The current research targets 4 potential stereotypes driving hostile attitudes and discriminatory behaviors toward pregnant women: incompetence, lack of commitment, inflexibility, and need for accommodation. We tested the relative efficacy of reducing concerns related to each of the stereotypes in a field experiment in which female confederates who sometimes wore pregnancy prostheses applied for jobs in a retail setting. As expected, ratings from 3 perspectives (applicants, observers, and independent coders) converged to show that pregnant applicants received more interpersonal hostility than did nonpregnant applicants. However, when hiring managers received (vs. did not receive) counterstereotypic information about certain pregnancy-related stereotypes (particularly lack of commitment and inflexibility), managers displayed significantly less interpersonal discrimination. Explicit comparisons of counterstereotypic information shed light on the fact that certain information may be more effective in reducing discrimination than others. We conclude by discussing how the current research makes novel theoretical contributions and describe some practical organizational implications for understanding and improving the experiences of pregnant workers.

Organizational scholars study a number of sensitive topics that make employees and organizations vulnerable to unfavorable views. However, the typical ways in which researchers study these topics-via laboratory experiments and field surveys-can be laden with problems. In this article, the authors argue that the difficulties in studying sensitive topics can be overcome through the underutilized method of field experiments, detail strategies for conducting high-quality experimental field studies, and offer suggestions for overcoming potential challenges in data collection and publishing. As such, this article is designed to serve as a guide and stimulus for using the valuable methodological tool of field experiments.

Purpose – Previous research demonstrates the damaging effects of hostile sexism enacted towards women in the workplace. However, there is less research on the consequences of benevolent sexism: a subjectively positive form of discrimination. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from ambivalent sexism theory, the authors first utilized an experimental methodology in which benevolent and hostile sexism were interpersonally enacted toward both male and female participants. Findings – Results suggested that benevolent sexism negatively impacted participants' self-efficacy in mixed-sex interactions. Extending these findings, the results of a second field study clarify self-efficacy as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between benevolent sexism and workplace performance. Originality/value – Finally, benevolent sexism contributed incremental prediction of performance above and beyond incivility, further illustrating the detrimental consequences of benevolently sexist attitudes towards women in the workplace.

We extend prior work by disentangling the effects of 2 aspects of diversity management—numerical diversity and authenticity of efforts—that may contribute to people's perceptions and behavior. Using a 2 (Demographic Heterogeneity) × 2 (Projected Diversity Image) factorial design, Studies 1 and 2 revealed significant interactions suggesting that both demographic diversity and authentic attention to diversity management are necessary to create a reputation for genuine commitment to diversity that may protect organizations from perceptions of discrimination. The third study examined the effect of diversity management authenticity on insider employee interpersonal behaviors. Study 3 revealed that individuals enacted more interpersonal helping behaviors toward newcomers in more authentic organizations. Together, these studies examine authenticity from both inside and outside the company.

This article explores the behavioral outcomes of an understudied emotion, guilt, in the context of the work–family domain. Specifically, we propose that work–family guilt motivates both pro‐ and anti‐social behaviors in the workplace. Working undergraduate students in the United States completed qualitative and quantitative indicators of behavioral responses to work–family guilt. Results demonstrated that when individuals experienced family‐to‐work guilt, they responded with helping behaviors directed toward individuals. When individuals experienced work‐to‐family guilt, they responded by shirking of work responsibilities. Thus, work–family guilt may be a critical and underexplored determinant of extrarole behaviors and an important emotion to manage in order to sustain career and care roles.