The Need for Understanding and Addressing Microaggressions in the Workplace

Abstract

The special issue on microaggressions highlighted how subtle interpersonal bias is complex, harms its targets, and reinforces established systems of inequity. The aim of this commentary is to contribute an organizational science perspective to this insightful and important dialogue. Given that the workplace is a microcosm of the broader society where adults spend most of their waking hours, studying microaggressions in this context can shed light on their unique manifestations and consequences, as well as methods to address this unique source of workplace adversity. Unlike other social contexts, many employees do not have complete autonomy over whom they interact with (e.g., choosing one’s supervisor, officemates, or clients) and what they are able to convey authentically and safely in those interactions (i.e., choices about how one responds to microaggressions). As a result, people from minoritized backgrounds must often maintain professional relationships with colleagues or supervisors who harbor bias and (un)consciously convey it via microinvalidations, microassaults, and microinsults. Further, reward systems in the world of work (e.g., wages, promotions) may not only reflect but also reinforce systems of disadvantage (e.g., who experiences social mobility). In addition to understanding microaggressions in the workplace, there is a need to actively address them. We engage with Ong et al., Johnson et al., and Spanierman et al. to suggest that organizational understanding and remediation of microaggressions offers a viable avenue for challenging systems of oppression and fostering employee and organizational resilience to adversity.

Cultural stress among immigrants in the workforce.

“…Unlike selective incivility, microaggressions specifically reflect the enactor’s biases about the target’s identity; for instance, telling a Black, indigenous and other people of color person they do not need sunscreen. Although microaggressions can be portrayed as less intentional, research supports their negative behavioral, physical, and psychological outcomes: they have been associated with lower job satisfaction, motivation, and organizational commitment (Fattoracci & King, 2023) and decreased well-being (Kim et al, 2017).…”

Disrupting Cisheteropatriarchy in Society and the Workplace: The Role of HRD Education

“…They also reveal the active presence of cisheteropatriarchy in the workplace. Given that the workplace, mirroring the broader society, exhibits the prejudices and preconceptions that are ingrained in our cultural milieu (Fattoracci and King, 2022), it is incumbent upon HRD education to expose students to the ways in which cisheteropatriarchy structures workplaces so, as HRD practitioners, they can work towards disrupting it.…”