Defining Generalized Workplace Discrimination

Abstract

Typically, workplace discrimination is approached from the perspective of a particular dimension (e.g., race or gender). This offers insight but also obscures important communality among different types of discrimination. We propose a construct of generalized workplace discrimination that clarifies the overlap among different types of discriminatory experiences and allows for a conceptualization and validation of discrimination as a psychological construct. Moreover, examination of this construct, and its antecedents and consequences, begins to answer calls for general models of discrimination while offering suggestions for situations under which the uniquenesses of discrimination against various target groups are more versus less prominent.

Keywords: Discrimination, Generalized, General, Work, Workplace, Harassment, Sex, Race, Gender, Ethnic, Age, Job Satisfaction, Turnover, Attrition, Sexual Harassment

JEL Classification: J70, J71, J78, J79, J10, J16, D63, J28, K31, K42, M12, M50, M51, M52, M54, M59