Whitney Botsford Morgan

A field experiment: Reducing interpersonal discrimination toward pregnant job applicants.

The current research targets 4 potential stereotypes driving hostile attitudes and discriminatory behaviors toward pregnant women: incompetence, lack of commitment, inflexibility, and need for accommodation. We tested the relative efficacy of reducing concerns related to each of the stereotypes in a field experiment in which female confederates who sometimes wore pregnancy prostheses applied for jobs in a retail setting. As expected, ratings from 3 perspectives (applicants, observers, and independent coders) converged to show that pregnant applicants received more interpersonal hostility than did nonpregnant applicants. However, when hiring managers received (vs. did not receive) counterstereotypic information about certain pregnancy-related stereotypes (particularly lack of commitment and inflexibility), managers displayed significantly less interpersonal discrimination. Explicit comparisons of counterstereotypic information shed light on the fact that certain information may be more effective in reducing discrimination than others. We conclude by discussing how the current research makes novel theoretical contributions and describe some practical organizational implications for understanding and improving the experiences of pregnant workers.

Field Experiments on Sensitive Organizational Topics

Organizational scholars study a number of sensitive topics that make employees and organizations vulnerable to unfavorable views. However, the typical ways in which researchers study these topics—via laboratory experiments and field surveys—can be laden with problems. In this article, the authors argue that the difficulties in studying sensitive topics can be overcome through the underutilized method of field experiments, detail strategies for conducting high-quality experimental field studies, and offer suggestions for overcoming potential challenges in data collection and publishing. As such, this article is designed to serve as a guide and stimulus for using the valuable methodological tool of field experiments.

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s Guidelines for Education and Training: An Executive Summary of the 2016/2017 Revision

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP, Division 14 of the American Psychological Association [APA]) maintains Guidelines for Education and Training to provide guidance for the training of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists. The 2016/2017 revision combines separate documents for master’s- and doctoral-level training into one document, because the competencies required for each degree are not very different. Instead, the degrees differ in breadth and depth. The updated Guidelines were approved as APA policy in August 2017. In this article, we briefly review the revision process and highlight the updates made in the latest version of the Guidelines.

Employed Mother Stereotypes and Linkages to Work-Family Conflict and Enrichment

Social psychological theories were used to explain stereotypes of mothers in the workplace. Further, the extent to which mothers’ harbor these negative stereotypes and perceive that their managers agree with such stereotypes was explored. Survey participants reported their level of agreement with the stereotypes that employed mothers are incompetent employees, inflexible employees, not committed to their jobs, and require special accommodations compared to other groups of employees. Data were collected from 680 women. ANOVA results revealed that the non-mothers reported higher agreement with the stereotype statements than mothers. Correlations showed significant relationships between agreement with the stereotypes and increased work-family conflict. Agreement with the stereotypes was also negatively related to work-family enrichment. Regression analyses also revealed that (dis)agreement with these stereotypes predict whether or not working mothers believe they are getting assigned to important projects and tasks. The chapter concludes with suggestions for reducing the prevalence of negative stereotypes of working mothers. Future research opportunities include clarifying relationships between stereotypes of working mothers and outcomes of interest by considering demographic variables, life/career stages, and the impact of stereotype threat.