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1 – 10 of over 5000Devalina Nag, David F. Arena and Kristen P. Jones
The purpose of this paper is to understand the implications of anticipated discrimination for women and racial minorities when they lose out on an opportunity for a promotion to a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the implications of anticipated discrimination for women and racial minorities when they lose out on an opportunity for a promotion to a similarly qualified non-minority colleague.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 248 participants who were full-time working adults residing in the USA were randomly assigned to one of four versions of the scenario in which a coworker was either a White male, a White female, a Black male or a Black female coworker is offered a desired promotion. Participants reported on the extent to which they anticipated discrimination (i.e. expect discriminatory behaviors enacted toward them in the future) in the hypothetical workplace.
Findings
Women and racial minorities reported anticipated discrimination at greater levels than non-minorities when passed over for a promotion. The authors also found that intersectionally stigmatized, racial minority women reported the highest levels of anticipated discrimination.
Practical implications
The authors recommend transparent and honest communication about organizations’ decision-making processes that have career-related implications for underrepresented populations. Doing so may help alleviate concerns or perceptions that employees may have in regard to organizational practices being (intentionally or unintentionally) discriminatory.
Originality/value
While research has examined the psychological implications of receiving a promotion, substantially less work has focused on the characteristics of the promoted coworker or considered how those characteristics shape perceptions of anticipating discrimination.
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Katherine Taken Smith and John A. De Leon
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become prioritized goals of business, such as hiring more women and racial minorities. This study adds to the body of research regarding…
Abstract
Purpose
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become prioritized goals of business, such as hiring more women and racial minorities. This study adds to the body of research regarding the value of diversity in organizations by examining the relationship between diversity at the workforce level and the financial performance of the organization. The empirical results of prior research have provided mixed results, finding mainly positive, but also negative, and nonsignificant relationships (Sharma et al., 2020; Vlas et al., 2022). The purpose of this study is to examine the current employment status of women and racial minorities in top US companies, then analyze if a correlation exists between a company’s profit margin and its percentage of women and racial minority employees and managers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study examined the top 200 companies in the Fortune 500 companies; these are the largest companies by revenue in the USA. Companies were ranked according to each variable (% of women employees, % of racial minority employees, % of women managers and % of racial minority managers) and then divided into equal quartiles. The mean profit margin for the top quartile was compared with the mean profit margin for the bottom quartile. T-tests were used to determine whether significant differences in profit margin exist between companies. This methodology of comparing top and bottom quartiles was developed in prior studies.
Findings
Fortune 200 companies have an average of 40% women and also 40% racial minorities in their workforce. Both women and racial minorities account for a smaller percentage of managers. Women account for 34% of managers, while racial minorities account for 29%. There is a significant positive relationship between profit margin and two of the variables. Companies with 45% or more women managers have a significantly higher profit margin than companies with the lowest percentages of women managers. Companies with 48% or more racial minority employees have a significantly higher profit margin than companies with the lowest percentages of racial minority employees. These findings are in-line with the existing body of research that has found mixed impacts of diversity on firm performance (cf. Hoobler et al., 2018; Leung et al., 2022) and draws attention to the need to consider the impact of gender and racial diversity on firms at various management levels within the firm to better understand the impact that increasing diversity has on firm performance (cf. Curado et al., 2022).
Originality/value
This paper adds to the body of knowledge by assessing the current status of women and racial minorities in top US companies and, then, analyzing if a correlation exists between a company’s profit margin and the number of women and racial minority employees and managers. Findings provide companies with further incentive to maintain DEI as a prioritized goal.
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This paper explores the labour‐market status and experience of racial minorities in Canada, and examines and criticises labour‐market policy which ignores the employment and…
Abstract
This paper explores the labour‐market status and experience of racial minorities in Canada, and examines and criticises labour‐market policy which ignores the employment and socio‐economic disadvantage of this group. The main argument of this discussion is that racial minorities as a whole encounter racial discrimination in the Canadian labour market, and new racial minority immigrants face compounded obstacles. This is due to the lack of adequate policy initiatives to combat the racism they experience in the attempt to find suitable employment, and to labour‐market policies which exclude services to immigrants. Examples of such obstacles are evident in the Canadian Job Strategy to be discussed below.
Alison Cook and Christy M. Glass
The purpose of this paper is to understand the conditions under which racial/ethnic minorities are promoted to top leadership positions in American corporations. In addition to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the conditions under which racial/ethnic minorities are promoted to top leadership positions in American corporations. In addition to testing the glass cliff theory for racial/ethnic minorities, the paper also develops and test two additional theoretical mechanisms: bold moves and the savior effect. While the glass cliff theory predicts racial/ethnic minorities will be promoted to struggling firms, the bold moves theory predicts the opposite, that racial/ethnic minorities will be promoted to strong firms. The savior effect predicts that minority CEOs will be replaced by white male leaders if firm performance struggles during their tenure.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper relies on conditional logistic regression to analyze all CEO transitions among Fortune 500 companies over a 15-year period.
Findings
Consistent with the bold moves thesis but contrary to the predictions of glass cliff theory, the results suggest that racial/ethnic minorities are more likely than white executives to be promoted CEO in strongly performing firms. As predicted by the savior effect theory, the paper also finds that when firm performance struggles under the leadership of racial/minority CEOs, these leaders are likely to be replaced by white CEOs.
Research limitations/implications
The findings contradict theory of the glass cliff and suggest additional mechanisms that shape the promotion probability of minority leaders.
Practical implications
Race and ethnicity shape promotion and replacement decisions for top leadership positions in important ways. While minority leaders are not set up to fail, as glass cliff theory would predict, the authors do find that confidence in the leadership of minority leaders may be tenuous. To overcome the risks of replacement of minority leaders, firms should seek to eliminate bias by allowing minority leaders enough time and resources to overcome declines in firm performance and increase the transparency of replacement decisions.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to test the glass cliff thesis with regard to racial/ethnic minorities. The paper also develops and tests two new mechanisms related to leader succession: bold moves and the savior effect.
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Carliss D. Miller, Orlando C. Richard and David L. Ford, Jr
In management research, little is known about how ethno-racial minority leaders interact with similar employees in supervisor–subordinate relationships. This study aims to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
In management research, little is known about how ethno-racial minority leaders interact with similar employees in supervisor–subordinate relationships. This study aims to examine and provide a deeper understanding of individuals’ negative reactions to similar others, thus highlighting the double-edged nature of demographic similarity which has historically predicted positive affective reactions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a survey design, the authors collected data from supervisor-subordinate dyads from multiple companies from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in Texas, USA. They used ordinary least squares regression and conditional process analysis to test the hypotheses, including a two-stage moderation and moderated mediation.
Findings
Incorporating social context, i.e. minority status, as a moderator, the results show that ethno-racial minority leaders supervising ethno-racially similar subordinates were more vulnerable to relationship conflict than non-minority dyads. This, in turn, is linked to a reduction in the leaders’ feelings of trust toward their ethno-racially similar subordinate.
Originality/value
This study draws on social identity theory and status characteristics theory to explain the contradictory processes and outcomes associated with dyadic ethno-racial similarity and suggests the conditions under which dyad racial similarity is connected with unfavorable outcomes. This framework helps to broaden the boundary conditions of relational demography to provide a more nuanced explanation of when and why minority leaders in demographically similar hierarchical dyads experience more relationship conflict, which ultimately diminishes trust.
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John Shjarback, Scott Decker, Jeff J. Rojek and Rod K. Brunson
Increasing minority representation in law enforcement has long been viewed as a primary means to improve police-citizen relations. The recommendation to diversify police…
Abstract
Purpose
Increasing minority representation in law enforcement has long been viewed as a primary means to improve police-citizen relations. The recommendation to diversify police departments was endorsed by the Kerner Commission and, most recently, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. While these recommendations make intuitive sense, little scholarly attention has examined whether greater levels of minority representation translate into positive police-community relations. The purpose of this paper is to use the representative bureaucracy and minority threat frameworks to assess the impact of the racial/ethnic composition of both police departments and municipalities on disparities in traffic stops.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of ordinary least squares regression analyses are tested using a sample of more than 150 local police agencies from Illinois and Missouri.
Findings
Higher levels of departmental representativeness are not associated with fewer racial/ethnic disparities in stops. Instead, the racial/ethnic composition of municipalities is more predictive of racial patterns of traffic stops.
Originality/value
This study provides one of the few investigations of representative bureaucracy in law enforcement using individual departments as the unit of analysis. It examines Hispanic as well as black disparities in traffic stops, employing a more representative sample of different size agencies.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in latent structures/dimensions in public perceptions of the police by race/ethnicity and level of identification with a given…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in latent structures/dimensions in public perceptions of the police by race/ethnicity and level of identification with a given race/ethnic group.
Design/methodology/approach
To identify differences in dimensions of juveniles’ perceptions of the police by the sub-samples, factor analyses were conducted utilizing data from the Gang Resistance Education and Training program evaluation.
Findings
The results show that minority juveniles have a relatively fragmented dimensional structure for the construct of perceptions of the police, while white juveniles have a unidimensional structure. Furthermore, moderate within-group differences in structures were found among African–American juveniles.
Research limitations/implications
The results of the current study call for further examination of racial invariant assumptions in criminology. Since individual dimensions constituting perceptions of the police vary by race/ethnicity, those dimensions may potentially have unique associations with endogenous variables (e.g. criminality and cooperation with the police) according to individuals’ racial/ethnic membership.
Practical implications
Police should clearly understand individuals’ dimensions constituting perceptions of the police and should identify dimensions that greatly impact precursors to compliance and cooperation with police such as perceived police legitimacy or perceived risk of sanction.
Originality/value
Individuals’ dimensions constituting perceptions of the police have significant implications on the construction of measures and their associations with other variables; however, racial differences in these dimensions have not been explored since Sullivan et al.’s (1987) research about three decades ago. In addition, the current study examined within-race differences in the dimensions constituting perceptions of the police.
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Florence Lui and Deidre M. Anglin
Ethnoracial minorities report a variety of discriminatory experiences due to systemic racism. Yet, few studies have examined whether gender and race/ethnicity interact to predict…
Abstract
Purpose
Ethnoracial minorities report a variety of discriminatory experiences due to systemic racism. Yet, few studies have examined whether gender and race/ethnicity interact to predict institutional discrimination and racial microaggressions through an intersectional approach.
Design/methodology/approach
A predominantly female (60%), ethnoracial minority (20.8% Black, 31.6% Asian, 30.8% Latina/o, 8.2% White, 6.6% Middle Eastern) sample of 895 undergraduates attending a minority-serving public university in an urban setting completed self-report measures of sociodemographic characteristics, experiences of racial microaggressions and institutional discrimination.
Findings
Significant (p < 0.05) gender × race/ethnicity interaction effects were found in several institutional discrimination domains: Males reported more police/court discrimination overall, but gender differences in police/court discrimination were less pronounced for non-Black vs Black students. While males tended to report more institutional discrimination than females, the reverse was true for the Middle Eastern group: Middle Eastern females reported institutional discrimination in more domains and more discrimination getting hired than their male counterparts. There was a significant race/ethnicity × gender interaction effect for environmental microaggressions: White males reported more environmental microaggressions than White females, but gender differences were not found in the overall sample.
Originality/value
This study is the first to the authors’ knowledge to assess the interactive effects of gender and ethnicity on the type of microaggressions experienced in a diverse sample that includes individuals of Middle Eastern descent. The authors highlight the range of discriminatory events that ethnoracially minoritized undergraduates experience, even at a minority-serving institution.
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Makes three contributions to the ongoing debate over whether racial discrimination is disappearing, and white privilege eroding. First, develops an argument concerning why many…
Abstract
Makes three contributions to the ongoing debate over whether racial discrimination is disappearing, and white privilege eroding. First, develops an argument concerning why many economists treat empirical evidence of racial discrimination with skepticism or indifference. Second, presents some new econometric results which provide empirical insight into whether racial inequality is disappearing in residential credit markets. These results suggest that for African Americans and Latinos, racial disadvantage remains statistically significant in most cities, though its magnitude has fallen during the 1990s in many cities. Third, suggests an empirical implementation of “white privilege” in the residential credit market. Consistently finds white advantage in credit markets to be statistically significant in an econometric model of residential loan approval and denial.
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Andrew R.M. Fisher, Guðmundur Oddsson and Takeshi Wada
The purpose of this paper is to integrate conflict theory's class and race perspectives to explain police force size in large cities in the USA.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to integrate conflict theory's class and race perspectives to explain police force size in large cities in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on US cities with populations of 250,000 or greater (n=64) are used to test whether class and/or racial factors impact police force size. The data are analyzed using OLS regression.
Findings
This study finds that class and race factors combine to impact police force size concurrently. By adjusting the model specifications of a recent article, which concludes police force size in large US cities is determined by racial factors and not class, this study shows that two class‐related factors – racial economic inequality and poverty – significantly influence police force size. Additionally, this analysis calls into question the importance of racial factors; specifically, the threat caused by minority presence and a city's history of racially coded violence.
Originality/value
Few conflict theorists have attempted to integrate class and race in order to explain police force size. The results of this study show that racial economic inequality interacts with poverty (class threat) and that they jointly affect police force size. This adds further nuance to the argument of the complex causal interaction of intersectionality and supports theoretical, methodological, and public policy shifts that blend class inequality and racial threat to explain police force size.
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