Page 32 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

1. AN INTRODUCTION
7
Consequences," Madeline Heilman and Michelle Haynes review a pro­
gram of research showing that preferential treatment can stigmatize those
it is intended to benefit. In "International Employment Discrimination: A
Review of Legal Issues, Human Impacts and Organizational Implications,"
Georgia Chao and Hannah-Hanh Nguyen review how other countries deal
with the issue of discrimination. This chapter highlights various interna­
tional perspectives on discrimination and considers how we can incorpo­
rate global perspectives into our study of employment discrimination. The
chapter by Martin Greller and John Jackson differs from the other chapters
in this book in that the authors do not review research or theory and in­
stead provide a case study. They report on how they were part of a team of
social scientists that assisted legislative attempts to reduce the gender gap
in wages in Wyoming ("Doing Research on Pay Equity in Support of the
Political Process: The Wyoming Experience").
In "The Dilemmas of Workplace Discrimination," we conclude the vol­
ume with an assessment of the current state of the research and a summary
of the major themes of the book. We call for a general framework that pro­
vides a general understanding of workplace discrimination as a complex,
subtle, and dynamic phenomenon. In laying the foundation for a model,
we suggest several new directions in research. We also consider some new
directions for practical interventions in dealing with discrimination.
In conclusion, this Frontiers series volume should provide readers with
a clear understanding of the psychologically based workplace discrimina­
tion research. The theory, methodology, and suggested implications of this
research are put forth to allow scholars and scientist-practitioners to gain
a comprehensive view of the field. Furthermore, much of the work in this
volume discusses future directions for research on workplace discrimina­
tion. Our hope is that these ideas will ignite and guide future research and
practice.

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