Discrimination at Work

The Psychological and Organizational Bases

Robert L. Dipboye, Adrienne Colella, Robert L. Dipboye, Adrienne Colella

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135606848
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Storia e teoria della psicologia

This volume brings together top scholars in industrial and organizational psychology with social psychologists to explore the research and theory relating to various areas of workplace discrimination.

Many of the contributors to this book participated in a conference on workplace discrimination held at Rice University in May 2000. The idea came from the realization that there had been no attempt to bring together the various literatures on the topic. Discrimination and issues of employment diversity are significant topics today in IO psychology, business, and human resource management.

This edited volume examines the following components of this important discussion:

• how to explain discrimination in organizations;
• understanding discrimination against specific groups; and
• implications for practical efforts to reduce discrimination.

This book brings together, in one volume, a review of the research on discrimination based on race, age, sexual orientation, gender, physical appearance, disability, and personality. In addition, it explores the multilevel antecedents and potential bases for a general model of discrimination in the workplace. While social psychological research and theory have provided invaluable insights, an understanding of discrimination in the workplace and solutions will require incorporating factors at the organizational level in addition to factors at the individual and group levels. Although a definitive model is not reached, the aim of this text is to facilitate future research and theory.

1

An Introduction

Robert L. Dipboye

University of Central Florida

Adrienne Colella

Texas A&M University

When we first considered editing this volume on workplace discrimination, we had reservations because employment discrimination has been written about extensively in the social sciences. We wondered about what new thinking could be added—how could this volume move the frontier of employment discrimination research forward? How could this book distinguish itself from the myriad of other books on the topic? After some initial research, we concluded that such a volume was indeed needed to bring together a substantial, but disparate body of literature and to offer authors who have written extensively on the topic a forum for suggesting the next steps in workplace discrimination research. It is to these ends, integrating a great body of literature based on different theory and methodology and moving research in this area forward, that we hope this volume expands the frontier of workplace discrimination research.

This book is concerned with prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination in the workplace. We refer to prejudice as the attitudinal and especially the affective biases that exist with regard to members of groups other than those to which one belongs. Stereotyping is used to refer to the cognitive biases against outgroup members and includes not only attributions of traits to members of these groups but also beliefs about these individuals. Discrimination refers to the unfair behavioral biases demonstrated against these persons.

Although the title of this book suggests a focus solely on discrimination, the behavioral, affective, and cognitive components are intertwined; consideration of one requires consideration of the other two. Most of the authors in this volume were informed by the theory and research in social psychology on the cognitive and attitudinal bases of discrimination. However, as noted by Susan Fiske (1998), “Documenting discriminatory behavior has not been social psychology’s strong suit. Like the attitude–behavior debacle that almost destroyed the foundations of persuasion research, a debacle threatens stereotyping research if it does not soon address behavior” (p. 374). Discrimination appears to have received much more attention in the organizational sciences; it is this literature that we will critically review and attempt to integrate.

Discrimination in its most general form is the differentiation among persons for the purpose of making decisions about those individuals and can occur on the basis of legitimate factors (e.g., merit or potential to perform a job). Our primary concern is with the discrimination that can occur against persons on the basis of characteristics that are inappropriate and irrelevant bases for employment decisions (e.g., group membership). We deal with the discrimination that can occur as persons prepare themselves for employment and that can occur in their treatment once they are employed and enter the organization. Discriminatory treatment includes the formal procedures used not only in selection, appraisal, compensation, placement, promotion, training, and working conditions but also in the more informal and subtle forms of discrimination, such as social exclusion. In this book, we explore discrimination that is well-intentioned and malicious, conscious and unconscious, legal and illegal, and related and unrelated to meaningful criteria of success. Regardless of the form it assumes, however, the effect is the same. One group of persons is placed at a disadvantage on the basis of group identity (Cox, 1993, p. 64), social category (Jones, 1986), stigma (Goffman, 1963), or ascribed characteristics (Messner, 1989, p. 71) relative to other groups with comparable potential, performance, or proven success (Cascio, 1998).

Diversity in the workplace has become a major topic of research in the organizational sciences over the past decade with numerous books and articles bringing attention to the benefits of a workforce that is heterogeneous in terms of race, gender, disability status, age, and sexual orientation. Despite this positive framing of the issue, unfair discrimination on the basis of these characteristics continues as a major barrier to achieving diversity and its benefits. There are profound inequalities in opportunity in the United States and other democratic societies despite the fundamental democratic premise that all people should have an equal chance at occupational success and the pursuit of happiness. Older workers are more likely to be unemployed and less likely to receive training and career counseling than younger workers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2002a). Relative to White workers, Black employees are paid much less, are more than twice as likely to be unemployed, are underrepresented in higher paid occupations, and are overrepresented in lower paid occupations (U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2002b). People with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed and are paid less than people who do not have disabilities (McNeil, 2000). Women are not only underpaid relative to men but also hold less prestigious positions, advance more slowly in organizations, and tend to be found in occupations that are predominately female (U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2002b). There are little data on gays and lesbians, but here again there is evidence of inequalities such as greater rates of termination (Croteau, 1996). A variety of factors is likely to determine labor market outcomes, and a question addressed to varying degrees in these chapters is how unfair discrimination in the workplace is involved in these inequalities.

During the past century, social scientists from a variety of disciplines have investigated discrimination, and over the last three to four decades scholars have directed substantial attention to discrimination in the work place. In this book, we summarize this previous scholarly work, examine the possible bases for integrating and interpreting this work, and set an agenda for future work. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and other laws prohibiting employment discrimination was a major impetus for the work on this topic in personnel psychology and human research management. It is our impression that much of the literature on I/O psychology stays within the framework of the law to educate and assist employers in how to best comply with these laws. The authors in this book were encouraged to go beyond existing legal thinking and incorporate a multidisciplinary perspective.

This book is organized into three parts: (I) The fundamental causes of discrimination; (II) research on discrimination against specific groups (e.g., race, sex, disability); and (III) the implications of research and theory for policy and practice aimed at reducing discrimination. We chose to divide the book into these three parts because they reflect the general lines of psychologically based research conducted in the area of employment discrimination. However, the chapters in each part also speak to issues addressed in other sections. For example, the Brief, Butz, and Deitch chapter on race in part II addresses the impact of the environment on discrimination, an issue that is also relevant to part I regarding the causes of discrimination.

The question addressed by the authors of the chapters in part I is as follows: How can we explain discrimination in organizations? A variety of models representing different perspectives have been proposed to understand discrimination at the level of the individual, the group, the organization, and the environment of the organization. This part examines the origins of discrimination from each of these perspectives.

In chapter 2, “Discrimination at the Level of the Individual: Cognitive and Affective Factors,” John Dovidio and Michelle Hebl consider the cognitive and affective antecedents of discrimination. It is well established that people are “cognitive misers” and often take short cuts in their gathering and processing of information on others. Discrimination from this perspective is a consequence of the short cuts taken in processing of information on racial minorities, women, older employees, persons with disabilities, gays and lesbians, and other minority and historically disadvantaged groups. These affective factors reflect a very different process. In recent years, increasing attention has been given to how the stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination of White persons are driven by unconscious, negative affect toward Black persons.

At another level of explanation are the relationships in which people are involved and the groups to which they belong in organizations. These group and relational level factors are the topic of the next two chapters: “Relational Demography Within Groups: Through the Lens of Discrimination” by Christine Riordan, Bryan Schaffer, and Marcus Stewart and “Group-Level Explanations of Workplace Discrimination” by Kecia Thomas and Donna Chrobot-Mason. Both chapters review evidence that discrimination is associated with friendships, social networks, and other informal relationships that emerge in an organization (Ibarra, 1993; Riordan & Shore, 1997). Although not officially sanctioned by the organization, these relationships often impact performance by defining who has access to information, physical resources, social support, status, and influence. Still another social factor is the normative pressure associated with group membership. Discrimination against a member of an outgroup may reflect conformity to what is expected of the person by peers and supervisors and may be independent of the private beliefs or attitudes.

Finally, discrimination can reflect a variety of factors at the level of the organization. Several of these factors are discussed by Michele Gelfand, Lisa Nishii, Jana Raver, and Benjamin Schneider in chapter 5, “Discrimination in Organizations: An Organizational-Level Systems Perspective.” The authors consider structural factors such as firm size and gender and racial occupational segregation, and the existence of a specialized human resource management function. Other organizational factors discussed in this chapter include the policies of the organization, the core values that define the culture of the organization, the composition of the corporate board, and the philosophy and attitudes of the top leadership of the organization.

Whereas the authors of the chapters in part I address general underlying components of discrimination in organizations, the authors of the chapters in part II explore specific manifestations of discrimination including discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, personality, and attractiveness. The first five forms of discrimination have been the focus of policy and law and have received the most attention in discussions of discrimination in the workplace. In each chapter, the authors examine how the particular type of discrimination is manifested in the entry of employees into an organization and their treatment in the workplace. Each chapter reviews research on biases against the target group in recruitment, selection, placement, performance appraisal, compensation, training and development, promotion, and work conditions.

In chapter 6, “Organizations as Reflections of Their Environments: The Case of Race Composition,” Arthur Brief, Rebecca Butz, and Elizabeth Deitch address the topic of race discrimination. The discussion in this chapter is relevant to discrimination against a variety of historically disadvantaged groups, but the focus in their chapter is on African Americans. Special attention is paid to how an organization’s environment can shape prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination inside the organization. In chapter 7, “Gender Discrimination in Organizations,” Jeanette Cleveland, Theresa Vescio, and Janet Barnes-Farrell examine discrimination based on the gender of employees. The authors consider factors at the individual, group, and organizational levels that influence both covert and blatant gender discrimination and that render the workplace unfriendly and uncomfortable for women. Particularly provocative is the authors’ suggestion that sex discrimination is rooted in how men have constructed the idea of career success. The authors suggest that organizational scientists rethink what should define success in organizations.

In chapter 8, “Understanding Heterosexism at Work: The Straight Problem,” Belle Rose Ragins and Carolyn Wiethoff address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This chapter examines the extent that negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians spill over into their recruiting, hiring, and treatment in the workplace and the individual, group, and organizational factors that influence discrimination against persons who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered. The authors also consider the factors associated with coming out in the workplace and the consequences of coming out on occupational success and physical and psychological well-being. In the next chapter, “Age Discrimination in the Workplace,” Lynn Shore and Caren Goldberg examine biases in the workplace against older employees, a topic that will receive increasing attention as the baby boom generation ages. The authors propose a model in which social comparison processes are at the core of age discrimination. In “Workplace Discrimination Toward Persons With Disabilities: A Call for Some New Research Directions,” Adrienne Colella and Dianna Stone review the research on discrimination against persons with both physical and mental impairments. The authors review the published research on disability and suggest new directions for future research, such as greater attention to the roles of emotions and paternalism and a broader range of outcomes.

The chapters in part II are concerned mostly with groups for which there are policies and laws providing some level of protection. However, unfair discrimination occurs on the basis of other factors in addition to those that have been afforded legal protection. The chapters by Eugene Stone-Romero, “A Stigma That Can Lead to Workplace Discrimination: Personality,” and Robert Dipboye, “Looking the Part: Bias Against the Physically unattractive as a Discrimination Issue” expand the discussion by exploring discrimination on the basis of personality and physical appearance. Stone-Romero uses Erving Goffman’s (1963) theory of stigma to discuss character stigma resulting from attributions to individuals of traits that mark them as undesirable. Stone-Romero considers the potential of personality measures used to assess fit to the job and organization to stigmatize individuals as deficient in competence or character. The physical appearance of employees (or what Goffman called the “abominations of the flesh”) can also serve as a major source of bias in decisions regarding hiring, promotion, and treatment. There is considerable evidence of bias against the physically unattractive in both the laboratory and field (Stone, Stone, & Dipboye, 1992). Dipboye considers whether this is an important bias that deserves separate attention and its potential role as a mediator of other forms of bias.

The third part of the book addresses the implications of research and theory in dealing with discrimination. This part will consider some of the issues and unanswered questions associated with attempts to solve the problem of discrimination. In chapter 13, “Achieving Diversity and Reducing Discrimination in the Work Place Through Human Resource Management Practices,” Winfred Arthur and Dennis Doverspike examine the potential of selection, recruitment, training and development, and compensation to reduce discrimination. In “Using Law and Psychology to Inform Our Knowledge of Discrimination,” Ramona Paetzold examines the implications of psychological research and theory for discrimination law and argues for changes in the law to reflect the findings of research. In chapter 15, “Combating Organizational Discrimination: Some Unintended Consequences,” Madeline Heilman and Michelle Haynes review a program of research showing that preferential treatment can stigmatize those it is intended to benefit. In “International Employment Discrimination: A Review of Legal Issues, Human Impacts and Organizational Implications,” Georgia Chao and Hannah-Hanh Nguyen review how other countries deal with the issue of discrimination. This chapter highlights various international perspectives on discrimination and considers how we can incorporate global perspectives into our study of employment discrimination. The chapter by Martin Greller and John Jackson differs from the other chapters in this book in that the authors do not review research or theory and instead provide a case study. They report on how they were part of a team of social scientists that assisted legislative attempts to reduce the gender gap in wages in Wyoming (“Doing Research on Pay Equity in Support of the Political Process: The Wyoming Experience”).

In “The Dilemmas of Workplace Discrimination,” we conclude the volume with an assessment of the current state of the research and a summary of the major themes of the book. We call for a general framework that provides a general understanding of workplace discrimination as a complex, subtle, and dynamic phenomenon. In laying the foundation for a model, we suggest several new directions in research. We also consider some new directions for practical interventions in dealing with discrimination.

In conclusion, this Frontiers series volume should provide readers with a clear unders...