Allegations of Mistreatment in an Era of Harm Avoidance: Taboos, Challenges, and Implications For Management

Signaling virtuous victimhood as indicators of Dark Triad personalities.

“…Although deservingness perceptions and willingness to help were both directionally the highest in the strong victim/virtue signal condition, the effect of the virtue signal was higher when the victim signal was weak, compared with when it was strong. This result can be interpreted in light of existing research on moral typecasting (Gray & Wegner, 2009) and victim sanctification (Graso, Reynolds, & Grover, 2019), which suggest that being a victim can spontaneously increase perceptions of one's morality, thereby rendering the additive effect of virtue signal less pronounced. In our next study, we used a different design to conduct another test of our hypothesis.…”

“…Although not directly tested in our studies, the current cultural climate in many Western societies may provide a more hospitable environment for those who use this signal to flourish and pursue their goals. Graso et al (2019) argue that the contemporary culture of harm-avoidance seen in Western societies sanctifies the role of the victim, and this heightened sensitivity can lead to victimization claims being accepted uncritically, creating a challenge for addressing these allegations impartially. As an illustration of this, consider the recent case of a Chipotle restaurant employee who was accused of racial discrimination by a customer who posted his account of the episode on social media.…”

Who Do I (Dis)Trust and Monitor for Ethical Misconduct? Status, Power, and the Structural Paradox

“…One noteworthy outcome of monitoring is that the accusers of ethical misconduct are perceived as having high ethical standards when they accuse others (Kennedy & Schweitzer, 2018 ). This suggests that ethical monitoring can be exploited for personal gain and, thus, has the potential to contribute to a climate of organizational mistreatment of employees (Graso et al, 2020 ; Kennedy & Schweitzer, 2018 ). As remote workplace dynamics give monitoring a more tangible role, there is a need to know more about which actors are most vulnerable to be typecast as perpetrators of unethical behavior and the cues that trigger decisions to ethically monitor them.…”

Organizational power embodied in hand and finger touchlines

“…Management is a sociological endeavor drawing also upon psychology, anthropology, history, politics and economics through its theory and practice, thus deriving power to move people toward strategic organizational objectives. Despite increased regulations to protect human rights and safety, the abuse of people within the management systems of organizations has continued (Kim et al , 2015; Madsen and Scribner, 2017; Johnson et al , 2018; Graso et al , 2020; Lee et al , 2020). People working in organizations in many contexts and places experience harassment, discrimination, inequity, overwork and unsafe work practices (Nossiter, 2019).…”

“…Additionally, we follow Winchester's (2016) recommendation that the explanatory power of embodied metaphor should apply more often in organizational analysis and respond to Li's (2016) call for ancient indigenous epistemological systems to assume a role in contemporary management studies. This is especially relevant in the light of continued abuses of power and influence across group and organizational settings around the world (Kim et al , 2015; Madsen and Scribner, 2017; Graso et al , 2020; Lee et al , 2020). The paper does not revolve around gesticulations, instead revealing conceptual relationships within the implementation of influence in the context of management decisions.…”