How do social dominance and minority influence affect the collaboration of refugee services? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
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Date
2015
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Massey University
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Abstract
Social Dominance Theory has problematic implications for humanitarian work: It
suggests that stakeholders of the humanitarian sector collectively maintain the social
hierarchies that disadvantage the very minorities that they are supposed to empower.
Minority Influence Theory, on the other hand, suggests that social innovation in the
humanitarian sector can emerge from the bottom-up, thus against the grain of social
hierarchies. This thesis explores for the refugee service sector of Auckland, New
Zealand, (a) if former refugees are indeed marginalised within the inter-organisational
context that is supposed to empower them, (b) if this has detrimental effects on the
sector’s performance, and (c) if fostering minority influence might alleviate such effects.
The first research question was approached through a stakeholder analysis, which
revealed that the social hierarchies within the refugee service sector indeed mirror the
marginalisation of former refugees in general New Zealand society. Then, stories of
positive and negative incidents of collaboration in the sector were analysed through the
lenses of Social Dominance Theory and Minority Influence Theory. A thematic analysis
of negative incidents of collaboration gathered accounts of discrimination through
disregard, as well as legitimising myths. The latter concerned the inaccessibility of
services, confounding participation with collaboration, voluntarism as unambiguously
positive, feelings of indebtedness among former refugees, and the false belief in
opportunities in New Zealand. These findings support the idea that social dominance
perpetuates social hierarchies in the refugee service sector and thereby negatively
affects its performance. However, the assumptions of Social Dominance Theory
concerning behavioural asymmetry did not match the data, which indicates different
root causes of social dominance than claimed by the theory’s authors. Stories of
successful collaboration involved factors that facilitate minority influence, such as
finding consistency, appealing to common values, enough time, bottom-up
accountability in the form of community ownership, and trust. This suggests that
facilitating minority influence in the Auckland refugee service sector simultaneously
facilitates collaboration. Social Dominance Theory and Minority Influence Theory
proved to be instrumental to analysing problems within the inter-organisational context
of refugee services and for finding indications for future research and better practice.
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Keywords
Refugees, Services for, Social Dominance Theory, Minority Influence Theory, Voluntarism, Dominance (Psychology), Organisational behaviour, Auckland, New Zealand, Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Psychology