“I Think They Discriminated Against Me”: Using Prototype Theory and Organizational Justice Theory for Understanding Perceived Discrimination in Selection and Promotion Situations

Abstract

Research in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology has generally focused on objective measures of employment discrimination and has virtually neglected individuals' subjective perceptions as to whether a selection or promotion process is discriminatory or not. This paper presents two theoretical models as organizing frameworks to explain candidates' likelihood of perceiving that discrimination has occurred in a certain selection or promotion situation. The prototype model stresses the importance of the prototypical victim-perpetrator combination, the perceived intention of the decision-maker, and the perceived harm caused as possible antecedents of perceived employment discrimination. In the organizational justice model, procedural, informational, interpersonal, and distributive fairness play a central role in determining candidates' perceptions of discrimination. The fairness heuristic helps to explain which type of fairness information dominates these perceptions. Applications and research propositions are discussed as well as the similarities and differences between the two models. We conclude by offering several factors that may determine which model is used in deciding whether or not discrimination has occurred. Introduction E mployment discrimination is a major focus of research in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an important impetus for lawsuits in this area, and subsequent laws (e.g., the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) have served to increase litigation. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 appears to be a key turning point in terms of lawsuits, with the number of employment lawsuits growing more than 20 percent annually in the last decade (Sharf & Jones, 1999). From an organization's viewpoint, class action lawsuits are of particular concern because of the potential costs involved. Even if a case is settled out of court, the costs can run into millions of dollars (Sharf & Jones, 1999). As an example, Wal-Mart Corporation was recently sued for sex discrimination in pay and promotions with a potential ''class'' of some 1.5 million members. I/O psychologists have played a significant role in the employment discrimination area, particularly with regard to the development of selection and promotion processes that will withstand legal scrutiny (e.g., Terpstra, Mohamed, & Kethley, 1999;Williamson, Campion, Malos, Roehling, & Campion, 1997 either for plaintiffs or defendants regarding the legality of these processes. Accordingly, there exists an impressive literature in I/O psychology regarding measures of the discriminatory impact (e.g., the Four-Fifths rule of thumb, the Fisher exact test, differential prediction) of various selection and promotion processes. There is also a relatively small, but rapidly growing, literature addressing why the tendency for bias and discrimination exists and the interventions that can reduce this problem (e.g., Brief & Barsky, 2000;Hewstone, Rubin, & Willis, 2002). Most recently, Kunda and Spencer (2003) develope...

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