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Organizational culture, perceived societal and organizational discrimination

Arief Banindro Kartolo (Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada)
Catherine T. Kwantes (Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada)

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

ISSN: 2040-7149

Article publication date: 26 February 2019

Issue publication date: 9 August 2019

2940

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the literature by exploring the perceived societal discrimination as an antecedent of perceived organizational discrimination, and investigating the impact of organizational culture (i.e. constructive, passive-defensive and aggressive-defensive culture norms) on perceptions of discrimination in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 176 American employees completed three surveys assessing perceived societal discrimination, perceived organizational discrimination and organizational culture online through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression method.

Findings

Results suggest individuals’ perceptions of discrimination in the workplace are influenced by both perceived discrimination in society and perceptions of behavioral norms related to organizational culture. Findings in the current study indicated individuals’ attitudes and beliefs manifested in the societal context were carried into, and reflected in, the workplace. Additionally, beliefs related to organizational discrimination were found to be amplified or minimized depending on organizational culture; specifically, organizations dominated by culture norms reflecting behaviors related to individual security needs predicted higher levels, and culture norms reflecting behaviors related to meeting employee satisfaction needs predicted lower levels of perceived organizational discrimination.

Originality/value

This paper tested theoretical frameworks debated in the literature by exploring beyond institutional boundaries in the study of perceived discrimination by exploring perceived societal discrimination as an antecedent to perceived organizational discrimination. This project also is the first study (to authors’ knowledge) to investigate the impact of organizational culture on perceived organizational discrimination.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Cheryl Boglarsky and Human Synergistics International for supplying the Organizational Culture Inventory® for this project.

Citation

Kartolo, A.B. and Kwantes, C.T. (2019), "Organizational culture, perceived societal and organizational discrimination", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 38 No. 6, pp. 602-618. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-10-2018-0191

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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