Dr. Kristen Jones and Ph.D. student, Dave Arena, published in IOP Perspectives

For release:  September 2, 2016

Dr. Kristen Jones, assistant professor in the Department of Management, and first year Ph.D. student, Dave Arena, coauthored a paper entitled, "Subtle Discrimination in the Workplace: A Vicious Cycle," that will soon be published as a focal article in Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice. The paper was coauthored with Christine L. Nittrouer, Ph.D. student at Rice University; Natalya M. Alonso, Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia; and Alex P. Lindsey, assistant professor of Psychology at Indiana University.

The paper argues for a multidimensional and continuous, rather than categorical, framework for discrimination. In doing so, the authors propose that several related but distinct continuums exist on which instances of discrimination vary including subtlety, formality, and intentionality. Next, they argue for organizational scholarship to migrate toward a more developmental, dynamic perspective of subtle discrimination in order to build a more comprehensive understanding of its antecedents, underlying mechanisms, and outcomes. The authors further contend that everyone plays a part in the process of subtle discrimination at work and, as a result, bear some responsibility in addressing and remediating it. The conclusion is a brief overview of research on subtle discrimination in the workplace from each of four stakeholder perspectives – targets, perpetrators, bystanders, and allies – and review promising strategies that can be implemented by each of these stakeholders to remediate subtle discrimination in the workplace.

"The Department of Management and Fogelman College are excited to see Dr. Jones' research on employee discrimination published in Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice," said Dr. Chuck Pierce, chair of the Department of Management. "IOP Perspectives is a very reputable scholarly journal in the fields of management and applied psychology. Congratulations, Dr. Jones!"