Interpersonal Mistreatment, Perceived Discrimination and Minority Identity Management: An Attribution Theory Perspective

The negative consequences of racial discrimination for both individuals and society are well documented. In this study, we focused on how workplace incivility (e.g., being ignored, ostracized, or ridiculed by a colleague) relates to perceived interpersonal racial discrimination and addressed the following research questions:

• Do employees of color (Black, Hispanic, or Asian) experience more (or fewer) uncivil behaviors at work, compared with white employees?
• Does being socially integrated in the workplace mitigate experiencing uncivil behaviors at work for both white employees and employees of color?
• Does the frequency of experiencing uncivil behaviors relate to perceived interpersonal racial discrimination?

To address these questions, we conducted a seven-week survey study with 150 administrative staff at a mid-Atlantic university to understand how frequently they experience uncivil behaviors and how such treatment relates to their perceptions of racial discrimination. At the beginning of the study, we asked questions to measure their social integration in their work unit, along with gathering a number of demographics. For each of the next six weeks, the participants responded to separate surveys asking if they experienced any incidences of incivility (Friday surveys) and if they believe they were discriminated against based on their race in the previous week (Monday surveys). Of the 150 participants, 79 percent were female and 44 percent identified as an employee of color.

Findings

Three findings emerged from the study. First, employees of color and white employees experienced similar levels of uncivil behavior during the six-week study period. Second, employees of color who were highly socially integrated in their work units experienced the least amount of incivility, compared with employees of color who were not socially integrated and all white employees. Third, experiencing incivility was strongly, positively, related to perceptions of interpersonal racial discrimination for employees of color.

This third finding is consistent with attribution ambiguity theory which argues that employees of color are more likely to attribute negative treatment (such as being treated in an uncivil manner) to racism due to systemic racism in society.

Practical Implications

Experiencing uncivil behavior has a disproportionately negative psychological impact on employees of color due to their heightened perception of racial discrimination. Thus, it is all the more important for organizations to institute practices to eliminate incivility at work, such as policy statements forbidding it, leader development training to sensitize leaders to it, and climate surveys to track it.

Social integration can help employees of color mitigate the experience of incivility. This can be achieved through team-building activities to improve group cohesion and informal socializing.

Key Considerations

 If we were to implement the findings of this research in another company or for a different job, we would consider the following things to contribute to a successful outcome. Our sample was primarily female, so the results may not generalize to male employees of color. Our sample size was also somewhat small, so we need to collect more data to validate the findings in a larger sample. We collected the data during the COVID-19 pandemic period when many employees were working remotely. We thus measured incivility with respect to virtual and "in-person" interactions. Our results may differ in settings where most employees work at the office on most days.

Future Research

Now that more employees are working primarily in person, we plan to conduct a second study with a larger sample size.

Maria L. Kraimer is the associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion and professor in the Department of Human Resource Management at the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University; Lawrence Houston III is assistant professor of Human Resource Management at the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University; Jerry Liu is a Ph.D. student in the department of Human Resource Management at the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University; and Scott E. Seibert is professor of Human Resource Management at the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University.