Commitment of Minorities in Organizations : Effects of Leadership and Pressure to Conform

In this study of 107 employees in a large multinational in the field of electronics, we examine to what extent cultural minorities and majority members have feelings of belonging to the organization. We hypothesized and found that cultural minorities feel more committed than majority members, thereby challenging the existing theoretical view that cultural minorities will feel less committed to the organization than majority members. We also found some support that organizational pressure to conform and effective leadership increase commitment more for minority than majority members. Organizational pressure to conform moderated the relationship between majority-minority membership and normative commitment, such that pressure to conform increased the normative commitment more for members of the cultural minority group than for members of the cultural majority. In addition, we found that task-oriented and people-oriented leadership moderated the relationship between majority-minority membership and normative commitment, such that task-oriented and people-oriented leadership increased the normative commitment more for minorities than for majorities