How African American Accountants Managed Their Social Identity in White-Dominated Firms and Effects on Supervisor Familiarity and Turnover-Intent

• In Event: Racial Issues

Abstract

Over the past two decades, as workplace diversity and inclusion initiatives have crystallized in public accounting firms, it was hoped that retention rates for underrepresented minority groups would increase; unfortunately, they have not. However, findings from this study revealed that although significant work remains to be done, the profession has moved in the right direction, particularly related to African American Accountants in the early stages of their careers. African American accountants still suffer from devaluation of their social identity; however, this study found that when they used social identity-based impression management strategies that played up their social identity, their perceived level of supervisor familiarity was increased. Thus, African American accountants perceived congruency between being racially authentic through the use of positive distinctiveness impression management strategies, while they simultaneously built relationships with coworkers by gaining familiarity with them. When they gained familiarity with supervisors, their turnover intent was reduced. We also found that when African American accountants played down their social identity by using social recategorization strategies, they did not gain familiarity with their supervisors. Thus, the significant work that remains to be done by White-dominated accounting firms, is to reduce the period of time African American Accountants are wanting to be positive distinctive while waiting to be positive distinctive. We examined data collected from 220 African American accounting professionals. We used a three-stage serial mediation model that incorporated the variables of interest related to social, psychological, and organizational behavior theories. Results from structural path analyses were reported. Implications for theory and practice; research limitations; and guidance for future research were discussed.

Authors

• Edward Elkanah Scott, Slippery Rock University

• Cynthia S Wang, Northwestern University

• Alexis N Smith, Oklahoma State University

• Bryan Edwards, Oklahoma State University