Page 273 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

COLELLA AND STONE
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Resentment Apart from the emotions just noted, individuals often ex­
perience resentment when working with someone with a disability. One
reason for this is that work-related settings typically require some levels
of interdependence among coworkers, and working with a person with
a disability can have a negative impact on coworkers' outcomes. For ex­
ample, a person's ability limitations can increase the workload for others,
decrease coworkers' status, and increase the awkwardness of interactions
(cf. Stone & Colella, 1996). Furthermore, accommodations or the differ­
ential treatment of persons with disabilities can also evoke resentment in
the workplace especially when the accommodation violates equity norms
(e.g., coworkers perceive that the individual with a disability is receiving
the same level of outcomes without providing the same inputs; see Colella,
2001 for a review). In addition, Colella (2001) maintained that coworkers
often resent accommodations for employees with disabilities when the ac­
commodation is requested for utilitarian motives or when the disability
is invisible or perceived to be self-caused. This feeling of resentment to­
ward people with disabilities may also be a potential cause of the backlash
against the ADA (1990).
Consistent with the arguments noted above (Jones et al., 1984; Lazarus
et al., 1980) cultural norms may influence the extent to which coworkers
experience resentment when working with people with disabilities. For
example, the U.S. culture espouses humanitarian values, but places partic­
ular emphasis on self-reliance, rugged individualism, and equity allocation
systems (Trice & Beyer, 1993). As a result, some anthropologists (Hsu, 1961,
cited in Trice & Beyer, 1993) contend that one of the greatest fears in Amer­
ican life is dependence on others, and the fear of dependence is so great
that an individual who is not self-reliant is an objective of hostility and is
stigmatization. Furthermore, cultural norms in the United States suggest
that organizational systems should be standardized or applied to everyone
equally, and policies should be impersonal. Thus, coworkers are likely to
resent and react negatively to individuals with disabilities when they ask
for special treatment (or accommodation) because such a request violates
cultural norms about fairness (Colella, 2001). Interestingly, some research
supports this argument and has shown that asking for a reasonable accom­
modation lowered suitability ratings for job applicants with disabilities
(Hazer & Bedell, 2000). Similarly, research by Florey and Harrsion (2000)
found that reactions to a request for accommodation were dependent on
the person's past performance level, the magnitude of the accommodation
request, and the controllability of the disability's onset.
Given that coworkers may experience resentment when working with
individuals with disabilities, it is important to identify strategies that might
be used to decrease resentment and increase the inclusion of people with