Ostracism and nationalism in the workplace: Discursive exclusionary practices between cultural and geographic neighbors

Köllen, Thomas; Kopf, Susanne (2021). Ostracism and nationalism in the workplace: Discursive exclusionary practices between cultural and geographic neighbors. Review of Managerial Science, 16(2), pp. 583-615. Springer 10.1007/s11846-021-00454-z

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So far, management research on mechanisms of exclusion of employee groups has mainly applied constructs of racism to understanding issues of origin-based ostracism. This research has primarily focused on issues faced by employees whose heritage is markedly different from the heritage shared by the norm group in the given socio-cultural, linguistic, and geographical setting. Against this backdrop, the present study investigates how ostracism plays out when the heritages involved are similar, as exemplified by German employees in Austria. Study 1 examines the discursive production of Austrian stereotyping of Germans in the usage of different terms of reference for ‘Germans’ in Austrian discourse. A corpus analysis of online comments on newspaper sites highlights the implicit Austrian need for delineation against Germany. Study 2 analyzes Germans’ perception of Austrians’ exclusionary linguistic practices and how this impacts on their employment experience and turnover intention. A quantitative analysis of survey data from 600 German nationals employed in Austria reveals that the degree of exposure to these demarcating practices is associated with lower job satisfaction, a higher burnout level and an increase in turnover intention. This study is amongst the first to shed light on the central role of nationalism and national identities in organizational mechanisms of exclusion.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Business Management > Institute of Organization and Human Resource Management > Human Resource Management
03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Business Management > Institute of Organization and Human Resource Management

UniBE Contributor:

Köllen, Thomas

Subjects:

600 Technology > 650 Management & public relations
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services
400 Language > 410 Linguistics

ISSN:

1863-6683

Publisher:

Springer

Language:

English

Submitter:

Thomas Köllen

Date Deposited:

14 Apr 2021 14:12

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:50

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s11846-021-00454-z

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Nationalism; National identities; Workplace; Discourse analysis; Workforce diversity

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/155403

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/155403

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