2007 年 37 巻 2 号 p. 535-552
The socio-economic position of migrant groups in a globally mobile society has extensively been studied in recent years, from the perspective of their skills, language abilities, adjustment behaviour, and so forth. The present study investigates the social and economic performance of migrant workers in cities characterized by cultural diversity among various migrant groups. The question will be addressed whether these groups have a higher or lower performance on the labour market than their indigenous equals, seen from the perspective of the customers' perception and satisfaction in services. This issue calls for a careful and critical assessment, as it may also rest on an unjustified stigma. It is an intriguing research question whether migrant workers, e.g., in the service sector, are actually less client-friendly than others. How does the external world (e.g., customers) judge their societal attitude and performance ? After an extensive literature review of cultural diversity theory (in particular, organizational citizenship behaviour) and motivational theory stemming from the field of business economics, we formulate relevant hypotheses on the actual behaviour of migrant employees as seen through the eyes of systematically trained, so-called ‘mystery guests'. Next, we test hypotheses on the basis of empirical fieldwork in the service sector—notably in the retail sector—in the city of Amsterdam. Our conclusion is that the sample studied here demonstrates in general, that there is no negative attitudinal or performance bias in the behaviour of these employees. It is noteworthy however, that our findings indicate a gender bias.
