Workplace Racial Discrimination Research Articles

Racial discrimination against Asian American employees: impact of employee coping strategies on employee competence and work quality of life

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effects of workplace racial discrimination among Asian American (AA) employees in the restaurant industry and examines what kinds of employee coping responses can mitigate its detrimental effects on their work behaviors. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach, starting with a qualitative study using the critical incident technique followed by a quantitative between-subjects experiment to examine the impact of employee coping responses to racial discrimination on employee competence and work quality of life (WQOL). Findings The study reveals that customer-perpetrated racial discrimination is the most common form of racial discrimination that AA employees face in the restaurant industry. In addition, confrontation is the most effective coping strategy to increase employee’s self-competence. Also, the severity of discrimination moderates the effect of coping strategies on employee’s self-competence. Employees’ self-competence mediates the relationship between their response strategy against discrimination and their WQOL. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study suggest that confrontation is an effective coping strategy for targeted employees, compared to support-seeking or avoidance. Confrontation was perceived as competent, compared to other coping strategies, and in turn, enhanced WQOL. Originality/value This study expands the scope of racial discrimination research in the hospitality literature for the growing diversified hospitality workforce. In addition, this study provides practical insights into competent ways of coping with racial discrimination.

Inclusive Leadership to Address Discrimination and Improve Retention in Child Welfare: Examining Multiple Pathways

Inclusive leadership has been discussed as an effective approach to workforce retention and workplace racial discrimination by satisfying the demand for belongingness and uniqueness. However, scant research has investigated the relationship between inclusive leadership and retention in child welfare. Using survey data collected from child welfare workers (n = 2469) across three public child welfare agencies, the current study examined the direct impact of inclusive leadership on child welfare workers’ intent to stay at their agency, as well as its indirect impact on intent to stay by influencing workplace racial discrimination. This study also explored the moderation effect of inclusive climate on the direct and indirect impacts of inclusive leadership using the PROCESS Program for SPSS. The research findings revealed that the direct and indirect impacts of inclusive leadership on intent to stay were significant. The findings also suggest that inclusive climate strengthened the positive association between inclusive leadership and intent to stay. Overall, this study demonstrated the potential of inclusive leadership to enhance racial equity and workforce retention in public child welfare systems. Future research needs to explore how specific behaviors of inclusive leaders improve workforce retention and explore other factors that could explain the impact of inclusive leadership.

Racial Inequality in Work Environments

This article explores racial stratification in work environments. Inequality scholars have long identified racial disparities in wage and occupational attainment, but workers’ careers and well-being are also shaped by elements of their work environment, including firm culture, managerial style, and work-life balance. I theorize two processes that could lead to racial inequality in firms’ work environments: (1) employee sorting due to exclusionary practices, and (2) spillover from racial differences in occupation and geographic location. To test this, I gathered a unique firm-level dataset composed of one million employee reviews, covering most large and medium-sized firms in the United States. I show that firms with more Black employees score lower for managerial quality, firm culture, and work-life balance, and firms with more Asian employees score higher on these dimensions. However, Asian employees’ advantage disappears when controlling for occupation, industry, and geography, whereas Black employees’ disadvantage persists, suggesting that the process of firm-level employee sorting is at work. Consistent with this, I find that Black employees’ disadvantage is strongest in areas with more conservative racial attitudes and more prevalent workplace racial discrimination. I then replicated the main findings using two entirely different data sources. Together, these results underscore racial inequality in work environments, an overlooked but important dimension of workplace inequality.

The quiet purge: a qualitative exploration of sidelining, denigrating and dehumanizing racialized public servants in British Columbia

ABSTRACT This article presents a qualitative exploration of racialized public servants’ lived experiences with workplace racial discrimination in British Columbia, Canada. Specifically, introducing the concept of the quiet purge as the theoretical framework that is used to make sense of data, this study examines experiences of participants with racist pressures at work that had the effect of side-lining and pushing them out to the peripheries of publicly funded workplaces. After detailing a variety of strategies used to recruit 25 non-White participants who worked in the public service and took part in this study, findings would be presented as cultural denigration, accent-mediated dehumanization, emotional fatiguing and precarity-breeding work assignment. In analyzing these findings, this article will conceptualize these racist pressures as the quiet purge, or stratifying mechanisms that were designed to peripheralize and marginalize racialized participants in their respective workplaces. Subsequently, the article will briefly discuss my observations of intersectionality and conclude that, considering the fact that some of the experiences that were recounted by participants describe incidents that were glaringly, unambiguously and blatantly racist – struggles that are often seen as the hallmarks of earlier times – workplace racial discrimination in Canada is alive and requires urgent research and policy attention.

Coping with workplace racial discrimination: The role of internal communication

This study evaluates whether and how internal communication efforts are connected to racial minority employees’ coping strategies for workplace discrimination. Using a survey with 453 full-time employees, we found that racial minority employees were likely to choose emotion-focused rather than problem-focused coping strategies when experiencing discrimination at work, which in turn impacted the relational and behavioral employee outcomes. Transparent communication was found to reduce the negative impacts of discrimination experiences while increasing the motivation of adopting problem-focused approaches.

Workplace Racial Discrimination, Negative Emotions Based on Treatment Due to Race, and Substance Use

Background Experiencing racial discrimination may be associated with poor health outcomes including negative emotional states and substance use. The workplace is a setting where people may experience discriminatory treatment. Objectives: This study examined associations, between negative emotions due to treatment based on race (NE), workplace racial discrimination (WRD), and substance use outcomes (drinking and smoking), stratified by race. Methods: Data from the cross-sectional 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Minnesota and New Mexico sub-samples, were analyzed. This study excluded non-Hispanic white participants, resulting in a sample of n = 3098 adult, U.S. residents. Multivariable logistic regression models were utilized to examine the associations, and possible interactions, between WRD, NE, and substance use (alcohol and tobacco). Results: Prior to stratification, WRD was not associated with drinking or smoking after controlling for NE and other sociodemographic variables, however, NE was associated with heavy drinking. NE appeared to account for some of the observed bivariate associations between WRD and heavy drinking and daily smoking. Post-stratification, WRD was associated with heavy drinking for non-Hispanic other respondents, even after controlling for NE. For non-Hispanic black participants, NE was associated with smoking after controlling for WRD. A stratified interaction analysis of WRD*NE revealed that there was only an association between NE and heavy drinking for Hispanic participants who did not experience WRD. Conclusions: The relationship between WRD and substance use may be in part accounted for by NE. Further exploration is needed to more fully understand why associations exist for some race/ethnicity groups but not others.

Getting In, Getting Hired, Getting Sideways Looks: Organizational Hierarchy and Perceptions of Racial Discrimination

This article argues that black workers’ perceptions of racial discrimination derive not just from being in the minority, but also from their position in the organizational structure. Researchers have shown that black individuals encounter an enormous amount of racial discrimination in the workplace, including but not limited to exclusion from critical social networks, wage disparities, and hiring disadvantages. But fewer studies examine the extent to which black workers believe racial discrimination is a salient factor in their occupational mobility or the factors that might explain their divergent perceptions of racial discrimination. Based on 60 in-depth interviews with black medical doctors, nurses, and technicians in the healthcare industry, we show that black workers’ status within an organizational hierarchy fundamentally informs perceptions of the nature and type of workplace racial discrimination. These findings have implications for understanding how racial dynamics at work are linked to mental health, occupational satisfaction, and organizational change.

Tyrus: The Tyrus Wong Story dir. by Pamela Tom

Reviewed by: Tyrus: The Tyrus Wong Story dir. by Pamela Tom Ann Thuy-Ling Tran Tyrus: The Tyrus Wong Story, directed and produced by Pamela Tom. American Masters | PBS SoCal/KOCE-TV, 2016. 83 minutes. The artist's first words in this documentary are, "What drives me to painting is something I can't explain why, because [it's] something I just love to do, you know?" Chinese American filmmaker and director Pamela Tom takes this question to task in tracing the substantial life of Asian American artist Tyrus Wong. An artistic masterpiece in itself, the film begins by providing a glimpse into Wong's home studio, where he divulges his immense collection of personal works. The film unfolds with a continuous visual montage of Wong's vast life's work, in which he has explored and mastered multiple art mediums. From his doodles in junior high school before learning of his artistic talent to the kite-building projects he created in the latter part of his life, Tom delicately curates the beautifully expansive timeline of Wong's fascinating yet racially fraught art career as she displays his marvelous personal archive across the screen. Although Wong is best known for his instrumental role in the magnificent impressionist style of Walt Disney's Bambi (1942), Tom spends less than ten minutes of the nearly ninety-minute documentary on Wong's three years at Disney Animation Studios. Instead, she parallels two crucial timelines in the film: the rich story of Wong's marvelous art career and a backdrop of dark racial history and consequential political, economic, and social exclusionary practices in the United States. The film presents Wong's life as a case study of Asian exclusion; walking alongside him as he revisits Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, we learn that at the age of nine, Wong endured a month-long detainment after being separated from his father upon his arrival in the United States. He explains how he lived through isolating and miserable living conditions, enduring countless interrogations aimed at deporting him and thousands of other Chinese immigrants. Wong recalls difficult economic realities of poverty that he, his father, and many other Chinese immigrants underwent after they were set free and reunited. Yet, with the help of friends, his father succeeded in sending Wong to art school, eventually propelling Wong into the Orientalist Art Movement of the 1930s. The documentary elaborates that, while the movement was infused with heightened exoticization of Chinese art, the continuation of Chinese exclusion––from citizenship and property ownership to stereotypical representations of race in American popular culture––persisted. But as the rest of Wong's art career unfolds, the audience learns that while his life was determined by racial circumscription, it neither defined his artistic vocation nor wavered his passion. During America's declining economic conditions of the Great Depression, Wong's art survived through mural painting. Working as a waiter to support [End Page 123] his family, Wong happened to meet Walt Disney and land a position at Disney Animation Studios. As he quickly rose through the ranks with his unique artistic style, Wong increasingly suffered racial hostility from his coworkers. He was eventually fired, and his undeniable foundational contributions to the film Bambi were discredited. He suffered similar racial prejudice during his time working at Warner Bros. Studios as a preproduction illustrator of large-scale concept paintings, and later at Republic Pictures while working on John Wayne movies. Throughout the documentary, two facts remain constant: he suffered various forms of racial discrimination––political (Exclusion), economic (impoverished conditions of Chinese immigrants), and social (workplace racial discrimination)—and despite hostile racial adversity, Wong pursued his unrelenting passion for art. Amid difficult racial realities, he nevertheless explored a diverse array of art mediums throughout his lifetime, from watercolor painting, landscape art, ceramic art, animation, live action illustration, and greeting cards to traditional kite making. The documentary ends on a positive note in which Wong, by the age of ninety, began to receive much-deserved acclaim from various organizations, including Disney at the Legends Awards in 2011 for his immense contributions to Bambi. However, Wong leaves us with a subtle but chilling statement at the end of...

Examining Race/Ethnicity Differences in the Association Between the Experience of Workplace Racial Discrimination and Depression or Negative Emotions

This study examines associations and potential interactions between race/ethnicity, workplace racial discrimination, depression, and negative emotional symptoms experienced due to treatment based on race. Data for this study come from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), an annual telephone survey of US residents, aged 18 and older. Respondents from MN and NM (n = 13,655) completed a module titled Reactions to Race, which contained items assessing workplace racial discrimination and negative emotions experienced based on treatment due to race, as well as standard BRFSS items assessing a diagnosis of depression. Results support previous research concluding that non-Hispanic White survey respondents are less likely to experience racial discrimination in the workplace than other race/ethnicity groups, but were more likely to report both depression and negative emotions. Analyses stratified by race/ethnic group suggest that, after controlling for gender, marital status, education, and income, there was an association between experiencing workplace racial discrimination and reporting negative emotions due to treatment based on race (all p values < 0.001). Of note, this association was strongest for non-Hispanic White respondents.

Managing Diversity: How Organizational Efforts to Support Diversity Moderate the Effects of Perceived Racial Discrimination on Affective Commitment

Using the Interactional Model of Cultural Diversity and social exchange theory, we examined how the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on affective commitment can be attenuated by perceived organizational efforts to support diversity. Across three studies, we found that perceptions of workplace racial discrimination are negatively related to affective commitment. However, this negative relationship became weaker as employees perceived more organizational efforts to support diversity. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated these effects in two employee samples with different demographic characteristics. Study 2 also extended these results by showing that these dynamics ultimately influence turnover intent. Study 3 replicated the findings of Studies 1 and 2 using an experimental design. Results suggest that organizational efforts to support diversity can restore affective commitment for employees who experience racial discrimination at work which, in turn, reduces turnover intent.

Perceived workplace racial discrimination and its correlates: A meta‐analysis

SummaryWe combine the interactional model of cultural diversity (IMCD) and relative deprivation theory to examine employee outcomes of perceived workplace racial discrimination. Using 79 effect sizes from published and unpublished studies, we meta‐analyze the relationships between perceived racial discrimination and several important employee outcomes that have potential implications for organizational performance. In response to calls to examine the context surrounding discrimination, we test whether the severity of these outcomes depends on changes to employment law that reflect increasing societal concern for equality and on the characteristics of those sampled. Perceived racial discrimination was negatively related to job attitudes, physical health, psychological health, organizational citizenship behavior, and perceived diversity climate and positively related to coping behavior. The effect of perceived racial discrimination on job attitudes was stronger in studies published after the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was passed than before. Results provide some evidence that effect sizes were stronger the more women and minorities were in the samples, indicating that these groups are more likely to perceive discrimination and/or respond more strongly to perceived discrimination. Our findings extend the IMCD and relative deprivation theory to consider how contextual factors including changes to employment law influence employee outcomes of perceived workplace discrimination. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Workplace Racial Discrimination and Middle Class Vulnerability

Middle-class minority workers have skill and human capital credentials which should confer protections and relative workplace power. Moreover, they often work in more bureaucratic contexts where culturally proscribed status markers, such as race, should matter little if at all. In this article, we challenge such assumptions by quantitatively and qualitatively examining several hundred cases of workplace racial discrimination and the degree of middle-class African American vulnerability. Notable are significant levels of firing discrimination for all African American workers and a heightened likelihood of mobility-based discrimination and day-to-day racial harassment for middle-class African Americans. Through qualitative case immersion, we show the core practices and processes through which these patterns manifest.

MANAGING DIVERSITY: HOW ORGANIZATIONAL EFFORTS TO SUPPORT DIVERSITY MODERATE THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ON AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT

Using the interactional model of cultural diversity, we examined whether the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on affective commitment can be mitigated by perceived organizational efforts to support diversity. Across 3 studies, we found that perceptions of workplace racial discrimination are negatively related to affective commitment. In 2 out of 3 studies, this negative relationship was attenuated as employees perceived more organizational efforts to support diversity. Studies 1 (mostly Whites) and 2 (mostly Hispanics) showed that organizational efforts to support diversity attenuate the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on affective commitment. However, in Study 3 (African Americans), results showed that when organizational efforts to support diversity are high, the negative relationship between perceived racial discrimination and affective commitment became stronger. Studies 2 and 3 also extended these results by showing that the interaction of perceived racial discrimination and organizational efforts to support diversity indirectly influences turnover intent.

Perceiving Discrimination on the Job: Legal Consciousness, Workplace Context, and the Construction of Race Discrimination

Despite the continued importance of discrimination for racial labor market inequality, little research explores the process by which workers name potentially negative experiences as race discrimination. Drawing on the legal consciousness literature and organizational approaches to employment discrimination, we assess the effect of social status, job characteristics, and workplace context on the likelihood that workers perceive race discrimination at work. Analyzing data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, we find that ascriptive status is associated with perceptions of discrimination, with African Americans, Hispanics, and women more likely to perceive racial discrimination, net of job and organizational controls. Results also suggest that workers with a greater sense of entitlement (as indicated by job authority, promotion experience, and union membership) and knowledge of legal entitlements (as indicated by education level and age) are more likely to perceive workplace racial discrimination. Other workplace conditions can signal fairness and decrease perceptions of racial bias, such as formalized screening practices and having nonwhite supervisors, whereas working among predominantly nonwhite coworkers increases the likelihood of perceiving discrimination. These findings suggest that personal attributions of discrimination vary across social groups and their environments, and demonstrate the importance of workplace context for understanding how individuals apply legal concepts, such as discrimination, to their experiences.