Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T16:05:48.111Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What We Know and Don't: Eradicating Employment Discrimination 50 Years After the Civil Rights Act

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Alex Lindsey ,
Eden King ,
Tracy McCausland ,
Kristen Jones  and
Eric Dunleavy
Alex Lindsey*
Affiliation:
George Mason University
Eden King
Affiliation:
George Mason University
Tracy McCausland
Affiliation:
George Mason University
Kristen Jones
Affiliation:
George Mason University
Eric Dunleavy
Affiliation:
DCI Consulting Group
*
E-mail: [email protected], Address: Department of Psychology, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 3F5 Fairfax, VA 22030
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although nearly 50 years have passed since the Civil Rights Act, employment discrimination persists. Thus, this focal article raises and addresses critical issues regarding a yet unanswered question: how can organizational researchers and practitioners contribute to the ultimate goal of eradicating employment discrimination? This article will push previous work a step forward by considering discrimination reduction tactics spanning the attraction, selection, inclusion, and retention phases of the employment cycle. Additionally, we expand our discussion of strategies to reduce discrimination beyond classically studied racial, ethnic, and gender differences. Our synthesis of this literature will inform organizational psychologists on how to address discrimination, but will also highlight the lack of evidence regarding important aspects of these strategies.

Type
Focal Article
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 391 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguinis, H. (2004). Test score banding in human resource selection: Legal, technical, and societal issues. Westport, CT: Quorum.Google Scholar
Aguinis, H., Culpepper, S. A., & Pierce, C. A. (2010). Revival of test bias research in preemployment testing. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95, 648–680.Google Scholar
Ali, M., Metz, I., & Kulik, C. (2010). The impact of gender diversity on turnover: the moderating effect of human resource policies and practices. 2010 Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings. Academy of Management Conference, Montreal Convention Center, Montreal.Google Scholar
Ashburn-Nardo, L., Morris, K. A., & Goodwin, S. A. (2008). The confronting prejudiced responses (CPR) model: Applying CPR in organizations. Academy of Management: Learning and Education, 7, 332–342.Google Scholar
Avery, D. R. (2003). Reactions to diversity in recruitment advertising—Are differences black and white? Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 672–679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Avery, D. R., Hernandez, M., & Hebl, M. R. (2004). Who's watching the race? Racial salience in recruiting advertising. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34, 146–161.Google Scholar
Avery, D. R., & McKay, P. F. (2006). Target practice: An organizational impression management approach to attracting minority and female job applicants. Personnel Psychology, 59, 157–187.Google Scholar
Avery, D. R., McKay, P. F., Tonidandel, S., Volpone, S. D., & Morris, M. A. (2012). Is there a method to the madness? Examining how racioethnic matching influences retail store productivity. Personnel Psychology, 65, 167–199.Google Scholar
Avery, D. R., Richeson, J. A., Hebl, M. R., & Ambady, N. (2009). It does not have to be uncomfortable: The role of behavioral scripts in Black–White interracial interactions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1382–1393.Google Scholar
Bendick, M. Jr., Egan, M. L., & Lofhjelm, S. M. (2001). Workforce diversity training: From anti-discrimination compliance to organizational development. Human Resource Planning, 24, 10–25.Google Scholar
Bezrukova, K., Jehn, K. A., & Spell, C. S. (2012). Reviewing diversity training: Where we have been and where we should go. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 11, 207–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Born, M. P. H., & Taris, T. W. (2010). The impact of the wording of employment advertisements on students' inclination to apply for a job. The Journal of Social Psychology, 150, 485–502.Google Scholar
Clair, J. A., Beatty, J., & MacLean, T. (2005). Out of sight but not out of mind: Managing invisible social identities in the workplace. Academy of Management Review, 30, 78–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, T. (1993). Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research and practice. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, Inc.Google Scholar
Czopp, A. M., Monteith, M., & Mark, A. Y. (2006). Standing up for a change: Reducing bias through interpersonal confrontation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 784–803.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeCorte, W. (1999). Weighting job performance predictors to both maximize the quality of the selected workforce and control the level of adverse impact. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 695–702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digh, P. (1999). Getting people in the pool: Diversity recruitment that works. HR Magazine, 44, 94–98.Google Scholar
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2012). Tips on employee retention. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/retention.cfmGoogle Scholar
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2013). EEOC reports nearly 100,000 job bias charges in fiscal year 2012. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/1-28-13.cfmGoogle Scholar
Esen, E. (2005). Workplace diversity practices survey report. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management.Google Scholar
Evans, D. S., & Oh, M. Y. (1996). A tailored approach to diversity planning. HR Magazine, 41, 127–134.Google Scholar
Fiske, S. T., & Neuberg, S. L. (1990). A continuum of impression formation, from category-based to individuating processes: Influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 1–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia, L. T., Erskine, N., Hawn, K., & Casmay, S. R. (1981). The effect of affirmative action on attributions about minority group members. Journal of Personality, 49, 427–437.Google Scholar
Golden, H., Hinkle, S., & Crosby, F. J. (2001). Reactions to affirmative action: Substance and semantics. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 73–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, I. L., & Lundquist, K. K. (2010). A five-year journey with Coca-cola. In Outtz, J. L. (Ed.), Adverse impact: Implications of organizational staffing and high stakes selection (pp. 473–501). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D., & Schwartz, J. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Griffeth, R. W., Hom, P. W., & Gaertner, S. (2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26, 463–488.Google Scholar
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003).Google Scholar
Harrison, D. A., Kravitz, D. A., Mayer, D. M., Leslie, L. M., & Lev-Arey, D. (2006). Understanding attitudes toward affirmative action programs in employment: Summary and meta-analysis of 35 years of research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1013–1036.Google Scholar
Hattrup, K., Rock, J., & Scalia, C. (1997). The effects of varying conceptualizations of job performance on adverse impact, minority hiring, and predicted performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 656–664.Google Scholar
Hebl, M., & Kleck, R. E. (2002). Acknowledging one's stigma in the interview setting: Effective strategy or liability? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 223–249.Google Scholar
Hebl, M. R., & Skorinko, J. (2005). Acknowledging one's physical disability in the interview: Does “when” make a difference? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35, 2477–2492.Google Scholar
Heilman, M. E., Battle, W. S., Keller, C. E., & Lee, R. A. (1998). Type of affirmative action policy: A determinant of reactions to sex-based preferential selection? Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 190–205.Google Scholar
Heilman, M. E., & Haynes, M. C. (2006). Affirmative action: Unintended adverse effects. In Karsten, M. F. (Ed.), Gender, race, and ethnicity in the workplace (Vol. 2, pp. 1–24). Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Heilman, M. E., & Okimoto, T. G. (2007). Why are women penalized for success at male tasks? The implied communality deficit. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 81–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herrschaft, D., & Mills, K. I. (2002). The state of the workplace for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Washington, DC: Human Rights Campaign.Google Scholar
Hoffman, C. C., & Thornton, C. G. (1997). Examining selection utility where competing predictors differ in adverse impact. Personnel Psychology, 50, 455–470.Google Scholar
Hom, P. W., Roberson, L., & Ellis, A. D. (2008). Challenging conventional wisdom about who quits: Revelations from corporate America. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 1–34.Google Scholar
Hough, L. M., Oswald, F. L., & Ployhart, R. E. (2001). Determinants, detection, and amelioration of adverse impact in personnel selection procedures: Issues, evidence, and lessons learned. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9, 152–194.Google Scholar
Kalev, A., Dobbin, F., & Kelly, E. (2006). Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies. American Sociological Review, 71, 589–617.Google Scholar
Kehoe, J. F. (2009). Cut scores and adverse impact. In Outtz, J. L. (Ed.), Adverse impact: Implications for organizational staffing and high stakes selection (pp. 289–322). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
KingE. B., E. B.,Dawson, J. F., Kravitz, D. A., & Gulick, L. M. V. (2012). Multilevel relationships between diversity training, discrimination, and job satisfaction. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33, 5–20.Google Scholar
King, E. B., Shapiro, J. R., Hebl, M. R., Singletary, S. L., & Turner, S. (2006). The stigma of obesity in customer service: A mechanism for remediation an bottom-line consequences of interpersonal discrimination. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 579–593.Google Scholar
Kravitz, D. A. (2008). The diversity–validity dilemma: Beyond selection—the role of affirmative action. Personnel Psychology, 61, 173–193.Google Scholar
Kulik, C. T., & Roberson, L. (2008). Common goals and golden opportunities: Evaluation of diversity education in academic and organizational settings. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7, 309–331.Google Scholar
McConahay, J. B. (1986). Modern racism, ambivalence, and the modern racism scale. In Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination and racism (pp. 91–126). New York, NY: Academic.Google Scholar
McKay, P. F., Avery, D. R., Tonidandel, S., Morris, M. A., Hernandez, M., & Hebl, M. R. (2007). Racial differences in employee retention: Are diversity climate perceptions the key? Personnel Psychology, 60, 35–62.Google Scholar
Office of Personnel Management. (2012). Building and maintaining a diverse workforce. Retrieved from http://www.opm.gov/diversity/diversity-3.htmGoogle Scholar
Pendry, L. F., Driscoll, D. M., & Field, C. T. (2007). Diversity training: Putting theory into practice. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 227–250.Google Scholar
Ployhart, R. E., & Holtz, B. C. (2008). The diversity-validity dilemma: Strategies for reducing racioethnic and sex subgroup differences and adverse impact in selection. Personnel Psychology, 61, 153–172.Google Scholar
Pulakos, E. D., & Schmitt, N. (1996). An evaluation of two strategies for reducing adverse impact and their effects on criterion-related validity. Human Performance, 9, 241–258.Google Scholar
Pyburn, K. M. Jr., Ployhart, R. E., & Kravitz, D. A. (2008). The diversity–validity dilemma: Overview and legal context. Personnel Psychology, 61, 143–151.Google Scholar
Rynes, S. L., & Barber, A. E. (1990). Applicant attraction strategies: An organizational perspective. Academy of Management Review, 15, 286–310.Google Scholar
Rynes, S. L., Bretz, R. D. Jr., & Gerhart, B. (1991). The importance of recruitment in job choice: A different way of looking. Personnel Psychology, 44, 487–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, N., Clause, C. S., & Pulakos, E. D. (1996). Subgroup differences associated with different measures of some common job-relevant constructs. In Cooper, C. R., & Robertson, I. T. (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 11, pp. 115–140). New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Schmitt, N., & Quinn, A. (2009). Reductions in measured subgroup mean differences: What is possible? In Outtz, J. L. (Ed.), Implications of organizational staffing and high stakes selection (pp. 425–451). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Shapiro, J. R., King, E. B., & Quinones, M. A. (2007). Expectations of obese trainees: How stigmatized trainee characteristics influence training effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 239–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shelton, J. N., Richeson, J. A., & Vorauer, J. D. (2006). Threatened identities and interethnic interactions. In Stroebe, W., & Hewstone, M. (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 17, pp. 312–358). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Singletary, S. L., & Hebl, M. R. (2009). Compensatory strategies for reducing interpersonal discrimination: The effectiveness of acknowledgments, increased positivity, and individuating information. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 797–805.Google Scholar
Smith, A., Botsford Morgan, W., King, E. B., Knight, J. L., & Hebl, M. R. (in press). Organizational credentialing: The influence of demographic diversity and company intentions on perceptions of discrimination. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. A., & Ely, R. J. (1996). Making differences matter: A new paradigm for managing diversity. Harvard Business Review, 74, 79–90.Google Scholar
Valian, V. (1999). Why so slow? The advancement of women. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wheeler, M. E., & Fiske, S. T. (2005). Controlling racial prejudice: Social-cognitive goals affect amygdala and stereotype activation. Psychological Science, 16, 56–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed