Challenging racism as a Black police officer: An emergent theory of employee anti-racism.

Abstract

Organizations are key mechanisms by which racism is enacted and perpetuated. Although much of the management literature has focused on organizational efforts to combat racial discrimination, some of the most transformative changes come from the everyday actions of employees themselves. In this study, we develop grounded theory on racial minority employees who choose to challenge racism from within the organizational structures that perpetuate it most (i.e., highly racialized organizations). We present a theoretical model of employee anti-racism that emerged from our analysis of qualitative data-comprising 80.7 audio hours from 48 interviews with Black law enforcement officers. This model articulates anti-racism motivation as a key mechanism that motivates racial minority employees to join and stay within highly racialized organizations. Our analysis suggests that these employees enact anti-racism behaviors targeted at both the racialized organization and their racial community, with these behaviors playing a critical role in positively transforming the interface between the organization and the communities that are harmed by racism. Perceptions of transformation help sustain racial minority employees' anti-racism motivation, particularly as they experience continued racism and encounter backlash for their anti-racism efforts. In the absence of perceived transformation, we found that racial minority employees are likely to withdraw from the highly racialized organization. Altogether, our study provides a theoretical and practical roadmap highlighting how racial minority employees combat racism via organizational membership and sustain their positive impact on both their work organization and their racial communities.

Supervisor integrity empowers employees to advocate for diversity in problematic climates.

“…While research generally suggests that employees are prone to engage in behaviors that align with the content of a specific climate (Leslie & Flynn, 2022; Stewart et al, 2011), in part because climates set norms around expected behavior (Thoroughgood et al, 2011; Treviño et al, 2014), we argue that supervisor integrity will instead have the strongest effects on empowerment and diversity advocacy in negative diversity climates. Specifically, by theorizing that climate can indicate an opportunity for change (Prengler et al, 2023), as opposed to solely setting normative expectations (Maier, 1955), we reason that a negative diversity climate will enhance the effects of supervisor integrity on empowerment and diversity advocacy.…”

Understanding racism in the workplace.

“…As groups may differentially contribute to, be impacted by, and oppose racism in organizations, its conceptualization and study as a system may advance our understanding of how relations between racial groups create emergent properties that influence group experiences and outcomes. Prengler et al (2023) extend this system perspective on racism by focusing on the practices, policies, and procedures that buttress, spread, and preserve racial hierarchies in organizations. Along with Jun et al (2023) who view organizations as systems that produce and reproduce racism, Prengler et al place organizations on a continuum varying according to the extent to which they decouple practice from formal rules, inhibit the agency of racial groups, and legitimate inequalities.…”

“…Prengler et al (2023) extend this system perspective on racism by focusing on the practices, policies, and procedures that buttress, spread, and preserve racial hierarchies in organizations. Along with Jun et al (2023) who view organizations as systems that produce and reproduce racism, Prengler et al place organizations on a continuum varying according to the extent to which they decouple practice from formal rules, inhibit the agency of racial groups, and legitimate inequalities.…”

Honing the Craft of Qualitative Data Collection in Extreme Contexts

“…These conversations have highlighted how conducting such work helps capture complex dynamics or relationships that “may be too weak to notice or capture in traditional settings, thus facilitating the development of rich theory” (Bamberger & Pratt, 2010, p. 668). Prior examples of extreme contexts which have been studied include the Libyan revolution (Basir et al, 2021), volunteer pedophile hunting teams (de Rond et al, 2022), nuclear meltdown (Perrow, 1984), law enforcement (Prengler et al, 2023), sex trafficking (Sawyer & Clair, 2022), chemical leaks (Shrivastava, 1987), and the Mann Gulch fire (Weick, 1993).…”