Organizational Performance and Discrimination: Are High-Performing Schools Less Likely to Discriminate against Potential Clients?

Abstract

Recent studies argue that underperforming public organizations are more prone to stereotyping behavior and discrimination. However, empirical research concerning this subject is limited and focuses only on employment discrimination based on ethnicity. This article is the first to study the relationship between organizational performance and discrimination against clients/costumers. It also takes socioeconomic (SES) discrimination into account. This study is based on a large-scale correspondence experiment in which Swedish school principals were randomly contacted via email by parents interested in enrolling their children; the parents had Arabic- or Swedish-sounding names and were engaged in professions associated with a low or high SES. The results show no clear relationship between client discrimination and student test scores and grades. Hence, the findings of previous studies may not be generalizable to client discrimination and/or other national contexts, and client discrimination may be a result of mechanisms operating in all types of organizations (e.g., discriminatory attitudes).