Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2005

Abstract

In 2005, most large cities in the United States--those with populations of 400,000 or more--find that the majority of their residents are persons of color (US Census, 2000). Various non-profit and/or public sector organizations try to serve these populations; often, these agencies will employ a preponderance of persons from the communities they are attempting to serve to assure that clients can have direct contact with people who "look, speak and act like them". For the purpose of this analysis, when the majority of the employees are non-Euro-Americans, the agencies are called "non-dominant culture" organizations. This paper conceptualizes the impact that an individual's personal experiences of discrimination, "hardiness" and perceptions of group stereotypes have on his/her workplace behavior when employed in a non-dominant culture organization, specifically an African American one. The analysis looks at a number of what will be called "self-limiting" employee behaviors through the lens of individual dis-identification and reaction displacement in the workplace. The intent is to identify how these self-limiting behaviors subsequently affect organizational capacity.

Keywords

employees -- attitudes, dis-identification, ethnic identity, relative deprivation theory, self-limiting behaviors, stereotype threat

Rights

© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

Department/Center

Design & Innovation

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