Page 102 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

THOMAS AND CHROBOT-MASON
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Kanter (1977). Kanter collected qualitative data in a field study of working
women in which they comprised only 10% of the total workforce. She iden­
tified different groups based on the proportional representation of males
versus females, defining skewed groups as those in which the sex ratio
involved a preponderance of men over women (e.g., 85:15). Women in
these groups were defined as "tokens," and she found them to be treated
as representatives of their category and as symbols of their group rather
than individuals. In some situations, she found that women were "solos"
or the only one of their kind. She labeled a second type of group, those
with ratios of 65:35 for example, as "tilted," representing less extreme
distributions in which dominants are the majority and tokens become a
minority. In such situations, minority members have the potential to find
allies among each other, form coalitions, and affect the culture of the group.
Since Kanter's original work, a number of researchers have found support
for the notion that gender composition of workgroups significantly im­
pacts women's social integration, performance, and overall success in the
workplace (Riordan, 2000; Ragins & Sundstrom, 1989). For example, Sack­
ett and colleagues (1991) found that when women formed less than 20% of
the group, they received lower performance ratings than men, but when
their proportion was greater than 50%, they were rated higher than men. It
should be noted that Kanter's theory has generally been supported when
studying women as the minority, but the same results are not found when
men are in the minority (see review by Riordan, 2000).
Other researchers have also found support for the importance of solo
and token status for racial and ethnic minorities. Pettigrew and Martin
(1987) argued that African Americans face significant barriers during the
recruitment, entry, and promotional stages of their careers as a result of
being a solo or token member of the organization. Solos are often met
with very low expectations from their supervisor and coworkers. These
low expectations are insulting to the minority member, may result in less
challenging work assignments, and may affect performance as Blacks in­
ternalize the low expectations and begin to expect less of themselves. Re­
search by Taylor, Fiske, Close, Anderson, and Ruderman (1977) showed
that compared to nonsolos, solos were rated by others as more promi­
nent (i.e., talking more, making a stronger impression, and more confident
and assertive). This prominence, however, was not found to be a positive
advantage for solos. Instead, their contributions were rated as less cre­
ative and effective when making the same contribution as a nonsolo. In
rare instances, solo status may be met with very high expectations, but
such expectations may be unrealistically high, setting the stage for even­
tual failure. Pettigrew and Martin (1987) suggested that "either a solo is
'golden' and can do no wrong, or else the solo is a hopeless case who