Page 119 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

5

Discrimination in Organizations:
An Organizational-Level Systems

Perspective

Michele J. Gelfand 1 Jana L. Raver
University of Maryland Queen's University

Lisa H. Nishii Benjamin Schneider
Cornell University University of Maryland
and Personnel Research
Associates, Inc.

It has become increasingly clear to organizational decision makers that
employment discrimination is a serious and expensive problem that needs
to be addressed. For instance, in 2000, Coca-Cola Co. settled a class-action
racial discrimination lawsuit for $192.5 million, which was preceded by
Texaco Inc.'s settlement for $176.1 million, and Shoney's Inc.'s settlement
for $132 million (King & Spruell, 2001). In fact, the financial costs associ­
ated with discrimination settlements extend beyond the costs of the ac­
tual settlement to include negative stock price changes, presumably the
result of investor perceptions that discriminating firms may have less tal­
ented and committed workforces, high operating costs because of turnover,

Authorship is alphabetical because of equality of contributions.
89