Prior relational demography research suggests that individuals' demographic characteristics in relation to other members of their teams influence the individuals through a self-categorization process (e.g., Chattopadhyay, 1999; Tsui, Egan, & O'Reilly, 1992). The purpose of this dissertation is to extend the literature by incorporating a relational perspective. Drawing on the dual (collective and relational) forms of social identity (Brewer & Gardner, 1996) and the influence of social hierarchy on self-concept (Kraus, Piff, Mendoza-Denton, Rheinschmidt, & Keltner, 2012), I argue that high-status individuals have a salient collective self and are thus like to work in a demographic context that defines a work team with clear and positive features, whereas low-status individuals have a salient relational self and therefore seek to work in a demographic context where they can develop clear and positive roles in their particularistic relationships with fellow team members.

Specifically, I propose that demographic dissimilarity increases relational role clarity and positivity for low-status members more than for high-status members, and that relational role clarity and positivity increase member identification. I also propose that when the permeability of the status hierarchy is high high-status members are more likely than low-status members to perceive teams comprised of more higher-status members as having clearer and more positive prototypes, that when status permeability is low high-status members are more likely than low-status members to perceive teams comprised of more higher-status members as having less clear and less positive prototypes, and that team prototype clarity and positivity increase team identification.

I test these relationships in a survey study with 233 employees from 39 work teams of a telecommunications company in Mainland China. Key findings largely support my argument about the relational process of relational demography. The collectivistic process, however, seems to be more pronounced for low- rather than high-status members. These results provide evidence about the relational benefit of demographic dissimilarity. They also suggest that lower-status members are more subject to the influence of team demographic context. These findings yield practical implications on management of diverse teams.