Discrimination

Conceptual Overview

A primary focus of discrimination research in organizations has been workforce diversity. This research has tended to focus on discrimination as it relates to social groups protected by equal rights legislation, including that regarding sex, ethnicity, and age. Empirical organizational research has determined that discrimination occurs in both the formal procedures used to select, train, place, appraise, compensate, and promote employees, and informal aspects of organizational life such as social exclusion from networks.

Much discrimination research comes from economic theory such as Becker's “tastes and preferences” approach to labor market discrimination, and research from social psychology on social identity/ self-categorization and intergroup dynamics. Becker argues that discrimination is the result of prejudice, and that discrimination plays out as an ecumenical equation, specifically how much one is willing to pay to reduce or otherwise minimize one's contact with individuals from various low-status groups. A person discriminates when he or she forgoes some income to indulge this preference. Thus, the degree of discriminatory preference is indicated by the amount of income an employer or employee is willing to sacrifice to maintain social distance. In other words, discriminating employers would hire members of undesirable groups only to the extent that their lower market wage offsets the desire to discriminate. The gains reaped in saved wages would have to balance the undesirable consequence of closer contact. Thus, uninhibited market forces should punish discriminators since other firms would benefit from the lower costs of nondiscrimination.

Other significant discrimination research in organizations has emerged from seminal social-psychological research on intergroup dynamics. This research asserts that value and emotion attached to social group membership(s) motivate individuals to make favorable distinctions between in-groups/members and out-groups and their members. Establishing favorable distinctions for one's in-groups serves to affirm and maintain a positive self-concept. Social identity (SIT) research has incorporated notions of group-based stereotyping and expectancy confirming dynamics, wherein individuals' preconceived notions of different others (out-group members) play a significant role in eliciting anticipated behavior. These expectancy confirmation processes subsequently justify continued discriminatory attitudes and behavior.

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