The Cost of Managing Impressions for Black Employees: An Expectancy Violation Theory Perspective

This study identifies a unique bias faced by Black employees which makes it challenging for this group to manage their professional image. Integrating research on racial backlash, image management, and expectancy violation theory, we argue that self-promotion by Black employees will result in detrimental outcomes for this group compared to White, Hispanic, and Asian employees. Due to negative racial stereotypes related to their job competence, we hypothesize that self-promotion by Black employees will be viewed by their White managers as a violation of stereotypically appropriate behavior and will result in a backlash in the form of lower job-related outcomes. We propose that the process by which these effects occur is through manager assessments of their employees on agentic and communal traits. Our hypothesized model was tested with a stratified sample of manager-employee dyads of a large financial institution. Results indicated that self-promotion by Black employees was associated with lower job performance and person-organization fit ratings, as well as fewer idiosyncratic deals with their immediate managers compared to White, Hispanic, and Asian employees. Implications of the divergent consequences of self-promotion for Black employees relative to other racial groups are discussed.