UNACKNOWLEDGED PRIVILEGE: SETTING THE STAGE FOR DISCRIMINATION IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS.

Abstract

In most organizational settings, status hierarchies are based on individual merit and performance. However, in the same settings, non-merit based systems of privilege also exist whereby unearned advantages and benefits accrue to people with privilege. In the U.S., where the structure of most organizations is that of a meritocracy, privilege obviously has a negative connotation because it is counter to organizational values to allow one category of people to have an unearned or non-merit based advantage over another. Therefore people with privilege are unlikely to acknowledge their unearned and consequently unfair advantage. This research used two experimental laboratory studies to examine how privilege recognition or lack thereof influenced the attitudes and behavior of people with privilege. Results indicate that when people with privilege do not acknowledge that they have benefited from an unearned advantage, they are more likely to discriminate against those without privilege, they perceive their social system to be fairer, and they evaluate those without privilege more negatively. When people with privilege acknowledged their unearned advantage, they considered how situational circumstances hindered the performance of others without privilege, evaluated them less negatively, and engaged in less discriminatory behavior.