How does the demographic composition of a workplace affect its employees and overall organizational outcomes? This chapter reviews research on the determinants and consequences of race and sex composition in organizations. Determinants include the qualified labor supply, employer preferences, majority group responses, and factors like an establishment's attractiveness, size, and recruiting methods. The race and sex composition of an establishment affects workers’ cross-group contact, stress, satisfaction, turnover, cohesion, stereotyping, and evaluation. Composition also impacts organizational performance, hiring and promotion practices, job segregation, and wages and benefits. The review calls for theory-driven research on causal mechanisms underlying relationships between organizational composition and its determinants and consequences, and the form of relationships between organizational composition and worker outcomes. It advocates for research on race and ethnic composition, with a special focus on the joint effects of race and sex to better improve social equality and justice within the workplace.
As a contribution to the Annual Review of Sociology, this paper addresses a central topic in organizational sociology: the impact of demographic composition on workplace dynamics. By reviewing research on the determinants and consequences of race and sex composition, the chapter contributes to the journal’s mission of providing comprehensive overviews of key areas of sociological inquiry. The review offers a valuable resource for sociologists and researchers interested in understanding the complex relationship between diversity, inequality, and organizational outcomes.