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This article estimates the empirical relationship between workplace diversity in terms of nationality and individual worker job satisfaction in the context of a multicultural country. It also examines the role of the level of communication between coworkers in moderating this relationship.

Using merged survey and administrative data, the paper estimates OLS and ordered Probit regression estimates of the correlations between two measures of workplace diversity and self-reported job satisfaction.

The relationship between nationality diversity and job satisfaction is negative. While there is some evidence of a nonlinear relationship, it depends on the specification and measure of diversity used. Contrary to expectations, the level of interaction between colleagues does not moderate this relationship.

The research highlights the need for employers to actively manage the diversity within their firms.

The paper adds to the diversity and job satisfaction literature by focusing on the nationalities of coworkers. It also is the first to measure the impact of the levels of interactions with coworkers on the diversity-satisfaction relationship.

Previous studies examined the effects of diversity according to gender, race and age, whereas the present study focused on nationality. The authors wanted to find out the impact of workplace diversity on job satisfaction.

The analysis relied on two data sources. The first was the 2013 survey of “Working Conditions and the Quality of Work Life” in Luxembourg. The sampling plan was based on data from Luxembourg’s social security administration. There were four variables: The first was the size of the firm (less than 15 employees, between 15 and 49, and more than 50). The second was employee status (blue collar worker, or employee). The other variables were gender and age.

Results showed workplace diversity has a negative impact on job satisfaction. But the data also revealed job satisfaction increased for the minority nationalities when a certain threshold for diversity was reached. The authors said this might be because when there were enough workers “like themselves”, satisfaction grew.

The authors said their study would become increasingly important as globalization increased the proportion of foreign workers inside firms. They said that from a managerial perspective, it was crucial to know if national diversity was linked to employees’ attitudes.