Page 32 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

1. AN INTRODUCTION
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democratic premise that all people should have an equal chance at occupa­
tional success and the pursuit of happiness. Older workers are more likely
to be unemployed and less likely to receive training and career counseling
than younger workers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2002a). Relative to White
workers, Black employees are paid much less, are more than twice as likely
to be unemployed, are underrepresented in higher paid occupations, and
are overrepresented in lower paid occupations (U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2002b).
People with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed and are paid less
than people who do not have disabilities (McNeil, 2000). Women are not
only underpaid relative to men but also hold less prestigious positions, ad­
vance more slowly in organizations, and tend to be found in occupations
that are predominately female (U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2002b). There are little
data on gays and lesbians, but here again there is evidence of inequalities
such as greater rates of termination (Croteau, 1996). A variety of factors
is likely to determine labor market outcomes, and a question addressed
to varying degrees in these chapters is how unfair discrimination in the
workplace is involved in these inequalities.
During the past century, social scientists from a variety of disciplines
have investigated discrimination, and over the last three to four decades
scholars have directed substantial attention to discrimination in the work
place. In this book, we summarize this previous scholarly work, exam­
ine the possible bases for integrating and interpreting this work, and set
an agenda for future work. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and other laws prohibiting
employment discrimination was a major impetus for the work on this
topic in personnel psychology and human research management. It is our
impression that much of the literature on I/O psychology stays within
the framework of the law to educate and assist employers in how to best
comply with these laws. The authors in this book were encouraged to go
beyond existing legal thinking and incorporate a multidisciplinary per­
spective.
This book is organized into three parts: (I) The fundamental causes
of discrimination; (II) research on discrimination against specific groups
(e.g., race, sex, disability); and (III) the implications of research and the­
ory for policy and practice aimed at reducing discrimination. We chose
to divide the book into these three parts because they reflect the general
lines of psychologically based research conducted in the area of employ­
ment discrimination. However, the chapters in each part also speak to
issues addressed in other sections. For example, the Brief, Butz, and Deitch
chapter on race in part II addresses the impact of the environment on dis­
crimination, an issue that is also relevant to part I regarding the causes of
discrimination.