How to support diverse employees coping with discrimination at work

Suggested audience: corporate citizenship professionals, top leaders, internal communications, human resources

Takeaway: Adopting and encouraging active measures to address race discrimination (seeking supervisor intervention, filing a formal HR complaint, etc.) may improve employee satisfaction with, trust in, and commitment to their employers. 

Researchers conducted an online survey of more than 450 full-time U.S. employees who self-identified as racial/ethnic minorities. Researchers surveyed participants about the degree to which they experience discrimination in the workplace, including both professional discrimination (e.g., “Race/ethnicity has negatively affected the way my career has progressed”) and social discrimination (e.g., “At work, people make jokes or negative commentaries about my race/ethnicity”). The researchers tested whether an employee’s coping strategy in the face of discrimination was:

• Active: seeking supervisor intervention, filing formal HR complaint
• Passive: avoidance of offender, denial of event, acceptance of discrimination

They also asked participants about internal communications, word-of-mouth communications, and an employee’s trust in, commitment to, and satisfaction with their organization. Quality of employer  communication was gauged by degree of employee participation in information sharing, completeness of information shared, and the company’s ability to be accountable to criticism. 

Key findings:

People of color who experience discrimination at work are less likely to adopt an active coping strategy and more likely to adopt a passive one.

• Those who are encouraged to adopt active coping strategies are more likely to feel trust in, commitment to, and satisfaction with their organizations.
• Those who adopt active coping are more likely to speak positively about their employer to friends and family.

Corporate communication acknowledging negative events related to discrimination and encouraging active coping strategies  can lessen the negative effect that discrimination has on organizational commitment/satisfaction for employees of color. It also lessens the likelihood that the discriminated employee takes on a passive coping strategy.