Discrimination At Work

Consists of interviews with American professors.

This edited volume in the SIOP Organizational Frontiers series brings together top scholars in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with social psychologists to explore the research and theory relating to the various areas of workplace discrimination

The Oxford Handbook of Workplace Discrimination provides readers with a broad and interdisciplinary review of state-of-the-art research on discrimination in the workplace. In this volume, Colella, King, and their contributing authors examine the unique experiences of people from diverse perspectives and communities (including religious minorities, gay and lesbian workers, and people with disabilities); explore the myriad ways in which discrimination can manifest and its overall consequences; offer explanations for discrimination; and discuss strategies for reduction.

Workplace discrimination is an experience that, despite four decades of equality legislation, continues to blight the lives of thousands every year. Discrimination persists on the protected grounds of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and gender reassignment, as well as where no legal protection exists such as in relation to class background or migration status. The Handbook discusses recent changes in equality legislation as well as considering the limitations of legal frameworks in addressing inequality. However, complying with the law is only the first step towards addressing discrimination in the workplace, and the book goes beyond the law and provides evidence of good practice in promoting organisational culture change, as well as considering future directions for policy on equality action. The Gower Handbook of Discrimination at Work looks at both social justice and business case perspectives, and its message is not a negative one. The contributors have considerable depth of understanding of workplace discrimination, both as academics and equality practitioners, their work has contributed to policy formation and all are committed to improving the lives of people at work. They offer insights into existing international developments and make suggestions for the ways in which positive change can be realised. Practitioners, such as human resources professionals and other managers involved in addressing equality at work, trade unionists, equality trainers, and academics concerned with researching or teaching in the areas of employment and equality will all find this book of interest. Furthermore, it will be of value to students in the fields of business and management, employment law, equality and diversity and human resource management.

Race, Gender, and Discrimination at Work is a review of the determinants of wage and employment discrimination by firms against minorities and women. Aimed at sociology undergraduates, the book assumes no pre-existing social scientific knowledge. Downplaying family and cultural factors in favour of an analysis of the roles played by organizational,

Considers the practical realities of applying the law on a day-to-day basis and answers all the common questions, covering: what harrassment is and how to stop it, when and how discrimination occurs, how to conduct training, how to handle employee complaints, and much more. Original.

Gerry Handley faced years of blatant race-based harassment before he filed a complaint against his employer: racist jokes, signs reading “KKK” in his work area, and even questions from coworkers as to whether he had sex with his daughter as slaves supposedly did. He had an unusually strong case, with copious documentation and coworkers’ support, and he settled for $50,000, even winning back his job. But victory came at a high cost. Legal fees cut into Mr. Handley’s winnings, and tensions surrounding the lawsuit poisoned the workplace. A year later, he lost his job due to downsizing by his company. Mr. Handley exemplifies the burden plaintiffs bear in contemporary civil rights litigation. In the decades since the civil rights movement, we’ve made progress, but not nearly as much as it might seem. On the surface, America’s commitment to equal opportunity in the workplace has never been clearer. Virtually every company has antidiscrimination policies in place, and there are laws designed to protect these rights across a range of marginalized groups. But, as Ellen Berrey, Robert L. Nelson, and Laura Beth Nielsen compellingly show, this progressive vision of the law falls far short in practice. When aggrieved individuals turn to the law, the adversarial character of litigation imposes considerable personal and financial costs that make plaintiffs feel like they’ve lost regardless of the outcome of the case. Employer defendants also are dissatisfied with the system, often feeling “held up” by what they see as frivolous cases. And even when the case is resolved in the plaintiff’s favor, the conditions that gave rise to the lawsuit rarely change. In fact, the contemporary approach to workplace discrimination law perversely comes to reinforce the very hierarchies that antidiscrimination laws were created to redress. Based on rich interviews with plaintiffs, attorneys, and representatives of defendants and an original national dataset on case outcomes, Rights on Trial reveals the fundamental flaws of workplace discrimination law and offers practical recommendations for how we might better respond to persistent patterns of discrimination.

Like all the other volumes in the Stories collection, this book provides students with a three dimensional picture of the most important cases that are addressed in nearly every employment discrimination casebook and course. These stories give the students and faculty members a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural background of the cases and an insight into their long term impact on the development of employment discrimination law.