When Justice Promotes Injustice: Why Minority Leaders Experience Bias When They Adhere to Interpersonal Justice Rules

‘Why Even Bother Trying?’ Examining Discouragement among Racial‐Minority Entrepreneurs

“…Our analysis controls for age, experience, and education and still finds consistent evidence that racial identity – as shaped by important historical and social forces – influences entrepreneurial behaviour in a fundamental manner. Likewise, organizational research focused on the role of race has generally been concerned with how race might predict the manner in which racial minorities are treated by other actors, such as why certain individual are subjected to stereotypes (Zapata et al, ), and remain underrepresented and socially isolated in certain areas of modern organizations, such as the upper echelon (McDonald and Westphal, ; Westphal and Stern, ). Yet, this vein of research has yet to consider how racial minorities may make decisions and behave in a manner that might allow them to shield themselves from these negative stimuli.…”

“…Further, at an individual level, these experiences may become deeply ingrained belief systems about one's own prospects of success in winning institutional support. Indeed, the difficulties that racial minorities have historically experienced in entrepreneurship, the workplace, and society are well‐documented in a number of countries (e.g., Leicht, ; McDonald and Westphal, ; Ram and Smallbone, ; Sanders and Nee, ; Zapata et al, ).…”

“…Accordingly, organizational scholars have been drawn to studying the experiences of racial minorities within the workforce and the workplace. Recent scholarly examinations show that racial minorities continue to experience increased inequality in workplace power and status (Elliott and Smith, ; Joshi and Knight, ; Leicht, ), are still subjected to stereotypes (Zapata et al, ), and remain underrepresented and socially isolated in the corporate upper echelon (McDonald and Westphal, ; Park and Westphal, ; Zhu et al, ). Such inequalities produce unique challenges and opportunities for members of marginalized communities.…”

How Interpersonal Justice Shapes Legitimacy Perceptions: The Role of Interpersonal Justice Trajectories and Current Experience

“…We argue that it is easier to process an act of interpersonal justice than an act of interpersonal injustice because fair treatment by an authority is consistent with individuals' general expectations (Folger and Cropanzano, 2001;Caleo, 2016;Zapata et al, 2016;Koopman L. et al, 2019). This allows the individual to direct their limited attentional resources to other information, such as information based on previous experience (Lind, 2001;Chaiken and Ledgerwood, 2012;Zapata et al, 2016).…”

“…By contrast, a current experience of interpersonal injustice typically violates the assumption that an authority will be fair, requiring individuals to devote attention to and systematically process the authority's actions (Lind, 2001;Zapata et al, 2016;Barclay et al, 2017;Koopman L. et al, 2019). Negative events trigger more effort at sense-making than positive events do (Baumeister et al, 2001), requiring systematic processing rather than automatic processing (Mayer and Gavin, 2005;Roberson, 2006;Posten and Mussweiler, 2013).…”