How Do Socially Distinctive Newcomers Fare? Evidence from a Field Experiment

• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Author: Donald P. Moynihan,Simon Calmar Andersen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12957
• Date: 01 November 2018

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 78, Iss. 6, pp. 874–882. © 2018 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12957.

874 Public Administration Review • Novem ber | Dece mber 2 018

Simon Calmar Andersen

Aarhus University

Donald P. Moynihan

Georgetown University

How Do Socially Distinctive Newcomers Fare?

Evidencefroma Field Experiment

Donald P. Moynihan is the inaugural

McCourt Chair in the McCourt School

of Public Policy, Georgetown University.

He studies the performance of public

organizations and administrative burdens

that citizens experience in their interactions

with public services. With Pamela Herd, he is

the coauthor of Administrative Burdens:

Policymaking by Other Means (Russell

Sage Foundation).

E-mail: donald.moynihan@georgetown.edu

Simon Calmar Andersen is professor

in the Department of Political Science

and director of TrygFonden’s Centre for

Child Research, Aarhus University. He

combines field experiments, surveys,

and administrative data to examine

different aspects of public policies and

management strategies and their impact

on organizational performance, especially

within education. He has published work in

Proceedings of the National Academy

of Sciences, the Journal of Public

Administration Research and Theory,

and Public Administration Review,

among others.

E-mail: simon@ps.au.dk

Abstract: New hires offer a mixed blessing. They can spur teams to reflect on their processes in ways that encourage

learning. But organizational newcomers may also struggle to achieve inclusion. This article examines how newcomers’

experiences in public organizations depend on their social distinctiveness. While diversity is usually framed in terms

of biodemographic factors such as race and gender, educational background is another form of social distinction.

Educational differences may trigger psychological responses such as negative social categorization and serve as an

observable criterion by which professional status and power are allocated. Using a field experiment, schools were

provided two types of new hires: those who shared the educational background of existing teams and more socially

distinctive newcomers. Both types of newcomers led to heightened team reflection processes relative to a control group.

However, old-timers were less accepting of educationally distinct newcomers, viewing them as less competent and

cooperative.

Evidence for Practice

• Workplace diversity is most frequently described in biodemographic terms such as race and gender. Another

relevant way to think about diversity is in terms of the different perspectives that people bring to their

jobs. This kind of functional diversity matters to workplace outcomes, and it is shaped by factors such as

educational background, experiences, and skills.

• In a field experiment, new hires increased team reflection on staff work and goals.

• Newcomers who lacked the dominant educational background of organizational old-timers were viewed as

less competent relative to newcomers who were less functionally diverse.

• Public managers can use functional diversity to improve learning within organizations while guarding against

the risk of conflict and negative social categorization that socially distinctive newcomers face.

• Communicating the benefits of functional diversity may help employees overcome biases against socially

distinctive newcomers.

Integrating new hires into existing teams is a

challenge. From an organizational perspective,

newcomers offer mixed blessings. They can disrupt

old processes, generate team reflection, and improve

outcomes (Chen 2005), even as they struggle to

gain acceptance (Rink et al. 2013). One troubling

possibility is that those defined as members of an out-

group fail to achieve full inclusion. Newcomers with

different backgrounds may be especially vulnerable to

exclusion in public organizations where professional

background is tied to status (Freidson 2001). A more

optimistic possibility is that newcomers’ distinctive

capacities are valued, leading to both acceptance

and innovation (Foldy 2004). Understanding how

newcomers can serve as an asset rather than a source of

conflict is a challenge that every public manager faces.

Public administration research on diversity has

focused predominantly on biodemographic factors

such as race, ethnicity, and gender (Sabharwal, Levine,

and D’Agostino 2018). However, newcomers possess

a multitude of identities, which may be more or less

salient in different intergroup relations (Tajfel and

Turner 1979; Zhu, Shen, and Hillman 2014). Social

characteristics such as educational background may

serve an unappreciated role in public organizations,

where unions may see the introduction of employees

with different backgrounds as a threat to collective

representation.

We use a randomized controlled field experiment to

test how the educational backgrounds of newcomers

matter to team receptivity—that is, the ways in which

small groups and work teams respond to newcomers

(Rink et al. 2013). Forms of social distinctiveness such

as educational background may be a double-edged

sword (Joshi and Roh 2009). Newcomers may make

a positive difference to organizations, as their mere

Research Article