Page 274 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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10. WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION
disabilities. Interestingly, some authors (Stone & Stone-Romero, 2002) ar­
gued that organizational policies, especially the use of competitive reward
systems and adherence to inflexible policies, may be important sources
of the problem. In particular, when competitive reward systems are used
only a few people can get the most desired outcomes, and individuals may
resent working with a coworker with a disability because it decreases their
chances of receiving valuable outcomes (Stone & Stone-Romero, 2002). In­
terestingly, some research suggests that interdependent or competitive re­
ward systems decrease the selection of persons with disabilities as cowork­
ers (Colella, DeNisi, & Varma, 1998; Stone & Michaels, 1994). Thus, we
believe that one strategy for overcoming resentment toward people with
disabilities is to increase the use of cooperative reward systems in organi­
zations.
In addition, we believe that the use of impersonal standardized policies
may put people with disabilities and others who have special needs (e.g.,
employees with children or older parents) at a disadvantage in organiza­
tions. Thus, we believe that the use of flexible or need-based systems may
be useful in organizations especially when the policies are applied to ev­
eryone, not just those disabilities. Finally, to reduce anxiety associated with
working with people with disabilities, team members and workers with
disabilities should be trained to reduce interpersonal anxiety and focus on
increasing team effectiveness. Research, however, is needed to assess the
effectiveness of these strategies.
In summary, in the preceding section we argue that emotional reac­
tions may affect reactions to people with disabilities and may be an impor­
tant cause of unfair discrimination in organizations. Research, however,
is needed to understand these emotional reactions and to develop strate­
gies for decreasing negative reactions to persons with disabilities in work
settings.
Paternalism Legal and political science scholars have often adopted
the view that the courts and medical and rehabilitation professions treat
persons with disabilities in a paternalistic fashion (Hahn, 1996). Indeed
interviews with people with disabilities suggest that one of the major social
problems they face is that of patronization from nondisabled people (Fox,
1994) or that people use the same behavioral scripts as they would use
in interacting with a child (Jones et al., 1984). Behaviorally, this response
is similar to the pity response discussed above; however, the reasoning
behind paternalistic behavior differs.
One reason often given for paternalistic behavior toward persons with
disabilities is that nondisabled people often desire to show that they are
kind and caring toward persons with disabilities in order to foster their self-
beliefs about "being a good person" (Katz & Glass, 1979; Weinberg, 1983).