Ethnicity and Advice information relations in the UK

1
Ethnicity and Advice information relations in the
UK

• A Social Network Approach

Antoinette Saint-Hilaire University of
Greenwich, UK
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Introduction

• The UK is increasingly becoming ethnically
  diverse.
• The 1991- 2001 Census data shows 76 of a total
  4 population growth in the UK occurred amongst
  ethnic groupings.
• This growth occurred most in the major
  conurbations where ethnic communities are already
  established (Lupton and Power 2004).
• Further, according to 2001 Census data,
  significant population growth occurred in Black
  African, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Chinese
  ethnic groupings. The mid term census shows a
  significant increase in eastern Europeans
  Polish.
• The increasing diversity of the UK, and the
  global context, makes the need to develop a deep
  understanding of the social relationships that
  occur in ethnically diverse organisations
  important.
• We need to understand more about relations in
  ethnically diverse settings.

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Inter-ethnic interaction

• Interested ethnically diverse environments
  social identity and relations in organisation
  settings. What network structures and actors
  attributes best explain advice information
  relational patterns ?
• What contributes to network configurations?
• Q1 what network structural patterns do different
  forms of ethnically diverse organization produce
  ?
• Q2. How can these patterns be explained ( size,
  location, identity ) ?
• Q3. Do all ethnic groups pattern the same ?
• Q4. What role does ethnic identity play in the
  ordering of relations?
• Q5. Does collective identity really matter in
  everyday life (who we are) ?
• Q6. Is ethnic identity antecedent to advice
  information relationships? Or is self interest a
  key factor ( Barth 69) i.e., material resources ?
  
• What explains / motivates advice relations ?
• Q7. Which is the more important in understanding
  human behaviour? Both are internal and external
  influenced.
• Q8. How do we distinguish between self interest
  and social identity ? How do they matter? Can
  they be in the presence of each other ? Can
  interest create identity (Y) and can identity
  create interest? Can forms of communication
  create identity? How?

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Previous Research

• 1. In the organisational and management
  literatures, relational and network research
  primarily focuses on highlighting the existence
  and consequences of differential access to
  resources between ethnic groups in the USA. (
  Ibarra 1993 Mc Guire 2000 )
• 2. Small numbers of ethnic minorities and their
  peripheral status leads to ethnic identification.
  ( structure size ethnic identification)
• 3. Ethnic identification is a product of
  discontent
• 4. Questions about ethnic diversity raises new
  questions about ethnic identity and the
  patterning of social relations

Box 19.1
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Ethnicity Homophily

• The homophily principle asserts that people along
  the same socio-demographic dimensions are more
  likely to interact than people who are dissimilar
  (Lazerfeld and Merton 1954 Blau 1977 Brass
  1985). Therefore, homophily refers to one's
  preference on choice selections.
• Ethnicity homophily ethnicity homophily means
  that people of the same ethnic background are
  more likely to interact and exchange social
  resources (McPherson et al. 2001).

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Ethnicity Homophily

• McPherson et al (2001) suggests that race and
  ethnicity homophily tend to create stronger
  relational ties than other classifying forms
  (e.g., class).
• Ethnicity produces opportunities for ethnic
  distinctions and social constructions of ethnic
  identities (Jenkins 2004). Therefore collective
  identity is a interactional product of external
  identification by others - as well as internal
  identification by the self.
• There is also evidence that finds ethnicity does
  not necessarily lead to same race /ethnicity
  relations when the social environment is
  ethnically and multi-culturally diverse (Quillan
  and Campbell 2003)

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Advice information

• Krackhardt and Kilduff (2002.281) see advice
  information sharing as a form of mutual
  assistance as
• knowledge which is key to understanding how work
  gets done, how daily routine is handled and who
  the experts are in the organisation.knowledge of
  advice can be advantageous in short circuiting
  long chains of information gathering

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Diversity in advice information relations

• From a social resource perspective, it is known
  that advice information is sought from experts in
  the network (Cross et al. 2001) and advisors
  hierarchically senior (higher status) to the
  advice seeker (Lazega and Patiison 1999) as a
  means to aid learning (Lazega et al. 2006).
• Does ethnic similarity impact on advice
  information networks ?
• Does the ethnically diverse environment (
  internal and external ) induce ethnic similarity
  on relations ? Or not?

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Research Hypotheses

• H1 Advice information networks are important in
  ethnically diverse settings.
• H2 Ethnicity Homophily ties in ethnically
  diverse environments are strongly assortative.
• H3 There are differences in ethnicity homophily
  on advice information between ethnicity groups
• H4 There is tendency for actors to preference
  advice information based on ethnicity similarity.

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Methodology

• Research is situated in field of organisational
  sociology
• A social network approach adopted
• A questionnaire survey conducted at 2 months on
  60 graduate students
• Students were asked about their advice
  information relationships
• The participants were asked to use the student
  number code in the list class to respond to the
  following question
• in the context of your academic studies, whom
  do you go to or share advice information with?
  For example, advice information about articles,
  books, assignments challenges etc.
• Friendship data was also collected

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TABLE I Network demographics of respondents in
advice information network
Ethnic Category Female Male Total
Indian asian 3 4 7 12
Other asian 8 5 13 21
Chinese 9 5 14 23
Black 2 3 5 .08
White 14 7 21 35
Sub Total 36 24
Total 60
see Box 19.4
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Network Measures

• 1. Density
• L
• D N (N-1)
• 2. E-I index
• E- the number of external ties
• I the number of internal ties
• 3. Assortativity Matrix
• r Si eii Si aibi
• 1 Si aibi
• 4. P
• P 0 (Xx) exp0' u (x) -U(0)
• To model structural and node effects in networks.

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Variables

• Independent Variable
• . Ethnicity Homophily
• Dependent Variable
• Actual advice information network ties
• Control Variable
• Friendship ties

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H1

• Advice information networks are important in
  ethnically diverse settings.

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Key to identity groups

• Red circle Indians
• Grey square other Asian
• purple up triangle Chinese
• Black diamond Black
• Blue down triangle White European

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FIGURE I A sociogram on actual advice
information network
Box 19.3
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No Support for H1

• Further descriptive analyses find that the
  network contains 1770 dyads. Of the proportion of
  dyads M (55) 31f ties are reciprocal, 117 are
  asymmetrical and 1598 and null. Thus, the
  network density is (d 227/3540) 0.0647. The
  average degree indicates 3.783 ties and varies
  from 0 - 10 for outdegree and 1 - 8 for indegree.
• Thus, the average degree of ties generates a
  network that is structurally fully connected
  there are no isolates

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H2

• Ethnicity Homophily ties in ethnically diverse
  environments are strongly assortative.

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Interactions by Ethnicity (Assortativity Matrix)

• Asian Asian other Chinese Black White
• Asian 13 4 1 4 14
• Asian other 6 14 16 4 11
• Chinese 4 13 20 6 8
• Black 4 2 4 2 6
• White 12 5 5 3 46

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Assortativity Coefficient

• Ethnicity
• We find that r 0.2239 is statistically
  significant for ethnicity assortativity mixing
• Gender
• The assortativity mixing by gender is a value r
  0.1276 and is statistically significant.

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H3

• There are differences in ethnicity homophily on
  advice information between ethnicity groups

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E-I index on advice information Interactions by
Ethnicity

• Internal External Total E-I index
  In-Ranking
• Asian 16 36 52 0.385 4
• Asian other 34 43 77 0.117
  3
• Chinese 34 40 74 0.018 2
• Black 4.0 23 27 0.704
  5
• White 64 52 116 -0.103
  1

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E-I index on Knowledge by Ethnicity
Internal External Total E-I index Ranking INTERN
Asian 12.000 34.000 46.000 0.478 (E-I/T) 4
Asian Other 28.000 45.000 73.000 0.233 3
Chinese 22.000 33.000 55.000 0.200 2
Black 4.000 21.000 25.000 0.680 5
White 58.000 49.000 107.000 -0.084 1
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E-I INDEX ON FRIENDSHIPS
Internal External Total E-I index Ranking INTERN
Asian 36.000 147.000 183.000 0.607 (E-I/T) 4
Asian Other 90.000 211.000 301.000 0.402 3
Chinese 152.000 211.000 363.000 0.163 2
Black 12.000 102.000 114.000 0.789 5
White 236.000 269.000 505.000 0.065 1
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H4

• There is tendency for actors to preference advice
  information based on ethnicity similarity.

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P Model
Parameter Estimate SE Ttest
Reciprocity 3.1469 0.2404 13.09
Out- 2 star 0.1089 0.0255 4.270
Gender Sim 0.2065 0.1160 1.780
Asian Sim 0.0580 0.1167 0.497
Oth Asian Sim 0.1974 0.1184 1.667
Chinese Sim 0.4243 0.1253 3.386
Black Sim 0.1423 0.1451 0.980
White Sim 0.5289 0.1261 4.194
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Discussion

• Advice information Network
• 6 of potential network of Advice information
  ties occur by 2 months
• This figure equates to 0.6 of business school and
  0.6 of University.
• Other networks are being used
• Network configuration consists of structural
  characteristics and node similarity
• Structural characteristics
• Reciprocity and out2 stars are indicated to
  configure the network
• Reciprocity self interest Rational Choice
  behaviour
• Out2star similarity effect on identity

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Discussion

• Ethnicity homophily
• Ethnicity homophily is indicated. More likely an
  indicator than gender similarity.
• There are differences between the ethnic groups
  observed.
• European Whites and Chinese more likely to
  preference advice selection on ethnicity. Other
  groups less inclined to do so.
• The importance of diversity in the network
• Group A advice information is important over
  ethnicity. Factors other than ethnicity is
  important. ( Indians etc )
• Group B ethnicity is important because of
  advice information relations interactions. Then
  ethnicity is antecedent to advice information
  selection. The two forms of behaviour coexist in
  advice information networks. ( White and
  Chinese).

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DISCUSSION

• A diverse Ethnic and Multi cultural context -
  the UK
• Enables ethnic attitudes to develop on selecting
  advice information relationships and relations
• Enables self interested behaviour. Thus, cross
  ethnicity relationships and relations.
• Conclusion
• Some ethnic groups are more inclined to develop
  cross ethnicity relationships on advice
  information relations. In other words, in the
  pursuit of self interest individuals are less
  conscious about their ethnic identity. Therefore,
  their behaviour transcends ethnic boundaries.
• Some ethnic groups become more conscious of their
  collective ethnic identity. Identity is
  therefore important over and above the
  negotiating and securing of resources. This can
  be seen as a expression of who we are. Ethnic
  identity.

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DISCUSSION

• Numeric Distinctiveness ?
• Other factors must be considered. In this
  context, it might be that ethnicity homophily is
  dependent on the current situation facing an
  actor, structural and process context factors and
  the collective importance attached to ethnicity
  in other words, non size factors

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Interpretations of ethnic identity

• inbred quality that makes me the part of a
  group, that distinguishes me from the other
  groups it is an important part of who I am
• Defined boundaries and dimensions
• Wearing distinctive clothing
• Cultural distinctions
• Living next to one another
• Behaving in a distinctive manner
• Speaking their own language
• Maintaining a distinct identity
• Performing traditional rituals
• Evidence of collectivity historically recognized
  values and beliefs
• Geographical, class and religious importance
• Educating others about ones ethnic background and
  lived ethnicity
• Names and foods
• Collective activities and Lifestyles
• Feelings, thoughts, perceptions, expectations
  from shared history (
• Cognitive similarity

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Interpretations of instrumental behaviour

• Wânt to get the work done
• Need to get information from the poeple that know
  
• They are availalble to me
• Time is important

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Social Processes in advice information
Advice Information problem
Simple Interactions
Self interested behaviour Emphasising
differences
Same ethnicity selections on advice Inf
Cost and benefit analysis

Ethnic identity might be more important than
securing Of material resources
Selection of Appropriate person
Within group orientation
Behaviour transcends Ethnic boundaries Socially
active and might be Ethnic bridgers and brokers
Network structure not clustered.
A complex social network of advice information
relations
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T1 ( would like to ex advice info )