Page 101 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

4. GROUP-LEVEL EXPLANATIONS
71
Minority Representation Threatens Status-Quo
Social dominance theory suggests that all human social systems, includ­
ing organizations, involve a caste system with a hegemonic group at the
top and a negative reference group at the bottom (Sidanius, Devereux, &
Pratto, 2001). The dominant or hegemonic group at the top is motivated to
maintain its status and power as the socially dominant group and accom­
plishes this goal in part through aggregated institutional discrimination.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1981) defined institutional discrimi­
nation in the organizational context as well-established rules, policies, and
practices that favor the dominant group and serve to protect and promote
the status quo that arose from the racism and sexism of the past. Such or­
ganizational practices have an adverse effect on minorities and women,
even when there is no conscious intent on the part of individuals to affect
minorities or women adversely. Examples of institutional discrimination
in organizations include: (a) height and weight requirements geared un­
necessarily toward the physical proportions of White males that tend to
exclude females from jobs, and (b) seniority rules stating that the "last
hired, are the first fired," leaving minorities and females more subject to
layoffs and less eligible for advancement in jobs historically held by White
males.
When minority group representation begins to increase and traditional
policies and practices in the workplace begin to change as a result, the
dominant group will likely feel that the status quo is threatened and react
negatively toward diversity initiatives (Konrad & Gutek, 1987; Milliken&
Martins, 1996) and perhaps even negatively toward minority group mem­
bers who are the perceived beneficiaries of such initiatives (see chapter 15
in this volume). For example, Tsui et al. (1992) found that in comparison
to non-White individuals, White individuals reported lower levels of or­
ganizational commitment, more absences, and a lower intent to stay when
workgroup racial heterogeneity increased.

Minority Distinctiveness

Another possible explanation for discrimination based on or exacerbated
by group composition is the subjective experience of distinctiveness that
minority members may perceive in the work context. In their review of
the literature, Milliken and Martins (1996) concluded that "group hetero­
geneity, thus, may have a negative impact on individuals' feelings of sat­
isfaction through decreasing individuals' sense of identification or social
integration within the group" (p. 415). Minority perceptions of distinctive­
ness and social isolation in the workplace was first examined by Rosabeth