Page 127 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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The concept of organizational culture has been referred to as the "per­
sonality" of an organization, which is typically defined by shared values,
common understandings, and patterns of beliefs and expectations, which
are often taken for granted (Gagliardi, 1986; Sathe, 1985; Schein, 1985) and
manifested in many different ways, such as in actual patterns of behavior
(Sathe, 1985), organizational climates (Schneider, 2000), and material
artifacts such as office arrangements and dress (e.g., Peters & Waterman,
1982).
Culture Content Organizational cultures are not neutral with regard to
what types of employees fit and which employee behaviors are valued.
Organizational leaders hold stereotypes with regard to which types of em­
ployees are best, and they tend to reward employees who behave most con­
sistently with their stereotypes (Ilgen & Youtz, 1986). Such discriminatory
cultural beliefs, values, and assumptions may be manifested in cultural
artifacts such as behavioral norms, HR practices, and physical arrange­
ments. Cox (1994) provided numerous examples, including the practice of
scheduling 50-hour-plus workweeks and evening meetings, valuing and
promoting employees with high verbal fluency (e.g., polished English in
presentations, input during meetings, self-confident speech patterns), and
lack of wheelchair access despite ADA regulations. In addition, discrimi­
natory cultural assumptions may also be communicated directly through
derogatory language referring to nontraditional employees (e.g., "the affir­
mative action hiree"; Heilman, Block, & Lucas, 1992), sexual or ethnic ha­
rassment (e.g., Schneider, Hitlan, & Radhakrishnan, 2000), inappropriate
jokes (Siehl & Martin, 1988), backlash attitudes toward diversity-related
programs (Morrison, 1992), or business justifications for discriminating
(Brief, Dietz, Cohen, Pugh, & Vaslow, 2000).
Culture Strength When discussing organizational culture, it is also
important to address the strength of the culture, or the extent to which
organizational members agree about the organization's values, beliefs, as­
sumptions, and norms (Cox, 1994). In strong cultures, there tends to be a
preponderance of strong situations that require members to behave accord­
ing to agreed-upon standards for proper behavior by imposing sanctions
if behavior deviates from those standards (Mischel, 1976). At an extreme,
strong cultures could result in nontraditional employees needing to con­
form to the norms of the dominant coalition, and thus experiencing dis­
crimination because their diverse approaches to work are devalued. In
contrast, weak cultures are characterized by multiple sets of contrasting
norms and values, thereby allowing for greater variability in the behav­
ioral scripts that are deemed culturally appropriate (Mischel, 1976). Yet in
a weak culture with no strong situational norms that prescribe how one
should behave, people may be most likely to invoke their own identities in