The process of people's investment in work and family roles is poorly understood. Traditionally, investment in such roles has been considered the product of utilitarian motives. An alternative perspective, derived from social identity theory, suggests that identity salience determines this investment. Proponents of the two approaches differ in describing sources of work-family conflict and methods of achieving work-family balance. Despite the competing predictions of the two approaches future research on the moderating effects of gender, life stage, and culture may prove fruitful for researchers who wish to elaborate upon an integrated model.

Predictions based on the human capital, gender discrimination, and social identity theories were tested. Individuals with salient career identities were willing to expend extra effort at work and received higher merit increases than people with salient family identities. When we controlled identity salience, neither extensive family responsibilities nor female gender adversely affected merit increases. Family-oriented women with preschoolers received higher merit increases than family-oriented men with preschoolers, but career-oriented men with preschoolers received higher merit increases than career-oriented women with preschoolers.

This study examined the hypothesis that differences in the cultural norms of Anglo-Americans and three other ethnic groups-Asian, Hispanic, and Black Americans-will result in different behaviors on a group task. Student subjects were assigned to ethnically diverse or all-Anglo groups. Individual and group responses were measured using a Prisoner's Dilemma task in which participants could choose to compete or cooperate with another party. We hypothesized that groups composed of people from collectivist cultural traditions would display more cooperative behavior than groups composed of people from individualistic cultural traditions. Results confirmed this hypothesis. Implications for future research and for organizations seeking to manage diversity are discussed.