Toward an Understanding of Employment Discrimination Claiming: An Integration of Organizational Justice and Social Information Processing Theories

Abstract

This research examines predictors of actual discrimination claiming among terminated workers by investigating a number of variables suggested by organizational justice and social information processing theories. This study investigated initial decisions to claim in a sample of 439 terminated workers who were surveyed at several unemployment offices. Logistic regression was used to examine how the decision to claim for discrimination was affected by procedural and distributive justice, social guidance, minority status, gender, age, tenure, and education. All of the variables except education and gender were found to be significant. Thus, the results support variables from each of the theories. Social guidance was found to have a major influence on discrimination‐claiming. A counter‐intuitive finding for minority status was found such that Whites were more likely to claim than minorities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Towards a Custom-Made Whistleblowing Policy. Using Grid-Group Cultural Theory to Match Policy Measures to Different Styles of Peer Reporting

“…This idea of whistleblowing in the sense of following duty is connected to what Near and Miceli (1996: 511) call role-prescribed forms of reporting, referring to instances where individuals consider it their role responsibility to report wrongdoing. Hierarchy also implies that there is a sense of fairness about the system and internal procedures, which is in accordance with the findings in empirical research that individuals are more inclined to report misconduct when they perceive the organisation to be more just (Near et al, 1996: 511), or in other words when they think the organisation has a higher intensity of procedural and retributive justice (Victor et al, 1993;Goldman, 2001). The hierarchical decision not to blow the whistle on colleagues' misbehaviour is inspired by the idea that it is not your role or your responsibility to do so.…”

Selection fairness information and applicant reactions: A longitudinal field study.

“…Moreover, presenting information may reduce the proportion of applicants perceiving the process as unfair, something that may be important given the relationship between fairness and outcomes such as litigation (Goldman, 2001). Information about a test or process and explanations for delays in scoring can be easily and inexpensively presented to applicants.…”

Justice Expectations and Applicant Perceptions

“…In part, this is why employee referrals often are seen as a good source of applicants (see Zottoli & Wanous, 2000 for a review of the literature on recruiting sources). Also, Goldman (2001) demonstrated that the strongest predictor of discrimination-claiming behavior was social guidance, or the perceptions of family and friends that one had been treated unfairly. Ryan and Ployhart (2000) concluded that social information has been somewhat neglected in the applicant perceptions literature (with the exception of Bazerman, Schroth, Shah, Diekmann & Tenbrunsel, 1994, which showed that friends can influence one's perceptions of job offers).…”