Wellbeing at the Workplace: Examining Differences between Ethnic Majority and Ethnic Minorities in Subjective Wellbeing, Mediated by Effort-Reward Imbalance, Job Strain and Organizational Commitment

Abstract

The Netherlands has faced an immense increase in ethnic diversity in less than half a century since the immigration flows in to the country. This increase in ethnic diversity at organizations makes it important to understand how the wellbeing of ethnic minority employees differs from that of employees who belong to the ethnic majority. The aim of this study is to explore whether a difference exists between ethnic minority employees and ethnic majority employees with regard to subjective wellbeing (SWB) at workplace. Furthermore, this study investigates the extent to which this difference between ethnic minority and ethnic majority is mediated by effort-reward imbalance, job strain, and organizational commitment. A total of 165 participants including 85 ethnic majority employees and 80 ethnic minority employees were included into analyze to determine the differences between these groups. Although, ethnic minority employees have higher job strain, higher Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI), and lower organizational commitment than that of ethnic majority employees, the results revealed that there is not a significant difference between ethnicity with respect to subjective wellbeing at workplace. Additionally, it was found that these mediators did not mediate the relationship between ethnicity and SWB except Job strain.