The Effects of Accent-Appearance Incongruities in the Workplace

Abstract

In this paper, I examined the experiences of immigrants working in the U.S. by considering the construct of accent-appearance incongruity. I hypothesized that incongruity between how American or foreign an individual sounds and how American or foreign an individual looks will be related to negative workplace outcomes. This hypothesis challenges the assumptions that merely assimilating into mainstream American culture will help all individuals fit into American society. I proposed that the interpersonal discrimination resulting from stigmatized accent-appearance combinations may result in reduced job satisfaction and increased turnover intentions. However, I also proposed that having high levels of ethnic identity centrality (i.e., highly identifying with their ethnicity) or national identity centrality (i.e., highly identifying with their country of residence) may buffer these effects. Ultimately, the data did not support these hypotheses. Implications for these findings are discussed.