Page 202 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

7. GENDER DISCRIMINATION
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or taboo sources of work performance information. These might include,
for example, spousal ratings and children's reactions to the effects of
parental work on family interactions. In addition to expanding the source
of criterion information, these sources expand the content of success to
include marital health and functioning, individual and family stress, chil-
dren's physical health, educational development, and mental and social
well-being.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: ROLE OF THE ORGANIZATION
AS A TOOL FOR ACTIVISM AND CHANGE
Two key terms reflect the major themes in our conclusions: multidisci­
plinary and partnerships. These themes are not mutually exclusive. How­
ever, thus far, the skeptical organizational manager might read this chapter
and respond with frustration, "Great, no matter what we do, discrimination
is locked in before employees even enter the organization, so we should
not be held accountable." Not so fast—our chapter is intended to point
out alternative organizational partnerships in addition to both EEOC and
affirmative action strategies. As this chapter suggests, discrimination is
developmental in nature. Therefore, one way that organizations can ad­
dress issues of gender discrimination is by developing partnerships with
schools (especially at primary levels) to discuss work settings, fairness is­
sues, working in diverse teams, and conflict resolution across cultures. Or­
ganizations can also partner with educational institutions and community
child-care programs to enrich after-school care activities and develop age-
appropriate diversity programs—both by reducing costs of such programs
and enhancing quality. Organizations can partner with community mental
health providers to increase accessible positive parenting programs and
affordable, quality marital and healthy relationship counseling, includ­
ing steps to wise decision making and constructive conflict resolutions.
Organizations can work together through organizational coalitions (e.g.,
Corporate Voices) to identify common workforce needs and can work to
lobby for congressional support for either federal funding or corporate
incentives for the above partnerships.
Academic researchers can develop multidisciplinary teams to address
the multiple causes and consequences of gender discrimination. It is criti­
cal that senior scholars educate students in their own specific disciplines to
understand and embrace their unique contributions to the study of a prob­
lem (e.g., gender discrimination), while simultaneously stressing the value
added by the contributions of other disciplines. To give an example, a re­
cent article (Brett & Stroh, 2003) showed that managers who worked longer