The effects of group racial composition on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and career commitment - The case of teachers

We examine the effect of the school racial composition of teachers and the school racial composition of students on the job satisfaction, school commi tment, and career commitment of teachers in 405 schools in a large urban sc hool system. We rely on arguments from relational demography theory, racial prejudice literature, and status characteristics theory, which identify va riables that mediate this observed relationship between racial composition and satisfaction and commitment. Consistent with the nonsymmetry a,argument , racial composition effects are found for White burnet Black teachers. The most support is found for the relational demography and racial prejudice c laims that White teachers "mismatched" to contents where their race is nor dominant experience greater role conflict less autonomy, inadequate resourc es, and reduced coworker support. These work conditions then reduce their j ob satisfaction and school commitment. Commitment to one's teaching career is not affected by school racial composition, however.