Intersectional Peer Effects at Work: The Effect of White Coworkers on Black Women’s Careers
中文摘要
本文研究拥有更多白人同事如何影响黑人女性相对于其他种族-性别群体的后续留任与晋升。通过研究一家专业服务公司的 9,037 名新员工，我们首先记录了巨大的种族间离职与晋升差距：即使在控制了可观测特征之后，黑人员工在两年内离职的可能性仍比白人员工高 6.7 个百分点（32%），按时获得晋升的可能性低 18.7 个百分点（26%）。离职差距最大的是黑人女性与白人女性之间，达 8.9 个百分点（51%）。基于安慰剂检验和定性证据，我们认为最初的项目团队分配是条件随机的。在这一假设下，我们发现白人同事比例增加一个标准差（20.8 个百分点）与黑人女性离职率上升 15.8 个百分点、晋升率下降 11.5 个百分点相关。我们将这些效应称为交叉性效应：黑人女性是唯一一个其离职和晋升均受到白人同事负面影响的种族-性别群体。我们探讨了这些同群效应可能产生的潜在因果路径：最初被分配到白人更多团队的黑人女性，随后更可能被贴上低绩效者的标签，且报告的可计费工时更少，而这两个因素对全体员工而言都是更高离职率和更低晋升率的预测指标。我们的发现为同群效应、交叉性以及组织内种族与性别不平等治理实践的相关文献作出贡献。
Abstract
This paper investigates how having more White coworkers influences the subsequent retention and promotion of Black women relative to other race-gender groups. Studying 9,037 new hires at a professional services firm, we first document large racial turnover and promotion gaps: Even after controlling for observable characteristics, Black employees are 6.7 percentage points (32%) more likely to turn over within two years and 18.7 percentage points (26%) less likely to be promoted on time than their White counterparts. The largest turnover gap is between Black and White women, at 8.9 percentage points (51%). We argue that initial assignment to project teams is conditionally random based on placebo tests and qualitative evidence. Under this assumption, we show that a one-standard-deviation (20.8 percentage points) increase in the share of White coworkers is associated with a 15.8-percentage-point increase in turnover and an 11.5-percentage-point decrease in promotion for Black women. We refer to these effects as intersectional: Black women are the only race-gender group whose turnover and promotion are negatively impacted by White coworkers. We explore potential causal pathways through which these peer effects may emerge: Black women who were initially assigned to Whiter teams are subsequently more likely to be labeled as low performers and report fewer billable hours, both of which are predictors of higher turnover and lower promotion for all employees. Our findings contribute to the literature on peer effects, intersectionality, and the practice of managing race and gender inequality in organizations.