INTERPRETING FEEDBACK IN THE WORKPLACE: AN EXAMINATION OF STEREOTYPE THREAT AND STIGMATIZATION WITH AFRICAN AMERICAN PROFESSIONALS
Open Access
- Author:
- Bridges, Shenay Nicole
- Graduate Program:
- Counseling Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 14, 2008
- Committee Members:
- Kathleen Bieschke, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kathleen Bieschke, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Robert B Slaney, Committee Member
Keith B Wilson, Committee Member
Ronald Ward Jackson, Committee Member - Keywords:
- African Americans
solo/token status
feedback
workplace climate
stereotype threat - Abstract:
- This study sought to examine the effects of the presence of stereotype threat on perceptions of feedback in the workplace with African American professionals. The influence of workplace climate and solo/token status is examined as well. The participants for this study are 217 African American professionals representing a wide range of career fields. The survey was administered via psychdata, an online research website. Participants were randomly assigned to either a stereotype threat priming condition or the control (non-primed) condition. Feedback perceptions were assessed via the supervisor version of the Feedback Environment Scale (FES; Steelman et al., 2004), and the Feedback Discounting Measure (FD; Roberson et al., 2003). The effect of workplace racial climate was assessed through the Climate Scale (CS; Holder & Vaux, 1998) and solo/token status was assessed by participants who endorsed having solo status on the demographic form. Multiple Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) and sequential multiple regression were the analyses used to assess the two research questions. In the first analysis, contrary to the hypothesis, the presence of stereotype threat did not produce any significant differences in perceptions of feedback. In the second research question, the demographic variables age, gender, job tenure, education, and socioeconomic status were entered into the first block of the regression, workplace climate and solo/token status were put into the second block. As hypothesized, workplace climate and solo/token status accounted for a significant amount of the variance in perceptions of feedback, over and beyond the influence of demographic variables. In particular, workplace climate significantly predicted perceptions of feedback. The results of this study were inconsistent with previous studies that suggested that stereotype threat influenced perceptions of feedback. The results of this study provided additional support for the influence workplace climate on the perceptions of feedback. The results overall indicated that workplace climate is an important determinant of how African American professionals interpret feedback from supervisors. Understanding African Americans’ perceptions of equality and fairness in the workplace can help organizations gain more insight into what is needed for a welcoming and productive work environment. Limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.