Page 124 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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5. ORGANIZATIONAL-LEVEL DISCRIMINATION
discrimination in organizations (Blum, Fields, & Goodman, 1994; Delaney
& Lundy, 1996; Perry, Davis-Blake, & Kulik, 1994).
Economic conditions may influence an organization's willingness to
devote attention and resources to combating discrimination (Kahn, 2001).
For example, compared to conditions of low threat, under conditions of
threat (e.g., recessions, downsizing), organizations are more likely to be­
come rigid, relying on a limited set of well-learned and habituated be­
havioral scripts and focusing on business issues that are of core strategic
importance (Staw, Sandelands, & Dutton, 1981). Moreover, the degree to
which organizations feel pressured to integrate diverse workers may be
influenced both by industry-based norms (i.e., the diversity-related prac­
tices of peer organizations) and by the demographic characteristics of a
particular industry (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983).

THE INFLUENCE OF THE ORGANIZATION'S INTERNAL CONTEXT

The environmental factors discussed above all feed into the organization,
which comprises several interdependent processes, systems, and struc­
tures. Of particular interest in this chapter are the six organizational-level
antecedents to discrimination depicted in Fig. 5.1 (i.e., formal and informal
structure, organizational culture, leadership, strategy, HR systems, and or­
ganizational climate). The identification of six major throughputs in no
way implies that these are independent of each other. On the contrary, as
Fig. 5.1 shows, these interact with each other; identifying them as separate
is merely for convenience of exposition.

Structure

Formal Structure Perhaps the most widely publicized form of discrim­
ination in organizations is the "glass ceiling," which refers to the invisible
barrier that blocks women and racial minorities from advancing to senior
leadership positions in organizations (i.e., access discrimination). There
is substantial evidence suggesting that women and racial minorities are
underrepresented in upper management. For instance, women make up
only 34% of "officials and managers" in U.S. corporations, whereas they
constitute 47% of the private workforce. Also concerning are the low num­
bers of racial minorities in management, where only 15% of "officials and
managers" are members of a minority group, yet they constitute 30% of the
private U.S. workforce (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
2001). A study comparing data from 1995 and 2000 found that the status
of women in management has not improved in recent years (U.S. General