People and Events
NSF study examines workplace relationships among 40,000 employees at Marriott
By Lango Deen
Apr 27, 2006, 13:24

Recently, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $263,275 grant for a three-year study that will examine relationships among Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, and Asian Americans in workplaces. The results could help to understand the factors involved in improving work relationships and organizational performance.

The program’s research team led by the principal investigator (PI) Lynn Offermann, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at George Washington University, and Adam Malamut, co-PI and a senior director of human research at Marriott, a leading worldwide lodging company, will look at data from more than 40,000 U.S. employees.

Two primary methods will measure and compare the effects of diversity on perceptions of organizational fairness, peers and supervisors, as well as turnover, job satisfaction, and performance, and conduct examinations of more and less successful diverse workplaces.

60 percent of Marriott associates are minorities and 54 percent are women.  Of the new managers hired in 2005, 26 percent were minorities and 48 percent were women.  Marriott also achieved its highest number ever of minority college recruits – 30 percent were minorities and 16 percent were Black.

The NSF funds research and education in science and engineering, through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. The Foundation accounts for about 20 percent of federal support to academic institutions for basic research.