Exploring Ethnicity in Organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how ethnicity remains relevant to the workplace
experience of minority ethnic graduate employees in contemporary British organizations.
Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 British Black
Caribbean graduate employees drawn from a range of public and private-sector organizations to
examine the ways in which they felt their ethnicity impacted on how they experienced their places of
work. Template analysis was used to analyse the data.
Findings – The paper finds that racial discrimination, social class and ethnic identity were key
elements of the way in which ethnicity was experienced by these minority ethnic graduate employees.
The paper discusses the differing ways racial discrimination is experienced and conceptualized in
contemporary British organizations; and highlights the ways in which social class may play a role in
how a group of (largely) working class minority ethnic graduates progress their careers in (largely)
middle class organizational environments. Presented for the first time is a theory on the key facets of
the ways ethnic identity might be experienced at work.
Research limitations/implications – Further research would be required to see if the findings are
replicated with graduates from other minority ethnic groups.
Practical implications – The paper provides insights into ways in which majority and minority
ethnic employees may experience organizations differently.
Originality/value – This paper provides some new insights into the role of ethnicity at work. It also
attempts to address some of the issues with organizational psychological research on ethnicity at
work identified by Kenny and Briner.