Outcomes Of Perceived Dissimilarity At The Workplace

In recent years, increased workplace diversity has been a significant concern for managers. Most of the diversity research has concentrated on surface level differences. Deep-level differences, often known as non-visible differences, are an additional aspect of diversity that is gaining attention recently. Since each individual views such differences via a different lens, deep-level differences are
also considered subjective differences. This study examines the extent to which an individual's perceptions of dissimilarity, as they pertain to religious ideology and socioeconomic class, influence their identity disclosure behavior in the workplace. This study also examines the impact of disclosure behavior on perceptions of workplace ostracism.Our findings supported the hypothesis that a negative association exists among an individual’s subjective perceptions of dissimilarity (DP) and their disclosure behavior (DB), and that a positive association exists between disclosure behavior (DB) and perceptions of ostracism in the workplace (PWO). The perceptions of psychological safety climate (PPSC) moderate the association among DP and DB, such that the relation is weaker when psychological safety climate perceptions are high. Moreover, perceptions of
diversity-focused HR policies (PDFHRP) moderate the relationship between DB and PWO, such that the relationship is weaker when the perceptions of diversity-focused HR practices are higher.