The role of perceived autonomy‐supportive communication for motivating prejudice reduction and avoiding defiant backlash within the police force workplace

Abstract

Workplace prejudice‐reduction efforts tend to be short lived at best, and can even arouse defiance, or a desire to oppose requests or rules, in employees. The motivational approach of self‐determination theory (SDT) describes how communicating about prejudice reduction can be scaffolded in ways that inspire genuine motivation and avoid eliciting defensive responses. From an SDT perspective, such autonomy‐supportive communications take the perspective of the employee, provide choice about how to best approach attitude change, provide a rationale or compelling reason for the importance of change, offer structure through explaining the consequences of bias, and avoid the use of shame to compel change. In two multi‐wave studies with British police officers and staff, we hypothesized that employees would report lower prejudice (operationalized as having less antagonistic attitudes toward police forces investing in diversity) when they perceived forces to communicate about prejudice in autonomy‐supportive ways (Studies 1 and 2). We also tested whether this association would be explained by lower defiance when perceiving the force to communicate in autonomy‐supportive ways (Study 2). Results supported the main effect of perceived autonomy‐supportive communication relating to lower prejudice in multi‐wave (Study 1, n = 1226) and longitudinal data (Study 2, n = 232). We consider implications for communicating about prejudice‐reduction efforts in the workplace.

Anti‐bias training and perceived force climate: Links with prejudiced attitudes in United Kingdom policing

“…Items were 'The force puts too much emphasis on issues concerning minority groups,' 'Minority groups demand too much from the force' and 'Over the past few years people from minority groups have received more attention than they deserve.' Items showed good reliability (α = 0.90), and this scale, including this three-item version, have been used in prior work in policing and show high correlations with other commonly used measures of prejudice, such as the feeling thermometer (Weinstein et al, 2022).…”

“…They indicated their agreement (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree) on five items assessing how much they perceive their force provides autonomy support around the issue of bias reduction (e.g., 'The force has clearly communicated the reasons and need for treating individuals from minority groups in a non-biased manner'; 'People at work try to make me feel ashamed in order to get me to act without bias towards individuals from minority groups,' reverse-coded). Items showed good reliability (α = 0.79), and this scale, including this shortened five-item version, has been used in prior work in policing and shows links with prejudice crosssectionally and over time (Weinstein et al, 2022).…”

“…Participants were asked a brief 5‐item version of the Autonomy Support to Reduce Bias scale (Weinstein et al, 2022). This scale asks participants how they experience messages within their force about ‘attitudes and behaviours towards individuals from minority groups, or those who are different from you (for example, those of a different race, ethnicity, or religion).’ They indicated their agreement (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree ) on five items assessing how much they perceive their force provides autonomy support around the issue of bias reduction (e.g., ‘The force has clearly communicated the reasons and need for treating individuals from minority groups in a non‐biased manner’; ‘People at work try to make me feel ashamed in order to get me to act without bias towards individuals from minority groups,’ reverse‐coded).…”

“…Participants were asked a brief 5-item version of the Autonomy Support to Reduce Bias scale (Weinstein et al, 2022). This scale asks participants how they experience messages within their force about 'attitudes and behaviours towards individuals from minority groups, or those who are different from you (for example, those of a different race, ethnicity, or religion).'…”

“…Communicating about bias using autonomy support motivates people to find the value in, and place importance on, prejudice reduction by providing good reasons to change, and concrete strategies on how to achieve change, while avoiding shaming and pressuring people. Fieldwork in policing shows that forces that provide autonomy support for reducing bias predict less prejudiced attitudes among officers and staff (Weinstein et al, 2022). However, this motivational factor has never been examined alongside training; perceiving autonomy support from the force may strengthen links between training and attitudes by motivating change in accord with insights gained in training.…”