Page 163 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

BRIEF, BUTZ, DEITCH
132
Summary
We noted that the racial composition of the labor pools available to an orga­
nization is the most obvious environmental influence on its racial compo­
sition. Other environmental attributes that likely influence the race com­
position of organizations include: (a) the social structure surrounding an
organization, which was argued to prime stereotypes that organizational
members may use when making hiring and placement decisions; (b) the
Black population share of the area where an organization is located, which
was argued to increase negative racial attitudes brought to work as excess
baggage; (c) the customer base of an organization, whose race composition
organizational decision makers may seek to mirror among sales and ser­
vice personnel; and (d) the legal environment of an organization, which may
promote internal HRM policies, practices, and procedures that are race sen­
sitive and effective or merely ineffective symbolic gestures toward equal
opportunity. Clearly, the environment in which an organization is embed­
ded can influence its race composition; and, it likely does so, for exam­
ple, by affecting the stereotypes and prejudices of organizational decision
makers and the organization's HRM climate. These mediating factors are
addressed in the next section.
If we have created the impression that organizations somehow are at
the mercy of their environments, it is important to correct such before
moving on. Although it is the case, as stated by Scott (1998, p. 144), that
"there is little doubt that environments profoundly shape organizations—
their structures, their performances, their outcomes," it also is clear that
"managers construct, rearrange, single out, and demolish many 'objec­
tive' features of their surroundings" (Weick, 1979, p. 164). That is, organi­
zations and their environments are related reciprocally, and here, only
the influence of environments on organizations has been considered.
But of course, organizations often, for instance, do choose where they lo­
cate, the customers they target, and the labor markets from which they
recruit.

INSIDE THE BOX

The environments in which organizations are embedded appear to influ­
ence their race composition. What processes, stimulated by environmental
conditions, unfold inside the box (the organization) and affect race com­
position? In this section, we attempt to describe further some of the mech­
anisms linking the environment to race composition. In approaching what
goes on inside the box, the term "decision" will be used frequently and very