Page 150 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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Organizations as Reflections

of Their Environments: The
Case of Race Composition

Arthur P. Brief
Rebecca M. Butz
Elizabeth A. Deitch
Tulane University

We are not sure how comfortable organizational psychologists will be with
this chapter because much of the analyses presented will be sociological.
The central thesis advanced is that organizations are reflections of the en­
vironments in which they are embedded [see, for example, Pfeffer and
Salancik (1978) for an analogous idea]. Of course, such an assertion is only
part of the story. Also part of the tale, one we will detail for it is where
our potential contribution lies, is the role psychological processes play
in transmitting environmental influences. That is, we will argue that the
thoughts, feelings, and actions of organizational members mediate the in­
fluence of environmental elements, such as customers/clients, suppliers,
and regulatory groups (e.g., Dill, 1958; Thompson, 1967), on the look of an
organization.
The story to be told has a distinct purpose, perhaps even a moral. That
aim is to explain the race composition of organizations, more specifically,
to help us understand better the representation and distribution (horizon­
tally and vertically) of Blacks in American work organizations. We begin

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