Black Employees Research Articles

Abstract 11918: The Interplay of Ethnicity and Education With the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 Metrics: The Baptist Health South Florida Employee Study

Background: Healthcare disparities are a major public health concern. It is known that ethnicity and educational status independently predict health outcomes. Higher numbers of the American Heart Association's (AHA) ideal Life’s Simple 7 metrics (LS7) are associated with better cardiovascular health. In this study, we investigated the interplay of ethnicity and education on the attainment of ideal cardiovascular health (ICH) among employees of Baptist Health South Florida (BHSF), a large nonprofit health care organization. Methods: The data collected during BHSF annual voluntary wellness examination included age, gender, race, ethnicity and education. We assessed cardiovascular health using the LS7 metrics. Components of the LS7 metrics (smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose) were categorized into ideal, intermediate and poor, according to AHA criteria. Study participants who met 6-7 ideal metrics were considered to have attained ICH. Results: The study population consisted of 9056 individuals (Mean age 43 ± 12 years, 74% women). Among employees with postgraduate education, 12% of white employees met the ideal for 6-7 LS7 metrics, 15% for Hispanic and 4% for Black employees. For employees with college degrees, the prevalence of 6-7 ideal LS7 metrics was 14%, 16% and 8% for white, Hispanic and black employees respectively (Figure). Overall, the odds of meeting 6-7 ideal LS7 metrics was lower for Hispanic and black employees compared to white employees of similar education (Table). These differences were especially large in those with high school education or less. Conclusion: Minorities are at an increased risk of poor cardiovascular health particularly those with the lowest educational achievement. Comprehensive workplace wellness programs that target these groups will improve cardiovascular health and employee productivity, in addition to saving health care costs.

Voice of the Minority Workers in the Workplace - A Literature Review Based Study on Women and Ethnic Minority Workers

Purpose: Employees’ voice has emerged as an important issue in the work place as it can significantly impact their engagement and productivity as well as performance of the organization as a whole. Though, demographic heterogeneity and effective voice communication mechanisms for all employees irrespective of gender, ethnicity and other aspects are an integral part of high-performance Human Resource Management systems and may contribute a lot to enhance performances in the organization in many ways, the failure to ensure synergy among these group may result in rather a negative effect on overall organizations. Whenever majority employees get the opportunity to gain their interests through their leaderships and related roles and the minority are deprived of getting their legitimate or even minimal facilities, they start to consider themselves only as a worker rather than an integral part of the overall organizational structure. This isolated feeling keeps them apart from thinking for the betterment of the organization. This is the most common scenario for women in most of the organizations which psychologically puts them into a corner of the organization with the course of time. The same happens for ethnic minority and especially black employees because of the absence of institutional focus on them to provide them necessary back-ups to express their voices. This main purpose of the research is to identify the salient issues of voice and silence of the employees who are minority in the organization based on their “gender” (i.e. woman employees) and ethnic group. Methodology: The main research methodology incorporated in this paper includes study and review of existing academic papers published based on the empirical studies conducted elsewhere in the world. Analyzing the papers from various search repositories, it has been tried to explore the basic issues and the salient reasons of their silence along with the measures proposed in previous studies. This research also tries to come up with recommendation for uplifting the voice and silence of employees. Findings: The major research findings recommend that, the best way to uplift the voice Women and ethnic minority employees is to create awareness of their rights as well as providing them back-up support by trade unions and other inter and intra-organizational groups concerned with the minorities. At the same time most of the literature put emphasis on the organizational concerns for bringing the minority employees into main stream to provide them the maximum opportunity to express their voice with complete participation. Most importantly, the research finding suggests incorporating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool for promoting the voice of women and ethnic minority people.

Black South African women in construction: cues for success

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the findings of interviews based on a questionnaire and a focus group discussion (conducted in 2011) with three Black women employees who were part of a 2006 study, which canvassed 176 employees and employers, in which carpentry was found to be considered the most accessible and appropriate skills area for women, and chronicles their development and assessment of current employment for women in construction. Design/methodology/approach – The focus group was made up of the women from the 2006 study still in the same employment or better positions in the same company Neil Muller Construction (NMC) after five years. Women from NMC, in particular, were selected because the company has been considered a best practice example and therefore would provide an interesting context in terms of the issues around retention of women and potentially a model for the industry. Foci are female representation, barriers, conditions, skills acquisition and employers’ attitudes to family responsibilities. In particular, measures to support women and the impact of role models and mentoring programmes are discussed. Findings – The results of the 2011 focus group study show that positive measures for women to work in construction are developing, both through legislation (e.g. the Construction Charter) and company efforts such as those of NMC. Both the 2006 and 2011 studies highlighted that female attributes such as being peacekeepers on site were considered favourable, indicating a positive shift in attitude regarding women working in construction. Research limitations/implications – There has been and remains a paucity of research into and literature on the topic of women in the construction industry, particularly working at the skills level. Practical implications – The paper has practical implications for employers wanting to increase employment and retention of women on site by providing a best practice example. Social implications – Increased employment of women is a statuary requirement of South African employment law. Women are, on average, the lowest wage earners. Originality/value – The paper reviews challenges for women in construction and ways these can be circumvented through interaction between industry and companies. The challenges are entry and retention because of the practices and attitudes typical in a male-dominated work environment. As a follow-up to previous research of 2006 into barriers to entry for women, this paper adds value by considering retention and a best practice example. As women’s lack of knowledge of the sector is also a barrier, this paper contributes to building knowledge. Further research should determine developing trends in terms of women’s representation in the construction industry.

Influenza vaccination rates and beliefs about vaccination among nursing home employees

Recent studies have suggested that vaccination of nursing home staff members may reduce the incidence of influenza among nursing home residents. Current national estimates of employee vaccination rates (around 50%) indicate that residents may be at an unnecessarily high risk of contracting influenza. This article reports on the influenza vaccination rates and attitudes toward the vaccine among employees in 37 nursing homes in 3 states. Nursing home employees were surveyed at nursing homes in Florida, Georgia, and Wisconsin in 2011-2012. Completed surveys were received from a total of 1,965 employees. Approximately 54% of the employees surveyed received the vaccination during the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 influenza seasons. Nursing home-level staff vaccination rates varied widely, from 15%-97%. Black and younger employees were less likely to receive the vaccine. Employee vaccination rates in nursing homes that used incentives were 12 percentage points higher than those that did not use incentives (P = .08). Low vaccination rates among nursing home workers may put residents at increased risk for influenza-related morbidity and mortality. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may consider employee vaccination rates as a quality indicator in addition to resident vaccination rates. Our findings support the use of a trial to test the use of incentives to increase employee vaccination rates.

Reflections on the labyrinth: Investigating black and minority ethnic leaders’ career experiences

Black and minority ethnic (BME) employees appear to experience more difficulty reaching senior leadership positions than do their white counterparts. Using Eagly and Carli’s metaphor of the labyrinth, our aim was to give voice to black and minority ethnic managers who have successfully achieved senior management roles, and compare their leadership journeys with those of matched white managers. This article used semi-structured interviews and attribution theory to examine how 20 black and minority ethnic and 20 white senior managers from a UK government department made sense of significant career incidents in their leadership journeys. Template analysis was used to identify facilitators and barriers of career progression from causal explanations of these incidents. Although BME and white managers identified four common themes (visibility, networks, development and line manager support), they differed in how they made sense of formal and informal organizational processes to achieve career progression. The findings are used to theorize about the individual and organizational factors that contribute to the leadership journeys of minority ethnic employees.

Robert W. Widell Jr.Birmingham and the Long Black Freedom Struggle.

Robert W. Widell Jr.'s Birmingham and the Long Black Freedom Struggle understands itself to be an account of the continuation through the late 1960s and 1970s of the city's much better known civil rights uprising of 1963. It focuses on four local movements: a campaign to open formerly white jobs at the American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO) to black employees; the efforts of welfare rights activists to emphasize the grievances of Birmingham's black female welfare recipients; the attempts of black cooks and housekeepers in the city's hospitals and nursing homes to form a union; and the activities of Birmingham's small group of disciples of the Black Panther Party, the Alabama Liberation Front. Widell's telling of these stories derives primarily from police surveillance documents, supplemented by interviews and court records. Each of the stories is intrinsically interesting, and together they usefully supplement our knowledge of the period. The difficulty with the book derives from Widell's embedding of his accounts in a conceptual framework that depicts them as what he calls a “third phase” of the civil rights movement. It is clear that Widell conceives of the classic civil rights movement as a far-reaching mobilization of the black masses, and he wants to believe—almost in defiance of his own evidence—that the four poignant and stunted struggles he has uncovered constitute a continuation of that mobilization. Certainly the pervasive consequences of white supremacist iniquity do knit together both the earlier movement and these subsequent struggles. However, the mere fact that they faced similar social injustices does not make the latter the legitimate heir of the former.

Investigating the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes in a financial company

Orientation: The challenge of sustaining one’s employability in a highly dynamic and turbulent labour market places new demands on individuals’ ability to navigate their career development. Career management practices in organisations should help individuals gain awareness of the career meta-capacities they need to sustain their employability.Research purpose: The objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes as important career meta-capacities in contemporary career development. The study also investigated whether individuals from different age and race groups differed significantly regarding these career meta-capacities.Motivation for the study: Career management has become essential in the contemporary workplace for employees to sustain their employability. Research points to the importance of psychosocial career meta-capacities in helping employees to manage their career development and employability.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional quantitative survey using primary data was conducted on a non-probability purposive sample (N = 108) of full-time employees (67% women; 78% 26–45 years old; 78% black employees) at a South African financial company. Correlations and Scheffé’s post-hoc test were performed to achieve the research objectives.Main findings: Significant positive relationships were observed between the participants’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes. Age and race groups differed significantly only in terms of their career anchors.Practical/managerial implications: Career management practices in the organisation should accommodate the differences in career orientations and how these relate to the psychosocial employability attributes of their employees.Contribution: The findings add potentially important insights that may inform human resource practices aimed at enhancing the career development and employability of employees and addressing the career needs of different age and race groups.

See no evil: color blindness and perceptions of subtle racial discrimination in the workplace.

Workplace discrimination has grown more ambiguous, with interracial interactions often perceived differently by different people. The present study adds to the literature by examining a key individual difference variable in the perception of discrimination at work, namely individual color-blind attitudes. We examined relationships between 3 dimensions of color-blind attitudes (Racial Privilege, Institutional Discrimination, and Blatant Racial Issues) and perceptions of racial microaggressions in the workplace as enacted by a White supervisor toward a Black employee (i.e., discriminatory actions ranging from subtle to overt). Findings showed that observer views on institutional discrimination fully mediated, and blatant racial issues partially mediated, the relationships between racial group membership and the perception of workplace microaggressions. Non-Hispanic Whites endorsed color blindness as institutional discrimination and blatant racial issues significantly more than members of racioethnic minority groups, and higher levels of color-blind worldviews were associated with lower likelihoods of perceiving microaggressions. Views on racial privilege did not differ significantly between members of different racial groups or affect microaggression perceptions. Implications for organizations concerned about promoting more inclusive workplaces are discussed.

Black, White, male, and female concentrated employment: The effect of spatial and aspatial labor factors

We empirically investigated the influence of site attributes, proximity to labor, specific industries, and labor force characteristics on the location of employment concentrations. The study focuses on two dimensions of labor force including race and gender. We examined racial and gender disparity by studying concentrated Black, White, male, and female employment. While job opportunities are expanding, education and health care-related industries support substantial female concentrations, while manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, health care and social assistance increase the likelihood for the concentrated Black employment. Although the study found little evidence of spatial mismatch with employment clusters by race tending to occur close to their own concentration of labor, another finding indicates that a significant part of Black employees might have employment outside the identified employment areas. The study contributes to the body of research analyzing locational and labor attributes of employment concentrations.

“A Stake in the Story”: Kathryn Stockett’s The Help , Ellen Douglas’s Can’t Quit You, Baby , and the Politics of Southern Storytelling

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In afterword to bestselling 2009 novel The Help, titled Little, Too Late, author Kathryn Stockett voices a certain trepidation about a terrible line, writing in voice of a black person and worries that she has told both too much and too little in her of African American domestics and white southern ladies they work for in 1960s Mississippi. She concludes her afterword, though, by suggesting benefits of crossing that line, benefits that included discovering commonality of black and white stories and ephemerality of racial difference. Above all, she asserts that novel enabled her to ask her real-life African American maid Demetrie, long since deceased, unspoken question of her childhood--what was it like working for Stockett's fragmented white family? I've spent years imagining what her answer would be, her afterword concludes. And that's why I wrote this book. (1) Those concluding words appear to resolve her initial doubts--and therein lies one of most disturbing aspects of The Help and its staggering success, especially when contrasted with another novel by a white writer about a white employer and her black maid in 1960s Mississippi, Ellen Douglas's Can't Quit You, Baby. Published in 1988, Douglas's novel was greeted with respectful critical, sometimes conflicting, reviews but virtually none of popular acclaim that has made The Help such a striking cultural phenomenon. Stockett's wildly popular novel quite simply appropriates an African American and turns it into one of white guilt, redemption, reconciliation, and triumph, a transformation that is all too common in white southern storytelling and that is thrown into sharp relief by Douglas's highly self-conscious postmodern novel. Can't Quit You, Baby offers none of resolution and reassurance that The Help displays to a contemporary audience eager for confirmation that country's legacy of racism and injustice has been left safely in past. If anything, Douglas's novel, in words of critic Karen Jacobsen, to foreground what most of us would like to forget, ignore, or deny--the continued difficulty that black and white women have in forming friendships with each other. (2) Unlike Stockett, Douglas does so by consistently and uncomfortably questioning her own narrative authority to tell stories crossing racial lines and brings attention again and again to all those long-simmering tensions lying just beneath surface of her storytelling--silences, habits of willed deafness and amnesia, refusals, and outright disavowals, and she does so by asking again and again what her own in story is--and by implication, reader's stake in as well. (3) Josephine Haxton started raising uncomfortable questions for herself and her readers from outset of her career, when she made decision to publish under pseudonym of Ellen Douglas to avoid potentially embarrassing her conservative, devout family. (4) That decision may also have had a good deal to do with her response to Brown v. Board of Education, which, she notes in her 2004 essay collection Witnessing, had a lasting impact on all her reading and writing to follow, particularly her stunning 1963 short collection Black Cloud, White Cloud. (5) In that collection, after exposes hierarchical, volatile, and sometimes explosive relationship of white employers and African American employees in a segregated society--what she herself called later the world of black and white people together--the terrible world of masters and servants. (6) But it was in 1988 that Douglas published her experimental and self-interrogative novel Can't Quit You, Baby about that most traditional of relationships, that of a privileged white woman and her African American housekeeper. Douglas's novel, like The Help, is set in Mississippi in 1960s, albeit a few years after height of Civil Rights Movement, and like The Help again Can't Quit You, Baby focuses on layers of habit, antipathy, resentment, suspicion, attachment, and silence linking white employer and black employee--but in ways that are far more unsettling than portrayed in The Help. …

The development and investigation of the psychometric properties of a burnout scale within a South African agricultural research institution

Orientation: Burnout of employees is well documented within South Africa, but researchers have adapted imported instruments with a number of limitations. Therefore there is a need to develop a new instrument suitable for use in South Africa.Research purpose: To give an overview of current burnout measures, identify gaps within the literature and develop a new burnout scale for use within South Africa. The research examined the construct validity, reliability, construct equivalence and item bias of this new scale and investigated any differences that exist in relation to demographic variables.Motivation for the study: This study aimed to address various limitations regarding existing measures by developing a reliable and valid instrument for measuring burnout in South African employees that includes cognitive, physical and emotional (affective) components.Research approach, design and method: This empirical, quantitative research study delivered a cross-sectional survey, including the burnout scale and a biographical data questionnaire, to 443 employees of an agricultural research institution. Items for the burnout scale were written based on a literature review.Main findings: Exploratory factor analysis with target rotations resulted in a three-factor burnout model. Reliability analysis showed that all three scales (1) were sufficiently internally consistent and (2) showed construct equivalence for Black and White employees and speakers of Afrikaans and African languages. A practically significant difference in burnout levels was found in relation to age.Practical/managerial implications: The scale can be used to assess burnout for different cultural groups within research-based institutions.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to knowledge regarding the burnout levels of employees in an agricultural research institution in South Africa and provides a new burnout scale that can be utilised in similar institutions.

"Tokens, Race & Dyadic Interactions: Considering the impact of childhood tokenism"

This exploratory qualitative study explores the dyadic interactions between Black token professionals and incoming Black employees. Through the use of a semi-structured interview format, participan...

Second hand smoke: ambient racial harassment at work

PurposeLike “second hand smoke,” the harmful repercussions of racial harassment may extend well beyond the target to impact others at work. This study seeks to examine the “second hand smoke effect”, or ambient racial harassment, which involves exposure to racial harassment aimed at others. The paper examines race differences in awareness of racial harassment and explored work and health‐related outcomes associated with exposure to racial harassment. It also examines organizational tolerance for harassment as a moderator of these relationships.Design/methodology/approachA diverse sample of 245 employees from three data sources were surveyed. One data source involved White and Black employees in the same organization; the others worked in a variety of organizations across the USA.FindingsWhites were less likely than Blacks to be aware of racial harassment, even when employed in the same workplace. However, awareness of racial harassment predicted negative job attitudes and psychological strain for both Whites and Blacks. These relationships were amplified by perceptions of organizational tolerance for racial harassment.Research limitations/implicationsThe study documents ramifications of ambient racial harassment and illuminates a racial divide in awareness of harassment at work that may exacerbate racial conflict and prevent needed organizational change.Originality/valueThe paper extends the construct of ambient racial harassment by measuring a range of overt and subtle forms that vary in type and intensity, and by examining the role of organizational tolerance for racial harassment as a moderator of the relationship between ambient racial harassment and work and health‐related outcomes.

Held to a different standard: Racial differences in the impact of lateness on advancement opportunity

Racial biases affect many important personnel decisions such as performance appraisal and promotion. Yet, little is known about how these biases might influence evaluations of employee lateness behaviour. Integrating attribution theory and research on racial stereotypes and meta‐stereotypes, we investigated whether tardy Black and Hispanic employees are penalized harsher than their White counterparts in terms of unfavourable personnel outcomes. Findings from a national US survey (N = 2,789) showed that Black employees perceive fewer advancement opportunities the more often they are late – an effect that did not hold true for Hispanic or White incumbents. A follow‐up experimental study with full‐time working adults (N = 204) further illustrated that the tardiness of Black, but not White, employees negatively impacts their performance appraisal ratings and subsequent chances of advancement. This model of differential penalization of lateness behaviour suggests similar processes may generalize to other forms of stereotypical misbehaviour in organizations.Practitioner Points Both employees and managers should be made aware that lateness behaviours are viewed differently for Black, White and Hispanic employees with the penalizing effect applying only to Black employees. Managers should avoid differential evaluation of the same lateness behaviour of their racially diverse employees when evaluating performance and making subsequent promotion decisions. Managers could be trained to focus on behaviours, not the race of employees, when making important personnel decisions.

Increases in salience of ethnic identity at work: The roles of ethnic assignation and ethnic identification

To better understand how ethnicity is actually experienced within organizations, we examined reported increases in ethnic identity salience at work and responses to such increases. Thirty British black Caribbean graduate employees were interviewed about how and when they experienced their ethnic identity at work. The findings demonstrated that increased salience in ethnic identity was experienced in two key ways: through ‘ethnic assignation’ (a ‘push’ towards ethnic identity) and ‘ethnic identification’ (a ‘pull’ towards ethnic identity). We explore how and when ethnic assignation and ethnic identification occur at work, and their relevance to how workplaces are experienced by this group of minority ethnic employees. The findings suggest the need for further research attention to the dynamic and episodic nature of social identity – including ethnic identity – within organizations, and to the impact of such increases in salience of social identities on behaviour at work.

The relationship between Locus of Control and the South African National Political Environment

Locus of control refers to the prediction of how reinforcements change expectancies. An internal locus of control was previously reported to be associated with access to political and economic power in “Apartheid” South Africa. The democratisation ofSouth Africagave equal access to political power to all its citizens. This study set out to investigate whether post-apartheid political changes have altered the way a group of technical engineers in the public service perceived their own ability to influence their personal lives and political environment. A total of 297 male participants with a mean age of 30 years, comprising Black, Mixed-race, and White government employees, completed Rotter’s Internality-Externality Scale. This was scored using Ferguson’s (1993) two-factor solution, which comprised of a personal and a political control factor. The scores of the three race groups were then compared. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between the groups on the total score and scores on the Personal Control factor. All participants believed in an equal internal control over their personal lives. However, Black respondents scored more external than the other race groups on the Political Control factor, indicating a perception of lesser influence over political affairs. The results suggest that the effects of the shift in political power have not fully filtered down to ordinary citizens yet.

Measurement Equivalence of the South African Psychological Ownership Questionnaire for Diverse South African Cultural Groups

This study determined the measurement equivalence of the South African Psychological Ownership Questionnaire (SAPOS) for black and white South African employees. Participants were a non-probability sample of 645 professional level employees from both the private and the public sector (59.4% were females, 35.2% were black and 52% were over the age of 40. Over 90% of the participants have college education qualifications and nearly 41.7% had been working in their current organisations for a period of less than 5 years). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that factor variances appeared to be equal for the two groups although differences existed in factor loadings and covariances.

Food Choices of Minority and Low-Income Employees: A Cafeteria Intervention

Effective strategies are needed to address obesity, particularly among minority and low-income individuals. To test whether a two-phase point-of-purchase intervention improved food choices across racial, socioeconomic (job type) groups. A 9-month longitudinal study from 2009 to 2010 assessing person-level changes in purchases of healthy and unhealthy foods following sequentially introduced interventions. Data were analyzed in 2011. Participants were 4642 employees of a large hospital in Boston MA who were regular cafeteria patrons. The first intervention was a traffic light-style color-coded labeling system encouraging patrons to purchase healthy items (labeled green) and avoid unhealthy items (labeled red). The second intervention manipulated "choice architecture" by physically rearranging certain cafeteria items, making green-labeled items more accessible and red-labeled items less accessible. Proportion of green- (or red-) labeled items purchased by an employee. Subanalyses tracked beverage purchases, including calories and price per beverage. Employees self-identified as white (73%); black (10%); Latino (7%); and Asian (10%). Compared to white employees, Latino and black employees purchased a higher percentage of red items at baseline (18%, 28%, and 33%, respectively, p<0.001) and a lower percentage of green (48%, 38%, and 33%, p<0.001). Labeling decreased all employees' red item purchases (-11.2%, 95% CI= -13.6%, -8.9%) and increased green purchases (6.6%, 95% CI=5.2%, 7.9%). Red beverage purchases decreased most (-23.8%, 95% CI= -28.1%, -19.6%). The choice architecture intervention further decreased red purchases after the labeling. Intervention effects were similar across all race/ethnicity and job types (p>0.05 for interaction between race or job type and intervention). Mean calories per beverage decreased similarly over the study period for all racial groups and job types, with no increase in per-beverage spending. Despite baseline differences in healthy food purchases, a simple color-coded labeling and choice architecture intervention improved food and beverage choices among employees from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Advancing The Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL By N. Jeremi Duru Oxford University Press. 2010. 224 pages. $24.95 cloth

This book consists of a journalistic narrative that traces the events and actors behind the National Football League's (NFL) reform of team hiring procedures aimed to increase the number of Black American head coaches. More specifically, it recounts the roles of four sets of actors who were involved in creating that reform: the two lawyers unaffiliated with the NFL who set the process of reform in motion; the Black American employees of the NFL (many of whom were assistant coaches) who became organized in an interest group named the Fritz Pollard Alliance; the NFL team owners who varied in their attitudes toward changing their hiring procedures; and, finally, the League officials, most especially, the League Commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, who had responsibility for protecting the League's collective interests. Information about the roles of these four sets of actors was hardly visible to the media. Indeed, it seemed that, aside from wanting to create a process that would increase the number of Black American coaches, the NFL had one paramount concern: keep the Leagues' conflicting views about alleged racial bias in-house. The fact that the NFL largely succeeded in keeping its negotiations secret is directly related to this book's major strengths: its behind-the-scene accounts of the events that resulted in the hiring reform, termed the Rooney rule, which were not reported in the media.

Abstract 027: Effectiveness of a 2-phase Color-coded Food and Beverage Intervention among Minority and Low-income Employees

Background: Effective strategies are needed to address obesity, particularly among minority and low-income individuals. Simple point-of-purchase interventions have the potential to improve nutrition choices of a diverse population. Methods: We tested the effectiveness of a 2-phase food labeling and choice architecture intervention among different racial and socioeconomic groups in 4,642 employees who were regular patrons at a large hospital cafeteria in Boston, MA. After collecting baseline sales data for 3 months, we implemented Phase 1 to label all items green (healthy), yellow (less healthy), or red (unhealthy). In Phase 2, we manipulated “choice architecture,” making green-labeled items more accessible and red-labeled items less accessible. We calculated the proportion of items purchased by an employee labeled green or red during each 3-month period (baseline, Phase 1, Phase 2) and assessed person-level changes. We linked employee cash register data to human resources files to determine demographics, including race/ethnicity (self-reported) and job type (measure of socioeconomic status). We tested the interaction between intervention phase and race or job type to determine differences in intervention effects across subgroups. We calculated average calories and price per beverage during each phase. Results: Employees were white (73%), black (10%), Latino (7%), and Asian (10%). At baseline, black and Latino employees purchased higher proportions of red items compared to white employees (33%, 28%, and 18%, respectively, p&lt;0.001) and lower proportions of green (33%, 38%, and 48%, p&lt;0.001). Purchases by Asian employees did not differ from white employees. Adjusting for demographics, labeling decreased all employees’ purchases of red items (-11.2%, 95% CI -13.6% to -8.9%) and increased green purchases (6.6%, 95% CI 5.2% to 7.9%). The greatest effect was for red beverages (-23.8%, 95% CI -28.1 to -19.6). Choice architecture further decreased red purchases after labeling. Intervention effects were similar across all race and job types (p&gt;0.05 for tests of interaction between race or job type and intervention phase). At baseline, average calories per beverage purchased by black and Latino employees was higher than for white employees (126, 113, and 87 calories, respectively, p&lt;0.001). During the 2-phase intervention, mean calories per beverage decreased similarly for all racial groups and job types (-15 calories, 95% CI -18 to -13), but the mean cost per beverage did not change. Conclusions: Despite racial and socioeconomic differences in purchasing of healthy foods at baseline, a simple color-coded labeling and choice architecture intervention improved food and beverage choices among employees from all backgrounds.