Abstract

Recently, many organizations have reengineered their work procedures to accommodate small work groups in order to manage environmental changes effectively. Thus, group values function as an important social referent in the social comparison process of group members. The present study investigated the role of the group value of social integration, and the effects of demographic dissimilarity and person-group value fit in terms of group values. Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that the perceived degrees to which the group valued social integration would mediate the relationship between an individual`s demographic dissimilarity (in terms of gender, age, and major) and attitudes (in terms of group commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intention), and that the congruence between individual values and group values would affect an individual`s attitudes. From data of 197 employees who work in small work groups, we found that the degree to which someone perceived the group to value social integration mediated the relationship between that person`s demographic dissimilarity in terms of gender and age and group commitment and job satisfaction, but the hypothesis for turnover intention was not supported, and that person-group value fit was positively related with an individual`s group commitment and job satisfaction, but it did not significantly relate to turnover intention. The implications and directions for future research were also discussed.