Black people engage in a variety of behaviors to avoid stereotyping and promote a professional image in the workplace. Racial codeswitching is one impression management strategy where Black people adjust their self-presentation to receive desirable outcomes (e.g., perceived professionalism) through mirroring the norms, behaviors, and attributes of the dominant group (i.e., White people) in specific contexts. In this study, we examine whether racial codeswitching enhances perceived professionalism for Black employees. We investigate Black and White participants' perceptions of racial codeswitching and subsequent evaluations of professionalism through manipulating three behaviors (e.g., adjusting style of speech, name selection, hairstyle) of a fictitious Black coworker in two, between-subjects experimental studies using audio and written stimuli. Results indicate that employees who engage in racial codeswitching are consistently perceived as more professional by both Black and White participants compared to employees who do not codeswitch (Studies 1 & 2). We also found that Black participants perceive the non-codeswitching employee as more professional than White participants (Studies 2a & 2b). Black and White participants' evaluation of specific codeswitching behaviors varied with both groups supporting adjustment of speech, opposing adjusting one's name, and diverging on wearing natural hairstyles (Studies 1 & 2). Although racial codeswitching is presented as an impression management strategy, it may reinforce White professional standards and generate social and psychological costs for Black employees. Implications of our work for impression management and impression formation are further discussed.

黑人从事各种行为以避免刻板印象并在工作场所提升专业形象。种族代码转换是一种印象管理策略，在这种策略中，黑人通过在特定环境中反映主导群体（即白人）的规范、行为和属性来调整他们的自我表现以获得理想的结果（例如，感知到的专业精神）。在这项研究中，我们研究了种族代码转换是否会提高黑人员工的职业素养。我们通过将虚构的黑人同事的三种行为（例如，调整说话风格、名字选择、发型）分为两种来调查黑人和白人参与者对种族代码转换的看法以及随后对专业精神的评估，使用音频和书面刺激的受试者间实验研究。结果表明，与不进行代码转换的员工相比，参与种族代码转换的员工始终被黑人和白人参与者视为更专业（研究 1 和 2）。我们还发现黑人参与者认为非代码转换员工比白人参与者更专业（研究 2a 和 2b）。黑人和白人参与者对特定代码转换行为的评价各不相同，两组都支持语言调整，反对调整自己的名字，以及在穿着自然发型上有分歧（研究 1 和 2）。尽管种族代码转换被认为是一种印象管理策略，它可能会加强白人的职业标准，并为黑人员工带来社会和心理成本。进一步讨论了我们的工作对印象管理和印象形成的影响。