Assigning migrants to customer contact jobs
Subtitle
A context-specific exploration of the business case for diversity
Publication date
2014
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
ISSN
Series or journal
Review of Managerial Science
Periodical volume
8
Periodical issue
2
First page
249
Last page
273
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Keyword
Diversity management
Customer contact jobs
Migrant employees
Strategic human resource management
Ethnic diversity
Abstract
Ethnic diversity of both their labor forces and customer bases presents a challenge for companies and fuels debate on the business case for diversity: the view that diversity positively impacts firm performance. This study enriches the business case debate by focusing on a particular organizational activity, customer contact. It combines theory from strategic human resource management (SHRM), research on diversity, and research on marketing to analyze what drives companies to assign migrants to customer contact jobs and which performance impacts ensue. We test our hypotheses in data from 338 German business companies. Companies that recognize the value in ethnic diversity and seek to respond to customer diversity are especially likely to assign migrants to customer contact jobs. The analyses reveal a positive impact of migrants in customer contact jobs on company profitability. This impact is enhanced by a broad range of equality and diversity practices and a supportive works council. These moderators have stronger effects than two other moderators related to business strategy: the market served by a company, and its competitive strategy. The paper contributes to SHRM research in general and diversity research in particular through its original examination associating the business case for ethnic diversity with the role of equality and diversity practices and institutions. The study findings can help managers to decide whether to leverage staff ethnic diversity and show that collaboration between HR management and marketing functions is useful to achieve a strategic fit among practices.
Version
Published version
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