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Office of Undergraduate Research Home » 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium Schedules

Found 1 project

Poster Presentation 1

11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
Do Cultures of Urgency in Professional Settings Lead to Underrepresentation of Employees of Color?
Presenter
  • Anna Li, Senior, Psychology
Mentors
  • Sapna Cheryan, Psychology
  • Ella Lombard, Psychology
Session
    Poster Session 1
  • MGH Commons East
  • Easel #28
  • 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

  • Other Psychology mentored projects (43)
  • Other students mentored by Sapna Cheryan (1)
  • Other students mentored by Ella Lombard (1)
Do Cultures of Urgency in Professional Settings Lead to Underrepresentation of Employees of Color?close

In recent years, organizations have debated whether elements of “white supremacy culture”, including a sense of urgency, may create inequitable environments for people of color. We aimed to empirically investigate whether cultures of urgency in professional settings undermine the recruitment of racially minoritized groups. Undergraduate participants (N = 219) read job advertisements for two jobs: one where urgency culture is highly valued (e.g., “swiftly reset priorities at any given time”) and one with less sense of urgency (e.g., “adjust priorities based on capability”; order counterbalanced). Participants then reported how likely they would be to apply to each job. We hypothesized that individuals from racially minoritized groups will be more likely to apply to lower-urgency jobs over high-urgency jobs. The results show that most participants preferred lower-urgency jobs. However, countering our hypothesis, individuals from racially minoritized groups held more positive attitudes towards high-urgency jobs (e.g., how well they think they'd perform in the job) when compared to white participants. This finding casts doubt on the proposed elements of "white supremacy culture". It urges for more empirical research on how different racially minoritized groups may perceive these elements in work settings. Furthermore, our sample consists mainly of Asian Americans, which does not speak for the experiences of other racially minoritized groups. Our future research will focus on diversifying samples collected.


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