Page 374 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

14. LAW AND PSYCHOLOGY
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with unconscious and automatic discrimination that affect their ability to
succeed.
Researchers have begun to focus on factors affecting the likelihood
of a person with a disability requesting a workplace accommodation
(Florey & Harrison, 2000) and coworkers' reactions when workplace
accommodations are made (Colella, 2001; Paetzold, Colella, Garcia, &
Simnons, 2003). Justice research needs to be extended to reveal what
happens when coworkers experience negative justice perceptions toward
workers with a disability who are given accommodations. Equity theory
would suggest, for example, that to reestablish a balance in proportion
of rewards to inputs, coworkers might engage in subversive efforts to
reduce the rewards to workers with disabilities who are accommodated
(Adams, 1965). These rewards could be the accommodations themselves
or rewards given for performance. Alternatively, unions could be used
to assist all workers in obtaining the same reward level (or the same per­
ceived performance level) so that everyone in the workplace benefits—and
persons with disabilities could be perceived as receiving no preferential
treatment at all. These outcomes would be important because they could
suggest "undue hardship" rationales for the employer to avoid accom­
modation (ADA, 1990) and such rationales would tend to undermine the
goals of the ADA. Field studies are needed to determine actual outcomes
for workers who are disabled and ways of compensating for them so that
they enjoy the same opportunities to work as those who are not currently
disabled.
Because justice theory also helps to explain opposition to affirmative
action, and because the reasonable accommodation model is akin to affir­
mative action in the sense that the protected class characteristics are taken
into account in decision making, it would be expected that parallels be­
tween affirmative action and reasonable accommodation would exist. For
example, do coworkers (or the public) view disability as a "plus factor"
that is taken into account when a worker who is disabled is hired? Do
coworkers and/or the public tend to view employees with disabilities as
unqualified? If so, does this lead to the same sense of violation of entitle­
ment in affirmative action and disability hiring?
A relative dearth of research relating to disabilities, accommodations,
and resulting workplace issues exists in psychological and organizational
literature, thereby providing many research opportunities for new and
established scientists in these areas. Social science research could inform
the law as to difficulties employees or applicants may have in asking for
accommodation—an important legal prerequisite to accommodation—in
addition to the ways in which bias and perceptions of unfairness may affect
employer and coworker reactions to accommodations.