Abstract
The trend towards globalization increases the likelihood that organizations will employ persons with nonnative accents. Many people with nonnative accents are aware that they sound different, but for the most part, their experiences have been largely ignored in organizational research. Our research begins to rectify this omission by examining how nonnative speakers think, act and perceive the results of, conflict situations. We investigate the experiences of nonnative speakers in three studies, in which we examine 1) whether nonnative speakers experience stereotype threat in workplace conflict situations with native speakers, 2) whether stereotype threat is associated with certain conflict managing behaviors (e.g. yielding and avoiding), and 3) the relationship between stereotype threat, satisfaction with conflict outcomes and processes, and objective conflict outcomes. Findings suggest that nonnative speakers experience stereotype threat when interacting with native speakers in conflict situations and the experience of stereotype threat can lead to more passive conflict behaviors. Stereotype threat was also associated with less satisfaction with conflict outcomes and goal-attainment as well as lower objective conflict outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of these results as well as directions for future research are discussed.