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If you are different, you are inferior: how does ethnocentric behaviour disengage employees?

Mehedi Hasan Khan (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China)
Jiafei Jin (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China)

International Journal of Conflict Management

ISSN: 1044-4068

Article publication date: 24 June 2024

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Abstract

Purpose

This study advances ethnocentric behaviour research by exploring its impact on individuals' work disengagement in multicultural work settings. Ethnocentrism research focused mainly on consumer ethnocentric behaviour but did not consider the role of employees’ ethnocentric behaviour in the multicultural workplace. This study aims to address this gap by utilizing social identity theory. The authors propose that ethnocentric behaviour has an impact on employee work disengagement and also affects social undermining and workplace conflict as an outcome.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used cross-sectional data (N = 326) collected from employees working for Chinese multinational firms in Bangladesh. The authors used Likert-type scale to collect data. To check the hypothesis, the authors employed Hayes' PROCESS macro 4.0v.

Findings

The authors found that employee ethnocentric behaviour positively impacts workers' work disengagement. Ethnocentric behaviour positively affects social undermining and workplace conflict, whereas social undermining and workplace conflict partially mediate the indirect effects of ethnocentrism on work disengagement. The authors also found that core self-evaluation (CSE) weakens the indirect impact of ethnocentrism on work disengagement through social undermining and workplace conflict.

Practical implications

The authors recommend that organizations recruit employees with positive CSE and provide cultural sensitivity training to reduce ethnocentrism in the culturally diverse workplace.

Originality/value

This study is a unique effort to examine the influence of employees’ ethnocentric conduct by employing social identity theory in the emerging economy subsidiaries of multinational businesses operating in developing countries. This study also addressed the moderating effect of employees' CSE. This adds a unique dimension to ethnocentrism and employee work disengagement research. The authors have also discussed the future research avenue, theoretical and practical implications in detail.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions for improvement.

Disclosure statement: The authors reported no potential conflict of interest.

Data availability statement: Data sharing is applicable on reasonable request.

Citation

Khan, M.H. and Jin, J. (2024), "If you are different, you are inferior: how does ethnocentric behaviour disengage employees?", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-12-2023-0250

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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