Maintaining the system with tokenism: Bolstering individual mobility beliefs and identification with a discriminatory organization

Two experiments examined the effects of gender‐based token hiring practices in organizational settings. In Expt 1, women were exposed to organizational hiring practices that were open, token, or closed. Token practices served to perpetuate inequality by maintaining individual mobility beliefs and or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of social psychology 2010-06, Vol.49 (2), p.343-362
Main Authors: Danaher, Kelly, Branscombe, Nyla R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Beliefs
Biological and medical sciences
Borders
Boundaries
Career Mobility
Discrimination
Dominance
Emotions
Female
Females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender Identity
Hierarchy, Social
Hiring
Hiring Practices
Humans
Identification
Inequality
Judgment
Male
Males
Mobility
Organizational Culture
Organizational Policy
Organizations
Perceptions
Personnel Selection
Prejudice
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self Concept
Social Identification
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social mobility
Social psychology
Women
Women workers
Working Women
Young Adult
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Summary:Two experiments examined the effects of gender‐based token hiring practices in organizational settings. In Expt 1, women were exposed to organizational hiring practices that were open, token, or closed. Token practices served to perpetuate inequality by maintaining individual mobility beliefs and organizational identification. In Expt 2, both men and women imagined working for a corporation that planned to implement open, token, or closed hiring practices. Although women reported experiencing negative emotions in the closed and token conditions compared to the open condition, token practices maintained positive perceptions of the organization and individual mobility beliefs compared to the closed condition. Men endorsed more individual mobility beliefs as well as positive emotions in the token and closed conditions compared to the open condition. Token practices distort perceptions of fairness in both women and men. For women, token practices make group boundaries seem more negotiable than they actually are, while for men token practices legitimize their group's dominance.
ISSN:0144-6665
2044-8309
DOI:10.1348/014466609X457530