The Effects of Group Racial Composition on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Career Commitment

We examine the effect of the school racial composition of teachers and the school racial composition of students on the job satisfaction, school commitment, and career commitment of teachers in 405 schools in a large urban school system. We rely on arguments from relational demography theory, racial prejudice literature, and status characteristics theory, which identify variables that mediate this observed relationship between racial composition and satisfaction and commitment. Consistent with the nonsymmetry argument, racial composition effects are found for White but not Black teachers. The most support is found for the relational demography and racial prejudice claims that White teachers “mismatched” to contexts where their race is not dominant experience greater role conflict, less autonomy, inadequate resources, and reduced coworker support. These work conditions then reduce their job satisfaction and school commitment. Commitment to one's teaching career is not affected by school racial composition, however.