deserves more attention. Recent research has combined these constructs and found they predict outcomes such as job satisfaction, salary and performance (Judge & Bono, 2001; Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2004). However, their relationship may be more complex and require longitudinal research to examine the relationship between short-term self- esteem gains and longer-term self-efficacy outcomes.

Public Attributions

This study investigated attributions produced during research interviews, not spontaneous attributions produced in the workplace. Future research could investigate employee discourse in context to determine whether similar patterns of attributions would be found in natural settings. For example, Stangor, Swim, Van Allen and Sechrist (2002) found that Black Americans tended to curtail their attributions regarding discrimination as a cause of outcomes at work in the presence of out-group (usually white male) members. Although, it should be noted that in the current study, interviews were conducted by a white female researcher, yet minority- ethnic managers still produced external, uncontrollable causal attributions. One opportunity might be to examine spoken attributions produced by minority- and majority-ethnic employees during selection, promotion and appraisal processes.

4.5 Summary

This study contributes to ethnicity and career research by comparing attributions made by minority- and majority-ethnic managers for their career experiences. In doing so it provides important insight into the psychological mechanisms that may influence differential career success. Whilst it found mixed results for the hypotheses based on the existing diversity attribution literature, the study provides an evidence

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base by demonstrating that there are important ethnic-group differences in attributional style. However, managers’ interpretation of their career experiences cannot be fully investigated using attributional analysis, because by quantifying statements, the context of what interviewees discuss cannot be fully understood. Therefore, the next chapter aims to gain greater insight into managers’ subjective career experiences.

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Chapter Five: A Template Analysis of the Career Experiences of

Minority-Ethnic and Majority-Ethnic Managers

5.1 Introduction

Study one provided a comparison of the causal attributions that minority- and majority-ethnic managers make when asked to recall and describe significant career events they have experienced. However, whilst attributional analysis can provide an understanding of differences in how minority- and majority- ethnic managers explain their career experiences, it is less able to offer insight into the content of those experiences. Therefore, it was decided to undertake a second study examining the career experiences minority-ethnic managers identified as important for their career success when asked to recall significant career events, and compare these with the experiences identified by majority-ethnic managers.

Researchers have identified several areas that may be important for differential career success, including occupational segregation, mentoring, networking, relationship with line managers and performance evaluation (e.g. Collins, 1993; Greenhaus et al, 1990; Ibarra, 1995; Ragins, 2002). However, research has largely focused on lower level employees, and there is less knowledge of managers’ experiences. It is important to study managers because they can provide unique insight into how their ethnicity has affected their experiences of organisations and how they have navigated their career to date.

Furthermore, existing research has examined ethnicity and career success using large samples and questionnaires, or compared ethnic groups on single variables (e.g. Igbaria & Wormley, 1995; Landau, 1995). There have been surprisingly few qualitative studies of minority-ethnic career experiences. Importantly, qualitative research examines what individuals consider important and gives voice to participants rather than impose the ideas of the researcher. Thus far, the perceptions of minority-ethnic managers, and what they identify as important for their careers, has yet to be heard. (Kenny & Briner, 2007, p. 449-50):

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“It will not be possible to get a full understanding of how minority ethnic workers experience the workplace, if [qualitative] research is not conducted. The type of qualitative research that is needed is that which, […], seeks to gain a better understanding of how the individual has experienced/is experiencing the workplace and what impact that might have on their perceptions and career decisions.”

The following study used the same in-depth critical incident interviews as study one, but applied a different methodology (template analysis) to compare the career experiences of minority-ethnic managers in a large public sector organisation, with the experiences of a matched sample of majority-ethnic managers from the same organisation. The primary research questions for this study are:

Research Question 1: What are the career experiences minority-ethnic managers

identify as important for their career success?

Research Question 2: How do these compare with experiences identified by

majority-ethnic managers?

5.2 Method