Overcoming Negative Reactions of Nonbeneficiaries to Employment Equity: The Effect of Participation in Policy Formulation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hideg, Ivona; Michela, John L.; Ferris, D. Lance
• 署名单位: University of Toronto; University of Waterloo; Singapore Management University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/a0020969
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 363-376
• 关键词: Affirmative action; employment equity; instrumental and noninstrumental voice; involvement and participation; psychological ownership

摘要

In 2 experimental studies, we examined a way to overcome nonbeneficiaries' resistance to employment equity (EE) policies participation in formulating the policy. We operationalized participation in terms of instrumental versus noninstrumental voice and proposed that nonbeneficiaries would be more likely to support an EE policy when allowed instrumental participation in the policy's development. Further, we proposed psychological ownership as the mediating mechanism underlying the effects of instrumental participation. Study 1 examined participation effects for a gender-based EE policy and Study 2 for a race-based EE policy. As predicted, we found that nonbeneficiaries (men in Study 1; Whites in Study 2) in the instrumental participation condition expressed greater behavioral intentions to promote the policy (Studies 1 and 2) and were more likely to engage in a behavior promoting the policy (Study 2). We also found support for psychological ownership as the underlying mediating mechanism in both studies. Contributions to theory and practice are discussed.