Literature Review
Employees play a significant role in the success of an organization. For them to be productive, they require a conducive work environment that supports their individual and professional growth. A pleasant environment fosters their morale to work hard and meet the set goals and objectives (Edem et al., 2017). Sometimes, employees face different challenges that make them develop a negative attitude towards their work, which interferes with their productivity. Being in an unsafe environment, for instance, may lower down their spirit, and hence the employer may record poor performance. One of the critical challenges affecting employee performance is workplace discrimination. Therefore, the review explores the relationship between workplace discrimination and employee’s disaffection / resulting performance.
Workplace Discrimination
Discrimination is when other individuals get more preference than others, hence favoring one party at the expense of the other. Hughes and Dodge (1997) study reveal that discriminated employees get heavy workloads, low task variety, limited authority to decision-making, and inadequate supervision. Workplace discrimination takes many forms, as it can be treatment towards an individual based upon a stereotype. In some cases, we see forms of mild forms of discrimination. These are cases where people can be the target, or it can go unnoticed Tacneaux (2012). Tacneaux (2012) further discusses various studies focusing on discrimination and mentions it as the act of treating people differently based on gender, race, religion, and other aspects favoring one person over the other. The study of Taylor et al. (2013) identified discrimination-based age, gender, and economic positions to affect an employee’s respect at work, job security, training, and delegation of personally meaningful work. Discrimination can serve as a tactic to make others feel less superior, especially when coming from a higher-up such as management. It is also possible that a coworker can discriminate against another employee as well. Also, some forms of discrimination occur due to one’s racial affiliation. Stressors can also influence workplace discrimination. For instance, Hughes and Dodge (1997) indicate interpersonal prejudices and institutionalized discrimination as occupational stressors that affect employee performance.
The worst form of workplace discrimination is based on racial and ethnic affiliation of a person. According to McGowan (2010), perceived ethnic discrimination affects the organizational citizenship behavior of an employee. He further reports a correlation between work discrimination and gender, where men experience more cases of ethnic discrimination that women (Gowen, 2010). Chen and Klein (1999) note that despite America being considered a free state, the Black people still experience high racial discrimination levels. They further indicate that racial harassment increasingly affects the working population of the United States (Chen & Klein, 1999), and this impacts the structure and the process of an organization. Most employees are likely to work on an assignment that is beyond their level of training. Hughes and Dodge (1997) note that African-American women tend to face this challenge in the American workforce, where they work as support staff and receive lower wages. Biased job opportunities give women less opportunity to explore their abilities and further their skill and training following the low level of skill utilization and decision-making.
The problem of workplace discrimination of women has been prevalent across the world, and this calls for action to address the problem and employ women in jobs that meet their academic qualifications. Tacneaux (2012) notes that some individuals feel the impact of racial discrimination during the hiring process. Glen et al. (2000) supports the argument and notes that many African-American fail to secure jobs due to the use of unstructured interviews that locks them out. Even after securing it, they face different forms of discrimination that affect their work. Therefore, most of them become dissatisfied with the job and would prefer to leave the profession. The study further notes that ethnicity is a critical issue in American workplaces as different employing organizations portray some diversity issues that require urgent attention (Glen et al., 2000). Though a job applicant has the right to know why he/she did not get the job, most of them have the qualifications but fail to get job opportunities based on their race. However, Chen and Klein (1999) blame the federal law, which does not provide a clear line between employees’ freedom of speech and intentional harassment, so many managers may think that they are launching a complaint on the employees. Still, in the real sense, they are harassing them. Therefore, Chen and Klein (1999) advise employees to be aware of their rights to receive equal treatment such that employers will not abuse or manipulate them.
Work Disaffection/Performance as a Result of Workplace Discrimination
Workplace discrimination has significant impacts on the performance of employees. Employees suffer serious social, economic, and psychological implications, and this impacts their work satisfaction and performance. The study of Dwomoh et al. (2015) found that when an employee is unhappy, whether in the hiring phase or while working for the company, he/she will register poor performance for the company and may ultimately quit the job. McGowan (2010) reports that ethnic discrimination harms the job attitude, including job behaviors and organizational citizenship. Also, it reduces job satisfaction and affective commitment among employees, which will lead to poor performance (McGowan, 2010). Workplace discrimination affects company decisions on the welfare of employees. Pandita and Domnic (2019) assess the implication of workplace discrimination among library and Information Science employees of Jammu & Kashmir in India. The study notes that religious and racial discrimination at work affects decisions on promotion, pay, recognition, administrative interference, research grants, and leave admissibility (Pandita & Domnic, 2019). Though the study notes that employees have never encountered any form of isolation or insults from the management and peers, the victim experience change in their professional and personal life, leading to a lowered self-esteem, dismay, unhappiness, and consequential job satisfaction. According to Taylor et al. (2013) discrimination based on age, gender, and economic positions affect an employee’s respect at work, job security, training, and delegation of personally meaningful work, and these aspects affect job satisfaction his/her psychosocial wellbeing of a person. Since most of these discriminations go unnoticed, the employers should rise to the occasion and address the problem at work level, considering that low employee satisfaction leads to lower performance and may consequentially lead to the collapse of the business.
The study by Dwomoh et al. (2015) concluded that workplace discrimination does not affect employee performance based on the questionnaires filled by one hundred fifty-nine Ghanaian employees to examine the effect of workplace discrimination on employee performance. Therefore, Dwomoh et al. (2015) recommend that the management be allowed to make decisions that would improve performance, considering that they are underperforming.
To address the problem of workplace discrimination, Tacneaux (2012) recommends a change in policies and structures at the organization level. Tacneaux (2012) consider the fact that different workplaces have different types and levels of discrimination, and they are, therefore, in the best position to address the problem within themselves. Besides, Hirsh and Lyons (2010) recommend the spirit of legal consciousness among employers and employees to remedy workplace discrimination. They advise employees to invoke Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects workers from discrimination. In this case, Hirsh and Lyons (2010) further note that they should report their claims to the local and federal agencies. Therefore, employees should always be aware of actions that define discrimination and use the present anti-discrimination regulatory framework to invoke their rights. Wood et al. (2013) support the above argument but notes that it is essential for the organization to differentiate between organizational justice and differential power. In this case, that some acts such as workplace violence and aggression may not result from discrimination, but instead happen due to the arbitrator (Wood et al. 2013). This results from one’s influence, ability to punish, specialty, and the ability to reward. Therefore, the study recommends that mediation among employees and addressing workplace discrimination should be the work of the organizational leadership following their influence and skills to eradicate the problem among employees (Wood et al. 2013).
Conclusion
Workplace discrimination refers to a situation in which other employees get more preference than others, hence favoring one employee at the expense of the other. Discriminated employees get heavy workloads, low task variety, limited authority to decision-making, and inadequate supervision. Discrimination in the workplace might be based on age, gender, and economic positions to affect an employee’s respect at work, job security, training, and delegation of personally meaningful work. The worst form of workplace discrimination is based on racial and ethnic affiliation of a person. The problem of gender-based workplace discrimination can be eliminated by hiring employees based on merit and academic qualification rather than age, gender, and economic positions. The problem of workplace discrimination can be addressed through change in policies and structures at the organization level. Mediation among employees and organizational leadership to address workplace discrimination should be conducted more often.
References
Chen, C. H., & Kleiner, B. H. (1999). Racial harassment in the workplace. Equal Opportunities International.
Dwomoh, G., Owusu, E. E., & Mensah, A. F. (2015). Workplace Discrimination and Its Influence on Employees Performance: The Case of Ghana. International Journal of Information, Business, and Management, 7(3), 226.
Edem, M. J., Akpan, E. U., & Pepple, N. M. (2017). Impact of workplace environment on health workers. Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs, 5(2), 1-5.
Hirsh, E., & Lyons, C. J. (2010). Perceiving discrimination on the job: Legal consciousness, workplace context, and the construction of race discrimination. Law & Society Review, 44(2), 269-298.
Hughes, D., & Dodge, M. A. (1997). African American women in the workplace: Relationships between job conditions, racial bias at work, and perceived job quality. American journal of community psychology, 25(5), 581-599.
McGowan, H. (2010). Relationships among perceived ethnic discrimination, job attitudes, and behaviors. A Thesis.
Moyes, G. D., Williams, P. A., & Quigley, B. Z. (2000). The relation between perceived treatment discrimination and job satisfaction among African-American accounting professionals. Accounting Horizons, 14(1), 21-48.
Pandita, R., & Domnic, J. (2019). Overcoming workplace discrimination and job dissatisfaction in academic libraries: A Study. Library Philosophy and Practice, 1-24.
Tacneaux, N. (2012). Discrimination in The Workplace: Race, Age, and Gender Discrimination -Impact on Performance in The Public Sector: A Collection of Related Papers. ProQuest LLC.
Taylor, P., Mcloughlin, C., Meyer, D., & Brooke, E. (2013). Everyday discrimination in the workplace, job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing: Age differences and moderating variables. Ageing & Society, 33(7), 1105-1138.
Wood, S., Braeken, J., & Niven, K. (2013). Discrimination and wellbeing in organizations:
Testing the differential power and organizational justice theories of workplace aggression. Journal of business ethics, 115(3), 617-634.
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