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The devil without and within: A conceptual model of social cognitive processes whereby discrimination leads stigmatized minorities to become discouraged workers

Journal of Organizational Behavior

August 2012
33(6):840-862

DOI:10.1002/job.1795

Authors:

Peter A. Heslin

UNSW Sydney

In contrast to the substantial literatures on job loss, underemployment, and re-employment, management scholars have paid scant attention to “discouraged workers,” defined as those who want to work but have ceased looking for work because of labor market-related reasons such as discrimination. Drawing together the labor economics category of discouraged workers, the diversity literature on employment discrimination, and social cognitive research on careers, we model social cognitive mechanisms whereby discrimination can lead stigmatized minorities to become discouraged workers. We show how direct effects of discrimination (the “devil without”) can be compounded by its indirect impacts—through minority socialization and identity, struggling role models, learned helplessness, and low job search self-efficacy (collectively, the “devil within”)—to lead stigmatized minorities to become discouraged workers. Our model of insidious intra- and inter-personal dynamics that can amplify and sustain the demoralization and exclusion that stems from discrimination has implications for researchers, organizations, and those concerned with helping discouraged workers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The devil without and within: A conceptual model

of social cognitive processes whereby

discrimination leads stigmatized minorities to

become discouraged workers

PETER A. HESLIN

,†

, MYRTLE P. BELL

,†

AND PINAR O. FLETCHER

School of Management, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Department of Management, University of Texas–Arlington, Arlington, Texas, U.S.A.

Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Summary In contrast tothe substantial literatures on job loss, underemployment,and re-employment, management scholars

have paid scant attention to “discouraged workers,”deﬁned as those who want to work but have ceased looking

for work because of labor market-related reasons such as discrimination. Drawing together the labor economics

category of discouraged workers, the diversity literature on employment discrimination, and social cognitive

research on careers, we model social cognitive mechanisms whereby discrimination can lead stigmatized

minorities to become discouraged workers. We show how direct effects of discrimination (the “devil without”)

can be compounded by its indirect impacts—through minority socialization and identity, struggling role models,

learned helplessness, and low job search self-efﬁcacy (collectively, the “devil within”)—to lead stigmatized

minorities to become discouraged workers. Our model of insidious intra- and inter-personal dynamics that can

amplify and sustain the demoralization and exclusion that stems from discrimination has implications for

Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: discrimination; diversity; self-efﬁcacy; unemployment; discouraged workers; learned helplessness;

careers

1980: “...a minimum of one out of every four black workers are jobless today—which is equal to the unemployed

rate for the nation at the peak of the Great Depression in the 1930s.”(Hill, 1981; cited in Bowman, 1991, p. 158)

1990: “Black workers are more frequently displaced from jobs during economic recession, are jobless for longer

periods, become more discouraged in job search, drop out of the labor force more often, and experience greater

economic hardship as a result of joblessness.”(Bowman, 1991, p. 156)

2009: “Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions—34.5 percent in

October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population.”(Haynes, 2009, p. A01)

*Correspondence to: Peter A. Heslin, School of Management, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW,

2052, Australia. E-mail: heslin@unsw.edu.au

Myrtle P. Bell, Department of Management, University of Texas–Arlington, Arlington, Texas, U.S.A. E-mail: mpbell@uta.edu

†

The ﬁrst two authors contributed equally to this manuscript, so authorship order was decided by a coin toss.

Received 31 August 2010

Revised 15 December 2011, Accepted 09 March 2012

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. (2012)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.1795

Much is known about the dynamics involved in coping with job loss, underemployment, and re-employment.

In contrast, management and careers scholars have devoted comparatively less attention to understanding the paths

by which individuals become discouraged workers—those wanting to work, but not looking for work because of

labor market-related reasons such as discrimination (Buss & Redburn, 1988; Zippay, 1995). Besides crippling

economic problems and poverty, the long-term unemployment experienced by discouraged workers undermines

families, health, education, development, and happiness (Latack et al., 1995; Warr, 2007). Discouraged workers

represent an important, persistent, yet overlooked social problem in countries as diverse as Australia, Canada,

France, Germany, Japan, and the U.S.A., where they comprise a signiﬁcant portion of the working age popula-

tion (Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2009a; Eurostat, 2010; Sorrentino, 1995).

A disproportionate share of the people who want to work but have given up looking are stigmatized minorities.

Careers theory and research have nonetheless focused largely on middle-class college-educated Caucasian profes-

sionals. The career dynamics and experiences of underrepresented populations—such as immigrant workers,

older workers, people with disabilities, stigmatized minorities, felons, the poor, and those with minimal formal

education—may be quite different from those of the more commonly studied populations (Heslin, 2005; Zikic

& Hall, 2009). Diversity research, which might be expected to focus on these underrepresented populations,

has also disproportionately studied experiences of the same narrow set of workers typically studied by careers

scholars—well-educated managers and professionals (Bell, Kwesiga, & Berry, 2010; Jonsen, Maznevski, &

Schneider, 2011).

In this paper, we develop a multilevel conceptual model of how systemic (e.g., discrimination) and personal (e.g., job

search self-efﬁcacy) factors can together make stigmatized minorities disproportionately likely to become discouraged

workers. Modeling these factors is necessary because discouraged workers are understudied yet increasingly common

(BLS, 2009a). Large numbers of people desiring to work, but ceasing to look for it because of real and perceived

external impediments such as discrimination, have substantial adverse individual and societal consequences.

Discrimination has been widely shown to yield an immediate sense of injustice, conﬂict, and stress (Bell,

2012). We extend this diversity literature to include longer term consequences of discrimination on abandoned

job search efforts. We also examine why and how discrimination can affect the way minorities construe and

approach the world of work through minority socialization and minority identity formation. In doing so, we

illuminate a range of processes whereby discrimination may erode stigmatized minorities’job search self-efﬁcacy

and generate a sense of learned helplessness. Subsequent research on the dynamics we model could generate

useful initiatives for organizations and individuals concerned with reducing the frequency and apparent intractability

with which stigmatized minorities become discouraged workers.

We begin by discussing the nature of careers,stigmatized minorities, and discouraged workers. We then draw upon

the literatures on discrimination, learned helplessness, minority socialization, minority identity, and self-efﬁcacy to

model how stigmatized minorities become overrepresented among the ranks of discouraged workers. We

apply our model to explain the overrepresentation of Blacks in the discouraged worker category in the U.S.A. To

demonstrate the broad applicability of the relationships described, we also show how our model illuminates

similar dynamics experienced by other stigmatized populations such as some ethnic minorities and immigrants in

Europe, as well as older workers. We conclude with considerations for management researchers, practitioners, and

individuals concerned with addressing the signiﬁcant, persistent social problem of discouraged workers within

stigmatized minority communities.

Careers, Stigmatized Minorities, and Discouraged Workers

Acareer is “...an individual’s work-related and other relevant experiences, both inside and outside of organizations,

that form a unique pattern over the individual’slifespan”(Sullivan & Baruch, 2009, p. 1543). The unique pattern of

work-related and other relevant experiences for some groups of workers includes a persistent inability to obtain and

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DOI: 10.1002/job

maintain employment, as well as negative work-related experiences such as discrimination. For many stigmatized mi-

norities, discrimination and long-term unemployment are prevalent norms (BLS, 2009a; Bowman, 1991; Haynes,

2009), worsened by widespread economic crises (Fairlie & Kletzer, 1998).

Minorities are members of identiﬁable groups that have limited power, are subject to discrimination, and are

aware of belonging to a denigrated group (Dworkin & Dworkin, 1999). Although the term “minority”is commonly

perceived as denoting fewer in number than the majority group, this is not always the case. Some groups that are

fewer in number, such as men in the U.S.A. and Whites in South Africa, do not have the negative experiences typ-

ically associated with minorities (Bell, 2012). In addition, at times, some numerical minority groups are perceived as

having positive attributes. For example, despite their experiences with discrimination, Asians in the U.S.A. are often

stereotyped as “model minorities”who have achieved success through hard work and determination (Espiritu, 1999;

Hurh & Kim, 1989).

In contrast to stereotypes, which can be negative or positive (e.g., hard worker, good at math), stigmas are

attributes that are always perceived as negative and not typical of desired individuals in a given context (Goffman,

1968; McLaughlin, Bell, & Stringer, 2004; Stone, Stone, & Dipboye, 1992). In the employment context, stigmatized

minorities—those who are identiﬁable, experience discrimination, and have low power and group awareness—are com-

monly stereotyped as having negative employment-related attributes (e.g., dishonest, lazy, unable, or unwilling to

learn). As such, they are viewed as being deviant from the desired or preferred job applicants and employees. Stone

et al. (1992, p. 396) noted that those who are stigmatized expect to be “rejected or denigrated”by the majority and in-

deed do face access and treatment discrimination in the context of work organizations. Access discrimination is mani-

fested through exclusion in recruitment and selection practices, whereas treatment discrimination is manifested in such

things as biased performance appraisals and being assigned low-level or dead-end jobs (Stone et al., 1992).

In the U.S.A., the BLS tracks those participating in the labor force (e.g., working or looking for work), employment,

unemployment, and its variants. The unemployed are people who do not have a job but who have actively looked for

work during the past four weeks and are currently available for work (BLS, 2009a). Actively looking for work includes

doing such things as having an interview or contacting a friend, relative, employment agency, university employment

center, or an employer directly about a job possibility (BLS, 2009a).

Discouraged workers represent the gray area between those who are considered unemployed and those who are

considered not in the labor force. These are the individuals who do not have a job, want to work, and have

looked for work in the last 12 months but are not currently looking because of job market-related reasons such as

discrimination and being previously unable to ﬁnd work (Baum & Mitchell, 2009; BLS, 2009a).

These individuals

are, by deﬁnition, exhibiting the “discouraged worker effect”(Baum & Mitchell, 2009), as deﬁned in the labor

economics literature, rather than “discouragement”in a lay psychological sense.

A substantial research literature demonstrates that unemployed workers and discouraged workers are two distinct

groups. The transition-to-employment rates for these two groups are quite different; discouraged workers are less

likely to ﬁnd re-employment and more likely to eventually drop out of the labor force (Flinn & Heckman, 1983;

Gonul, 1992; Kingdon & Knight, 2006). Stigmatized minorities such as African-Americans (BLS, 2009a; Finegan,

1981), ethnic and racial minorities in Europe (European Union Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia,

2003; Zimmerman et al., 2008), and older workers (Finegan, 1981; Maestas & Li, 2006) are consistently overrepre-

sented among discouraged workers.

Compared with the short-to-medium-term unemployment more typically experienced by the middle-class,

educated majority, the chronic unemployment and discouraged worker effect more commonly associated with

stigmatized minorities are relatively understudied in the management and organizational literatures. Although they

did not investigate discouraged workers speciﬁcally, Latack et al. (1995) discussed the trauma, despair, and health

problems that accompany prolonged unemployment. They predicted lower efﬁcacy perceptions and diminished coping

resources for those who experience lengthy unemployment. Koen et al. (2010) showed that taking steps to avoid

We adopt this formal deﬁnition as it is widely accepted in the international labor economics literature, even though it is rather obscure insofar as

“discouraged workers”are neither working nor actively seeking work.

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prolonged unemployment can enable people to turn involuntary job loss into career growth. In a study reporting

observations of 11 discouraged workers who had been laid off from their blue-collar jobs, Zippay (1995) concluded that

further scholarship is needed regarding potential environmental, social, and psychological factors that lead people to

become discouraged workers. We strive to illuminate some of these factors.

Labor economists have modeled the advent of discouraged workers as a function of various structural factors

including prior unemployment (Schweitzer & Smith, 1974), poor labor market chances (Connolly, 1997), training

opportunities (Levine, 1964), and recessions (Owen & Joshi, 1987). Applied psychologists have documented job

search initiatives and (re)employment as a function of psychological factors including career adaptability (Koen

et al., 2010), daily affect (Wanberg, Zhu, & van Hooft, 2010), goal orientation (van Hooft & Noordzij, 2009), pro-

active personality (Brown, Cober, Kane, Levy, & Shalhoop, 2006), verbal self-guidance (Latham & Budworth,

2006; Yanar, Budworth, & Latham, 2009), and locus of control (van Hooft & Crossley, 2008), as often mediated

by self-efﬁcacy (e.g., Brown et al., 2006; Yanar et al., 2009). In addition, some economists have tried to uncover

the psychological mechanisms behind the discouraged worker effect by using learned helplessness and expectancy

theory (Darity & Goldsmith, 1993). However, in most cases, these models do not speciﬁcally examine the experi-

ences of discouraged workers who belong to stigmatized minority groups (for an exception, see Elmslie and Sedo

[1996] who applies Darity and Goldsmith’s [1993] work on learned helplessness and discouraged workers to work-

ers who have experienced systematic discrimination).

We aim to supplement this literature with a conceptual model of social cognitive dynamics that stem from

discrimination and lead stigmatized minorities into the discouraged worker subset of the labor force. In our

model, we consider broader mechanisms such as identity and socialization processes that inﬂuence stigmatized

minorities’labor market experiences. Next, we outline the empirical basis for our focus on stigmatized

minorities.

Stigmatized Minority Unemployment

As is apparent in our opening quotations, Black unemployment is typically considerably higher than the U.S. population

average, a ﬁnding that is not merely attributable to Blacks having lower average education levels than Whites. For

example, the unemployment rate for White and Black college graduates in September 2009 was 4.0 and 7.4 per cent,

respectively.

For high school graduates, 8 per cent of Whites and 13.7 per cent of Blacks were unemployed. For those

without high school degrees, 17.5 per cent of Whites and 27.2 per cent of Blacks were unemployed (BLS, 2009b). Such

disparities are magniﬁed when discouraged workers—who are not counted in unemployment statistics—are taken into

account. In 2008, Blacks comprised 11 per cent of the labor force but 28 per cent of the discouraged workers (BLS,

2009c). Blacks’unemployment duration is also longer. In 2008, the mean duration of unemployment was 21.7 weeks

for Blacks versus 16.7 weeks for Whites (BLS, 2009c).

The concept of statistical discrimination has been used to explain disparities in Blacks’employment experiences

compared with those of Whites and other less stigmatized minority groups in the U.S.A. (e.g., Asians). If an employer

believes that one group is generally less productive than another group, when faced with two candidates with similar

human capital (e.g., education, experience), the employer will generally avoid employing the candidate from the group

believed to be less productive (Elmslie & Sedo, 1996). Common stereotypes about Blacks are that they are unintelligent,

lazy, and dishonest (Cox, 1994; Ramasubramanian, 2010)—all of which are clearly pejorative in an employment

context.

In their college studies, Blacks are the most likely of all race groups to choose vocational degrees and the least likely of all race groups to select

majors in the ﬁne arts and humanities (Staniec, 2004). This suggests that degreed Blacks should be relatively unlikely to have difﬁculty securing

(re)employment, an education-based employment prediction that is not borne out by the evidence.

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Bluestein et al. (2002) proposed that people’s career choices, decisions, and their relationship with mean-

ingful work are partly a function of their access to opportunities and are strongly related to the social and

economic context of their life experiences. These opportunities and life experiences may include persistent

discrimination and unemployment (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). The experience of discrimination can be a

powerful inﬂuence on one’s likelihood of becoming and remaining unemployed and ultimately becoming

a discouraged worker. Next, we outline our model of how the pervasive and pernicious effects of discrim-

ination contribute to the overrepresentation of Blacks and other stigmatized minorities among discouraged

workers.

Pathways from Discrimination to Discouraged Workers

Overview

Figure 1 illustrates our model of factors that lead unemployed stigmatized minorities to become discouraged

workers.

Access discrimination, whereby stigmatized minorities face impediments to becoming (re)employed that are

not encountered by others, and treatment discrimination, whereby some groups systematically receive more ad-

verse outcomes (e.g., layoffs) than others, provide a context conducive to stigmatized minorities drifting into

the category of discouraged workers. Beyond these exogenous factors, discrimination can also lead stigmatized

minorities to become discouraged workers by negatively affecting their job search self-efﬁcacy and leading to learned

helplessness.

Experiencing career frustrations due to access and treatment discrimination is liable to decrease minorities’job

search self-efﬁcacy both directly and through a more indirect set of processes. Speciﬁcally, when role models of

similar stigmatized minority status have their job search outcomes hampered by access discrimination, this provides

Discrimination

- Access

- Treatment

Job Search

Self-Efficacy

(Stigmatized)

Minority Identity

Minority Socialization

Learned Helplessness

Discouraged Workers

Stigmatized Minority

Role Model

Job Search Outcomes

P10

P11

Figure 1. Socio-cognitive dynamics—beyond human and social capital—that make stigmatized minorities particularly prone to

becoming discouraged workers.

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dispiriting social cues that can erode an individual’s job search self-efﬁcacy. Minority socialization—whereby

parents and other socializing agents convey their experiences and strategies for coping with discrimination—may

prime identiﬁcation with a stigmatized minority group. Such identiﬁcation makes stigmatized minority role models’

(unsuccessful) job search outcomes particularly salient, thereby diminishing a focal individual’s job search self-

efﬁcacy. Discrimination can also trigger learned helplessness by creating the pessimistic impression that potential

employers will be non-responsive to job search initiatives, a sense of uncontrollability that leads people to become

discouraged workers both directly and via undermining their job search self-efﬁcacy. In the following sections, we

outline the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical bases for this model.

Discrimination

Discrimination is “...unfair and negative treatment of workers or job applicants based on personal attributes that are

irrelevant to job performance”(Chung, 2001, p. 34). Although Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act has prohibited

employment-based discrimination for nearly ﬁve decades, it continues to be rampant (Goldman, Gutek, Stein, &

Lewis, 2006). In 2008, claims at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) were at their highest

level ever, with race discrimination charges at their highest point in 15 years. Race-based claims were also higher

than any other category (e.g., sex, age, disability), comprising 35.6 per cent of all charges. From 1997 to 2010, when

race-based claims increased by 23 per cent, the increase in cases that were deemed to have reasonable cause by the

EEOC was 45 per cent, whereas the increase in cases that did not have a reasonable cause was only 5 per cent. In

other words, people perceive more race-based discrimination, and the EEOC’s initial review concurs that their com-

plaints often appear valid (EEOC, 2011).

Employment discrimination manifests in various forms. As alluded to earlier, access discrimination prevents

members of a subgroup population from gaining the full access to opportunities necessary to be hired, such as being

offered an interview, given a fair chance to demonstrate their relevant competencies, and having employment

decisions made without consideration of job-irrelevant attributes, such as race or age. Treatment discrimination

occurs when employees receive fewer rewards, promotions, resources, or job security than they deserve on the basis

of their job performance (Greenhaus, Parasuraman, & Wormley, 1990). Both access and treatment discrimination,

experienced personally or observed among similar others, contribute to the high rates of discouraged workers among

stigmatized minorities.

Access discrimination has been extensively documented in ﬁeld studies. In one study, job applicants with names

such as LaKisha, Tyrone, and Jamal (common to Blacks) had to send out 50 per cent more resumes than applicants

named Emily, Brad, and Greg (common to Whites) to be offered a job interview (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004).

Having a White-sounding name enhanced the chance of being given a job interview as much as adding an additional

eight years of experience to the resume of a Black person. These results were consistent across occupation, industry

type, and employer size (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004).

An experiment examining the interactive effects of race and a criminal history of cocaine possession also indicated

access discrimination (Pager, 2003). Although the credentials of the Black and White applicants were matched, this

study revealed that 34 per cent of Whites without a criminal record, 17 per cent of Whites with a criminal record, 14

per cent of Blacks without a criminal record, and 5 per cent of Blacks with a criminal record were invited for an

interview. In addition, some Black applicants, but no White ones, reported being asked about criminal convictions in

advance.

Small ﬁrms hire signiﬁcantly smaller percentages of Black applicants than do larger companies (Holzer, 1998).

This may be partly because U.S. federal legislation prohibiting race discrimination is limited to employers of 15

or more people. Smaller employers are also more likely to use informal hiring mechanisms, such as referrals, that

may serve to constrain Black hiring (Hornsby & Kuratko, 1990). Holzer estimated that the demand for Black labor

in the U.S.A. would be at least 40 per cent higher if hiring rates for Blacks in small ﬁrms were similar to those in

large ﬁrms. Small businesses employ more workers than do large companies and provide most of the net new jobs

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(Neumark, Wall, & Zhang, 2011); therefore, the relative reluctance of small employers to hire Black workers

substantially reduces their job opportunities.

Evidence of treatment discrimination is also abundant (e.g., Castilla, 2008; Elvira & Zatzick, 2002; Greenhaus

et al., 1990; Maume, 1999). A study of nearly 9000 service-sector employees in the U.S.A. revealed that

minorities and women had to work harder and receive higher performance ratings to receive similar salary

increases as White men (Castilla, 2008). Across the U.S.A., Blacks earn less than their White counterparts, even

within the same occupational and educational categories. In 2008, the median weekly earnings for Whites with a

college degree or higher was $1133, whereas Blacks in the same category earned $912 median weekly incomes.

Blacks also earned less, on average, than their White counterparts in virtually all occupational categories

identiﬁed by the U.S. Department of Labor (BLS, 2009c).

Elvira and Zatzick (2002) found that even after controlling for tenure, performance ratings, business unit, occupation,

and job level, Blacks were more likely to be laid off than Whites. A longitudinal study by Wilson and McBrier (2005)

found that Blacks in high-level jobs were more likely to be laid off than similarly situated Whites. As is apparent in the

studies discussed, treatment discrimination makes stigmatized minorities more likely to lose their jobs, and access

discrimination makes them less likely to become re-employed, paving the way to discouraged worker status.

Proposition 1: The more that stigmatized minorities experience access and treatment discrimination, the more likely

they are to become discouraged workers.

Job search self-efﬁcacy

Self-efﬁcacy is an individual’s beliefs in his or her capabilities to organize and execute the courses of actions required to

produce desired attainments in a given domain (Bandura, 1997), such as ﬁnding a job. Job search self-efﬁcacy—the

belief that one can successfully perform speciﬁc job search behaviors and obtain employment (Saks & Ashforth,

1999)—is an antecedent of job search intensity (Wanberg, Kanfer, & Rotundo, 1999; Zikic & Saks, 2009), career

networking, career exploration, attending training programs, using career resources (Zikic & Saks, 2009), and becoming

re-employed (Kanfer, Wanberg, & Kantrowitz, 2001) in a better job than one’s previous role (Zikic & Klehe, 2006). The

degree of mastery or failure people personally experience in a particular domain (i.e., mastery experiences), and also

vicariously by observing and assessing the successes and failures of salient role models, primarily determines their level

of self-efﬁcacy (Bandura, 1997).

Mastery experiences

Marginalization and stigmatization tend to hamper people’s job-related aspirations and achievements (Duffy & Dik,

2009). Similarly qualiﬁed Blacks have to search up to twice as long as Whites to receive job offers (Bendick et al.,

2010; Pager, Bonikowski, & Western, 2009). Such experiences and the systematic access discrimination against

Blacks discussed earlier are likely to increase their chances of having the unsuccessful forays into the job market

that directly foster low job search self-efﬁcacy. Having experienced racially based adverse treatment while on the

job (e.g., treatment discrimination) is also liable to erode minorities’efﬁcacy that they can be readily received back

into quality employment.

Negative mastery experiences are particularly debilitating when they begin early and are based on immuta-

ble factors such as race, and their effects are compounded over time (e.g., Bowman, 1990). As Holzer (2009,

pp. 59–60) noted with regard to young Black men, “for those who become skeptical, at an early age, of their

ability to attain labor market success at any level of education...the social and economic inducements to

withdraw might outweigh those to remain attached to school and work.”Such demoralization and withdrawal

are hallmarks of low job search self-efﬁcacy.

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Proposition 2: The more that stigmatized minorities experience access and treatment discrimination, the more likely

they are to have low job search self-efﬁcacy.

When self-efﬁcacy in a given domain is low, extensively validated social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986)

shows that people tend to reduce their efforts (Trevelyan, 2011) and thereby produce disappointing results that

serve to reinforce their sense that they do not have what it takes to succeed at the task at hand. Willingness to

acquire new knowledge and learn improved strategies to attain better results also tends to decline when self-

efﬁcacy is not high (Sitzmann & Ely, 2011). In addition, individuals lacking in self-efﬁcacy are more prone to

abandon their goals—such as to become employed—rather than persist in the face of setbacks until their goals

are achieved (Zikic & Saks, 2009).

Such negativity may spill over into future job search activities, thus making stigmatized minorities less zealous about

searching, even when they want to work. Thus, feeling inefﬁcacious about becoming (re)employed is likely to lead stig-

matized minorities to become discouraged workers.

Proposition 3: The lower (higher) their level of job search self-efﬁcacy, the greater (lesser) the likelihood that unemployed

stigmatized minorities will become discouraged workers.

Stigmatized minorities’level of job search self-efﬁcacy is an important factor in how they respond to discrimination.

In light of Propositions 2 and 3, discrimination is likely to lead to stigmatized minorities drifting into the discouraged

worker category by lowering their job search self-efﬁcacy.

Proposition 4: (Lowered) job search self-efﬁcacy mediates the relationship between discrimination and stigmatized

minorities becoming discouraged workers.

Next, we consider how discrimination can produce discouraged workers not only by affecting individuals’psycholog-

ical states but also by creating social contexts populated by salient others who have also been subjected to discriminatory

workplace treatment.

Vicarious experiences

According to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), what people believe they are capable of achieving emanates

not merely from their direct personal experiences but also by observing the trials, tribulations, and fortunes of their

role models. Social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974) highlights how people attend to social cues about the labor market

opportunities and setbacks typically encountered by people like them, often internalizing their identity group’s suc-

cesses and failures as their own. Many of these cues are quite disheartening. Chung, Baskin, and Case (1999) noted

that for many Blacks, conversations and observations of the career setbacks of racially similar peers are a demora-

lizing daily reminder of the types of employment obstacles they have either personally encountered or perceive they

are likely to encounter at some time in the future.

The experience of discrimination—either directly or indirectly via observing the tribulations of similar stigmatized

minority friends and colleagues—or simply reading media headlines (e.g., “Blacks hit hard by economy’spunch:

34.5% of young African American men are unemployed”; Haynes, 2009, p. A1) may undermine the job search

outcomes of those who serve as similar role models for the focal unemployed minorities.

Proposition 5: Access and treatment discrimination adversely affect the job search outcomes of stigmatized minority

role models.

An axiom of social cognitive theory is that the extent to which vicarious experiences impact self-efﬁcacy is con-

tingent upon the extent to which individuals identify with potential role models. Next, we outline how discrimination

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experienced by parental ﬁgures can lead them to provide minority socialization to their children/protégés. Result-

ing minority identity, we theorize, is likely to increase the salience of minority role models and thus the extent

to which their (lack of) job search success (negatively) impacts the job search self-efﬁcacy of stigmatized

minorities.

Discrimination, minority socialization, and minority identity

African-Americans’frequent experiences of discrimination—both directly and vicariously, across different life

domains and throughout their lives—lead them to vigilantly anticipate threats to themselves and their children

(Nuru-Jeter et al., 2009; Stone et al., 1992). Black parents and other adults often view introducing Black

children to the possibility of discrimination and means of coping with it to be an important aspect of responsible

child-rearing (Peters, 1985; Stevenson, 1994). Through minority socialization, adults transmit to Black children,

for example, rules, regulations, skills, and knowledge about the experience of being Black (Wilson, Foster,

Anderson, & Mance, 2009). Stevenson (1994) empirically identiﬁed proactive (spiritual and religious coping,

extended family caring, cultural pride reinforcement) and protective (racism awareness teaching) socialization

factors. Our focus is on the protective socialization intended to provide minority children with advice regarding

appropriate responses to the discrimination and hostility they may face as a result of their race (Bennett, 2006;

Brown, 2008). For example, to help their children be forewarned and able to cope with experiencing employ-

ment discrimination and other race-based unfair treatment (e.g., racial proﬁling by police, racial slurs, and harass-

ment at work), Black adults often socialize Black children to remain mindful that they are likely to be seen and

judged on the basis of their race.

Proposition 6: The more that stigmatized minorities experience discrimination, the more likely they are to provide

their children/protégés with minority socialization.

Devalued group members’recognition of prejudice and discrimination against their group often increases

group identiﬁcation (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999). Racially oriented messages by parents and men-

tors about the traps, challenges, tradeoffs, and also potential of people like us are liable to infuse their audi-

ences with perceptions of shared heritage, status, and prospects (Bennett, 2006). Such messages also include

elements intended to instill racial pride and encourage self-development, such as learning about, celebrating,

and identifying with the successes and accomplishments of Blacks (e.g., Bowman & Howard, 1985; Stevenson,

1994; Thomas & Gabarro, 1999). Notwithstanding the proactive messages, we propose that the more frequently, in-

tensely, and consistently individuals are exposed to messages about what it means to be a stigmatized minority group

member (e.g., Black, ethnic, or “older”)—including likely implications for their job and career prospects—the more

likely they are to internalize a stigmatized minority identity of themselves (e.g., as a Black or an ethnic minority or older

person).

Proposition 7: The more that stigmatized individuals experience minority socialization, the more likely they are to

form a (stigmatized) minority identity.

According to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), people tend to consider the attainments of others as indic-

ative of what they personally can achieve, particularly when potential role models are viewed as similar in

characteristics such as ethnicity, education, and socioeconomic level. When minority identity is primed through

The terms “racial”and “ethnic”socialization and identity are commonly used in the social and Black psychology literatures (Stevenson, 1994).

We use “minority”socialization and identity as representative of racial, ethnic, and other forms of demographic-based socialization involving

transmission of demographically based knowledge and resulting identity formation.

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minority socialization or observing conspicuous achievements by members of one’s stigmatized minority group—as it

was for African-Americans who identiﬁed with Barack Obama during his spectacular political triumphs on the way to

becoming the President of the U.S.A.—the successes of even otherwise dissimilar minority group members can

still have a positive impact on stigmatized minorities’self-efﬁcacy and performance. For example, Marx, Ko,

and Friedman (2009) observed that immediately following presidential candidate Obama’s convention speech,

and again immediately following his election to the presidency, African-Americans’verbal examination perfor-

mance substantially improved. Marx et al. suggest that this “Obama effect,”which occurred among a random

sample of Blacks who were far removed from any direct contact with Obama, attests to the powerful impact of

successful racially similar role models for reducing the performance-diminishing effects of negative stereotypes

about one’s stigmatized minority group.

Role models are frequently personally known and similar on a wide range of dimensions (e.g. residential,

socioeconomic, and educational status), thereby increasing their potential to vicariously impact their observers’

job search self-efﬁcacy. Stevenson (1998, pp. 241–242) noted that “racial socialization processes are manifest

by indirect frustration behaviors (e.g., a parent looking for work who comes home from another failed interview

muses to herself—but overheard by her children—‘I bet if I were White, I would have gotten that job’)”as much

as through direct statements. Owing to the adverse direct and indirect effects of discrimination that we have

discussed, stigmatized minority role models will not necessarily have many positive episodes to be observed or

recounted about their labor market experiences. Role models of failure at attempting to become employed are liable

to depress individuals’job search self-efﬁcacy, especially when a strong minority identity makes such struggling

stigmatized minority role models particularly salient.

Proposition 8: (Stigmatized) minority identity moderates the relationship between stigmatized minority role model

job search outcomes and a focal individual’s job search self-efﬁcacy such that the higher the focal individual’sminority

identity, the greater the effect of the stigmatized minority role model’s job search outcomes upon a focal individual’s

level of job search self-efﬁcacy.

Learned helplessness

When people experience adverse situations (e.g., unemployment) that do not seem amenable to being altered

by anything they do (e.g., applying for jobs, obtaining additional training), Seligman (1975) proposed that

they can develop learned helplessness, that is, become passive and perhaps even depressed, thereby no longer

even attempting to improve their apparently uncontrollable predicament. Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale

(1978) theorized that individuals’susceptibility to learned helplessness depends upon whether they view the

cause(s) of adverse events as (i) internal or external, (ii) stable or unstable, and (iii) global or speciﬁc. They

proposed that learned helplessness is most likely to result from a pessimistic (versus optimistic) explanatory

style of attributing negative experiences to causes that are internal (e.g., “it’s because of something about

me”), stable (e.g., “it will never change”), and global (e.g., “this happens across virtually all areas of

my life”).

The theory of Abramson et al. (1978) has been meta-analytically supported by over 100 clinical studies (Sweeney,

Anderson, & Bailey, 1986) as well as ﬁeld research such as Seligman and Schulman’s (1986) investigation of how

explanatory style predicts productivity and quitting among life insurance agents. Seligman and Schulman observed

that agents with a pessimistic explanatory style quit their jobs at more than twice the rate and sold signiﬁcantly less

insurance than agents who adopted a more optimistic explanatory style to account for their setbacks (e.g., “things

will change, it’s not always like this, and it’s not my fault”). Seligman and Schulman concluded from their data that

“the tendency to explain bad events by internal, stable, and global causes potentiates quitting when bad events are

encountered”(p. 832).

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Subsequent research has supported the idea that repeated failures, especially because of uncontrollable factors

(e.g., discrimination), can lead people to adopt the pessimistic explanatory style that is at the core of learned

helplessness (Eisner, 1995). As Dion and Giordano (1990, p. 38) noted,

Perceived discrimination from the dominant or majority group may often result in learned helplessness because

(a) it is often an unpredictable social stressor, and (b) it is usually uncontrollable in the sense that the victim or

target cannot change or hide the characteristics (e.g., sex, ethnicity, etc.) eliciting the discrimination.

Given the largely uncontrollable nature of discrimination, as well as the immutable stigmatized minority character-

istics (e.g., age and race) which it typically targets, it is likely that persistent and pervasive workplace discrimination

will foster learned helplessness among stigmatized minorities (Elmslie & Sedo, 1996).

Proposition 9: The more that stigmatized minorities experience discrimination, the greater the likelihood that they

will exhibit learned helplessness.

A perceived lack of controllability is the essence of learned helplessness (Peterson, Maier, & Seligman, 1993).

Social environments vary in their potential controllability. Some organizational environments contain apparently

intractable systems, processes, and procedures, which are not readily altered by individuals who interact with them.

Other organizational environments are more malleable and responsive to individuals’initiatives to impact the

functioning and decisions made by the organization (Shapiro & Brett, 2005). Bandura and Wood (1989) observed that

when people are led to believe that an organizational environment is low in controllability, their self-efﬁcacy is substan-

tially diminished, as are their subsequent goals, initiatives to learn how to act more effectively, and success at what they

are trying to accomplish. Alternatively, when organizational environments are construed as controllable, individuals

maintain their sense of self-efﬁcacy, set increasingly challenging goals, exhibit effective analytical thinking that enables

learning, and thereby perform more effectively over time. Given the central role of uncontrollability in learned helpless-

ness, a sense of discrimination-induced uncontrollability about one’s job prospects is likely to undermine job search

self-efﬁcacy and efforts, thereby facilitating transition into the discouraged worker status.

Proposition 10: The more that stigmatized minorities experience learned helplessness, the lower their job search

self-efﬁcacy.

Proposition 11: The more that stigmatized minorities experience learned helplessness, the greater the likelihood that

they will become discouraged workers.

Proposition 12: Learned helplessness mediates the relationship between stigmatized minorities experiencing dis-

crimination and becoming discouraged workers.

The adverse impact upon performance of low self-efﬁcacy, as a function of low controllability (Bandura & Wood,

1989), is consistent with Proposition 3 that low job search self-efﬁcacy will increase the likelihood that unemployed

stigmatized minorities will become discouraged workers.

Generalizability to Other Stigmatized Minorities

We developed our model on the basis of the experiences of U.S. Blacks because the history and extent of discrimination

against them is so well documented. Many experiences of discrimination and dynamics similar to those we have

modeled potentially pertain to other stigmatized minorities within and beyond the U.S.A. who are also

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disproportionately represented among the ranks of discouraged workers. Next, we discuss how our model illuminates

some paths to becoming discouraged workers that are experienced by ethnic minorities and immigrants in Europe,

and also by older workers.

Ethnic minorities and immigrants in Europe

Access discrimination toward ethnic minorities and immigrants occurs across a wide range of European countries

including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In Germany, for example, similarly

qualiﬁed immigrants experience higher unemployment, as well as longer and more frequent unemployment than native

workers (Kogan, 2000). Such discrimination begins at ﬁrst contact when an applicant’snamesuggestsanimmigrantor

ethnic origin. Name-based treatment discrimination insalary (Arai & Thoursie, 2006) and earnings disparities not attrib-

utable to human capital have also been well documented (Algan, Dustmann, Glitz, & Manning, 2010; Blackaby, Leslie,

Murphy, & O’Leary, 2005). Ethnic minorities and immigrants, including Roma, Sub-Saharan Africans,and Turks in the

European Union, commonly perceive widespread discrimination in employment (European Union Minorities &

Discrimination Survey, 2009).

As with Blacks, discrimination increases the likelihood that stigmatized ethnic minorities and immigrants will

become discouraged workers both directly (Proposition 1) and also by reducing their job search self-efﬁcacy and

inducing learned helplessness (Propositions 2–12). For instance, as minorities’disproportionately high rates of

unemployment persist over time and generations (Algan et al., 2010; Li & Heath, 2007), resulting learned helplessness

may perpetuate the high proportion of stigmatized minorities in Europe within the ranks of discouraged workers both

directly (Propositions 9, 11, and 12) and via eroding their job search self-efﬁcacy (Propositions 3, 4, and 10). Conse-

quently, foreign workers are grossly overrepresented in the discouraged worker category in most European Union

countries. The following statistics show the proportion of foreign workers in the workforce and in the discouraged

worker category, respectively, in a number of European Union economies in 2010: Austria (11.5 versus 23.9 per cent),

France (6.3 versus 12.1 per cent), Germany (9.8 versus 15.4 per cent), the Netherlands (3.9 versus 7.1 per cent), the U.K.

(7.9 versus 9.0 per cent; authors’computations based on Eurostat, 2010).

Discrimination experiences and expectations of discrimination fuel minority socialization and minority identity as

immigrant parents expect and prepare their children for being the target of discriminatory actions, as well as resultant

setbacks and frustrations (Battu & Zenou, 2009; Proposition 6). Minority socialization, addressing issues including

immigrant parents’ethnic identity (Casey & Dustmann, 2010), peer pressure, and the neighborhood that is lived in,

each affects the formation of minority identity (Battu & Zenou, 2009; Proposition 7). Heightened minority identity

may stimulate vigilance to the fruitless job search experiences of demographically similar role models, thereby

negatively affecting stigmatized minorities’job search self-efﬁcacy (Proposition 8).

Older workers

People have strong beliefs about age-appropriate behaviors and attributes of people who are older. These beliefs

shape employers’behaviors toward older workers and job applicants in complex ways. People sometimes feel

more comfortable making ageist comments than they do making racist or sexist comments, on the basis of

widely held perceptions that ageist stereotypes are valid and because fewer social sanctions are applied to those

who make ageist remarks and decisions, compared with the sanctions against racism and sexism (Marino, Negy,

Hammons, McKinney, & Asberg, 2007).

Researchers have documented access and treatment discrimination based on age in various contexts (Debrah,

1996; Lahey, 2008). As older age discrimination is prohibited by law in the U.S.A., White men who were laid off from

their managerial and professional jobs have lodged most of the claims of discrimination (Gregory, 2002). However,

because of seniority rights and legal protections, older American workers are less likely to be unemployed than

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younger workers, but once unemployed, they experience more access discrimination (Kite, Stockdale, Whitley, &

Johnson, 2005), take longer to ﬁnd new jobs (Rix, 2010), and are thereby more likely to become discouraged workers

(Proposition 1; Buss & Redburn, 1988; Rix, 2010).

Age socialization begins when children are chided to “act your age”by authority ﬁgures who consider them to be

not behaving normatively or age appropriately. Most apprenticeships are offered only to younger people who have

recently ﬁnished attending high school. Early career wins are critical to gaining access to the “fast track”on career

tournaments or being considered a serious contender for senior roles in many organizations (O’Neill & O’Reilly,

2010; Rosenbaum, 1979). People are often age-graded and develop negative attitudes toward work when they are

perceived as “behind time”relative to an implicit organizational timetable about when career advancement generally

occurs, even when those perceptions of being behind time are inaccurate (Lawrence, 1984).

Personal and/or vicarious exposure to age-based access discrimination (Debrah, 1996; Lahey, 2008) is likely

to further socialize people regarding stereotypical job market expectations of people their age (Proposition 6).

Experiences with age discrimination may be shared among older workers in the form of hints regarding how

to avoid it (e.g., leaving graduation dates off resumes, not mentioning jobs more than 10 years ago). These

socialization experiences may contribute to an age identity as a stigmatized “older worker”liable to experience

discrimination (Proposition 7).

Common negative stereotypes are that older workers are poor performers, resistant to change, and have less

desire and ability for learning and development (Bjelland et al., 2010; Maurer, Barbeite, Weiss, & Lippstreu,

2008), making them progressively less competent than younger workers. These employment-relevant

stereotypes can fuel access and treatment discrimination (Kite et al., 2005; Rix, 2010) that in turn undermine

job search self-efﬁcacy (Proposition 2), as well as leading to older workers’minority socialization (Proposition

6). Resulting mentoring about how to cope with being construed and rejected as a prototypical older worker

fuels an older worker identity (Proposition 7). By making personally salient the age-related labor market

challenges and setbacks of one’s peers of a similar age—as highlighted by periodic news reports chronicling

the difﬁculties faced by middle-aged and older-aged individuals in securing employment—age-related minority

identity can undermine older workers’job search self-efﬁcacy (Proposition 8), thus making them more likely to

become discouraged workers (Proposition 3). Better understanding and addressing the discouraged worker effect

among older workers is important because they represent an underutilized economic resource that can help

alleviate the economic ﬁscal effects of population aging (Maestas & Li, 2006). Maestas and Li estimate that

despite their desire to work, 13 per cent of older workers become discouraged workers, many of whom face

age-based stereotyping and discrimination.

Discussion

We have modeled a range of social cognitive dynamics that contribute to stigmatized minorities being unemployed

and willing to work, though too discouraged by discrimination to keep actively looking for it. Perhaps most

troubling from both the individual career and social policy perspectives is that the adverse labor market experiences

we have described are common among youth. Negative early career experiences may shape the rest of their work

and personal lives through systemically induced low job search self-efﬁcacy, chronic unemployment, and poverty.

In the U.S.A., the unemployment rate of Black teenagers (31.2 per cent) is the highest among the major race and

ethnicity groups, nearly double that of White teens (16.8 per cent; BLS, 2009c). Sheer frustration at ethnic-based

and age-based access discrimination recently led French youth to riot. This dramatically illustrates the grave nature

and international scope of the dynamics we have modeled, as well as how they can have painful consequences for

societal members beyond the unemployed and discouraged workers.

Finding suitable work is a key part of transitioning to adulthood (Bowman, 1990; Super, Savickas, & Super,

1996) that can affect youth in the short and long run (Bluestein, et al., 2002; Bowman, 1984, 1990), severely

constraining their career options and thus life opportunities (Bowman, 1990; Super et al., 1996). Research on career

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exploration acknowledges that career choices are affected not only by parents but also by individuals’social, cultural,

educational, and work contexts (Zikic & Hall, 2009) that can also serve as agents of socialization. Yet, discrimination

and minority socialization—key aspects of the social and environmental lives of stigmatized minorities—have received

limited attention in the careers literature (see Ross, 2004, for an exception). Most of the voluminous careers literature

largely ignores discouraged workers and minority workers, as if job loss and unemployment are usually just temporary

and as if discrimination has little impact on career experiences.

Concern with developing the “business case”for diversity has led diversity scholars to become less focused on the

destructive effects of discrimination (Litvin, 2006; Mor Barak, 2005). We have sought to break with this trend by

emphasizing and analyzing the role of discrimination in contributing to stigmatized minorities’disproportionate

representation among discouraged workers.

Although some researchers have considered relationships between minority socialization, motivation, academic

achievement (Bowman & Howard, 1985), and career success (White, 2009), to our knowledge, the constructs and

relationships we propose are yet to be empirically examined. Speciﬁcally, the processes of minority socialization,

minority identity formation, and learned helplessness have not yet been studied in relation to career issues such

as job search self-efﬁcacy, unemployment, and becoming a discouraged worker. Given that the stigmatized minorities

who become discouraged workers are among the most impoverished, disenfranchised, and understudied segments of

the workforce in developed societies, further research is needed to better understand and ultimately assist them.

Research implications

We have shown that for stigmatized minorities, discrimination can foster their chance of becoming discouraged

workers both directly (Proposition 1) and indirectly via diminished job search self-efﬁcacy (Propositions 2, 3,

and 4). Learned helplessness stemming from perniciously intractable experiences of discrimination (Proposition

9), as well as a social context ﬁlled with other struggling minorities whose plight has been made salient by a strong

minority identity, can have additional devastating impacts upon stigmatized minorities’job search self-efﬁcacy

(Propositions 8 and 10). Research is needed to empirically examine how these dynamics manifest in different

national, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts, as well as among stigmatized minority populations including—

but not limited to—those we have discussed. Such research could reveal interesting variation in which factors

are most inﬂuential in leading different stigmatized minorities to become discouraged workers. Interactions with

human (e.g., education and skills) and social (e.g., network relationship) capital—that were beyond the scope of

this paper—also need to be considered.

Future research based on our model will ideally be more nuanced than merely investigating whether our propositions

can be transposed into research hypotheses that are empirically supported. This is because other theoretically and

practically important empirical questions pertain to, for instance, the optimal level and type of minority socialization

for building a minority identity in a manner that prepares minorities to deal effectively with discrimination without

simultaneously making them more susceptible to developing low job search self-efﬁcacy.

Our model provides a framework for evaluating and ﬁne-tuning a fundamental assumption of many initiatives to

assist stigmatized minorities, as asserted by Waters (1991, p. 234):

Obviously, if business education is intended to provide students with skills and perspectives that will assist them

in their business careers, then African-American students should be made aware of the problems that they will

likely encounter in the work setting.

On the basis of this reasoning, White (2009) developed a 13-week program in which 100 Black male undergraduates

were alerted to the challenges of “racism, prejudices, stereotyping, and biases that result in employee discrimination

through lower earnings, occupational and job segregation, disparities in employment decisions and performance

evaluations, and barriers to informal networks and mentoring”(p. 72). Senior-level stigmatized minority executives

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from prestigious professional service ﬁrms shared their personal stories of perseverance and the strategies they had

personally used to overcome such problems delivered these messages. Students then participated in role plays dealing

with related issues. Upon completion of this program, most participants agreed that it had increased their understanding

of the knowledge, skills, traits, and behaviors necessary for a person of color to become a world-class professional,

although White (2009) underscored the need to examine the impact of the program on participants’subsequent objective

(e.g., pay) and subjective (e.g., job satisfaction) career success.

When conducting such outcome studies, the model we have developed in this paper might fruitfully suggest impor-

tant moderators and mediators of why such a program might be effective, ineffective, or perhaps even unintentionally

unhelpful. For example, do minority socialization-oriented intervention programs such as those delivered by White

(2009; see also Scholl, 1999) foster job search self-efﬁcacy by building minority identity and providing inspiring role

models of how to cope with the challenges related to being a stigmatized minority? Alternatively, do such initiatives

cultivate a (stigmatized) minority identity (Proposition 7) that makes program participants’job search self-efﬁcacy more

vulnerable to being negatively impacted by exposure to unsuccessful stigmatized minority role models when they are

encountered (Proposition 8)?

Research could inform fundamental issues about when and how providing minority socialization, holding a minority

identity, and adopting minority roles serve to either help or hinder job search self-efﬁcacy and effectiveness. Results

of such research could have important and perhaps counter-intuitive policy implications for those who work to help

stigmatized minorities avoid becoming discouraged workers. One possibility is that when stigmatized minorities are

embedded in contexts populated by primarily unsuccessful stigmatized minority job search role models (e.g., racially

homogenous neighborhoods with high rates of chronic unemployment and discouraged workers), the cultivation of

minority identity through well-intentioned (e.g. preparation for bias) and important (e.g., awareness of racial proﬁling

by police) minority socialization may adversely impact job search self-efﬁcacy by making those unsuccessful role

models even more salient. Do successful role models outside their immediate social context help stigmatized

minorities avoid becoming discouraged workers, or do they inadvertently exacerbate the challenges by increasing

observers’minority identity and the salience of their other stigmatized minority role models who are also discouraged

workers? Do different types of socialization (e.g., preparation for discrimination and bias, development of racial pride,

self-development) have similar relationships with minority identity, job search self-efﬁcacy, and discouraged workers?

Given that overly optimistic or pessimistic prognoses of opportunities for work can lead to disappointment and

frustration (Chung et al., 1999), what kind of positive and negative information about minority peers is most effective

at reducing the chance of becoming a discouraged worker? Research is needed to test the potential policy and practical

implications of our conceptual model.

Research is also warranted on whether initiatives designed to build job search self-efﬁcacy (e.g., Yanar et al.,

2009) can prevent unemployed stigmatized minorities from becoming discouraged workers. It has been established

that being encouraged to adopt an incremental implicit theory of ability (Dweck, 1986) inoculates self-efﬁcacy from

being diminished by setbacks (Tabernero & Wood, 1999; Wood & Bandura, 1989). Heslin, Latham, and

VandeWalle (2005) developed a multifaceted training program that leads adults to adopt incremental implicit

theories that were maintained over at least a six-week period. Research is warranted on whether such training can

help insulate the job search self-efﬁcacy of stigmatized minorities from being diminished by direct and vicarious

experiences of discrimination.

What individual differences make some stigmatized minorities ultimately ﬁnd employment success, despite

discrimination? A key part of minority socialization for African-Americans is educating youngsters that they will

often have to do more (i.e., education, hours, training, etc.) to get less. Indeed, Blacks are more likely to be

underemployed than Whites, working in jobs that require less skills than they possess, or being unable to secure

anything other than part time work when they wish to work full time (Herring & Fasenfest, 1999; Tipps & Gordon,

1985). Is acknowledgement of the need to search harder and longer and being willing to do so an effective impediment

to becoming a discouraged worker?

Given that self-efﬁcacy is often built more effectively by role models who are only moderately more competent,

rather than signiﬁcantly more competent than observers (Bandura, 1997), what is the optimal level of competence,

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success, and other characteristics of role models for inspiring discouraged workers to continue to seek and ultimately

ﬁnd work, despite persistent discrimination? What moderates the answers to this question?

Our modeling of learned helplessness as a consequence of discrimination, as well as an antecedent of job search self-

efﬁcacy, paves the way for new lines of research into how the insidious impact of discrimination upon stigmatized

discouraged workers might be addressed. Since reformulating learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) in terms

of explanatory styles (Abramson et al., 1978), Seligman (1991) developed the concept of learned optimism and related

interventions whereby individuals are trained to view their setbacks as temporary, local, and changeable. (“It will not

always happen; It’s just this particular situation, and I can do something about it.”) This training improves explanatory

styles and thus reduces anxiety, depression, and quitting (Gillham, Hamilton, Freres, Patton, & Gallop, 2006; Schulman,

1999). Research is needed on how learned optimism training might prevent discrimination from resulting in learned

helplessness and thereby eroding job search self-efﬁcacy. Related research could fruitfully examine whether the

cultivation of learned optimism can counteract the other negative inﬂuences on stigmatized minorities’job search

self-efﬁcacy illustrated in Figure 1.

Seligman (Cornum, Matthews, & Seligman 2011; Seligman, 2011a) has recently integrated an array of positive

psychology initiatives into a comprehensive program for building the psychological resilience of soldiers. This

program (http://csf.army.mil/index.html) includes online modules on “emotional ﬁtness,”“family ﬁtness,”“social

ﬁtness,”“spiritual ﬁtness,”and “post-traumatic growth”(Seligman, 2011a, p. 104). Another element is the “Mas-

ter Resilience Training”(p. 105) provided to drill sergeants and other military leaders. This focuses on enhancing

mental toughness, highlighting and honing strengths, and fostering strong relationships. Although the results of

such training are still being collected, research might usefully examine whether such training can ameliorate

learned helplessness, low job search self-efﬁcacy, and the frustrating plight of discouraged workers.

Beyond the African-American and other stigmatized minority populations we have discussed, research is needed

on the career dynamics associated with the responses to discrimination by different types of stigmatized minorities.

For instance, to what extent and how do other marginalized groups engage in racial, ethnic, gender, or other

socialization to equip their members for bias, build pride, and strengthen positive identity (Dutton, Roberts, &

Bednar, 2010)? How is this socialization manifested and delivered and with what consequences for job search

self-efﬁcacy and subsequent likelihood of becoming and/or remaining a discouraged worker? Implications of our

model for ﬁne-tuning “women in management”initiatives might also be usefully explored.

Organizational implications

Organizations are ostensibly concerned with positively engaging stigmatized minorities for reasons including increasing

creativity, brandishing their corporate social responsibility (Heslin & Ochoa, 2008), and avoiding chilling effects that

can deny organizations access to talented minority workers. There are various initiatives that organizations can take

to lessen the access and treatment discrimination that contributes to the chronic unemployment of stigmatized minori-

ties. Assigning numbers or codes to job applications and resumes can reduce name-based discrimination against stig-

matized minority job applicants. Diverse recruitment and selection teams can also help reduce discrimination, as can

highly structured interviews (McCarthy, Van Iddeking, & Campion, 2010). Diversity programs with measurement

and monitoring of access and treatment discrimination might simultaneously mitigate a key antecedent to stigmatized

minority workers’becoming discouraged workers. This can enable organizations to position themselves to capture

some of the goodwill, employee recruitment and retention, along with the many other beneﬁts of a diverse and engaged

workforce (Bell, 2012).

Implications for parents, mentors, and helping professionals

The manner of socialization youth receive affects them in important ways (Bowman & Howard, 1985;

Stevenson, 1994), with messages focusing on self-development and personal achievement being associated

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with higher efﬁcacy and achievement in school (Bowman & Howard, 1985). Given that minority socialization

messages focusing on discrimination and the threat of bias can at times have unintended negative consequences such

as reduced self-esteem (Harris-Britt, et al., 2007), caution seems warranted to ensure that precautionary messages are

adequately balanced with hopeful messages about what stigmatized minorities have achieved and can achieve, to

avoid inadvertently inducing a fragile job search self-efﬁcacy via increasing the salience of vocationally unsuccessful

stigmatized minority role models.

In light of the key role of mastery in building self-efﬁcacy (Bandura, 1997), those working to help discouraged

workers should strive to structure situations (e.g., practice interviews) so they include efﬁcacy-building successes

with subcomponents of the job search, application, and interview processes. Similar minority role models who have

been successful searching, interviewing, and obtaining a good job can be inspirational to marginalized individuals.

Encouragement focusing on strengths and small victories is also helpful (Amabile & Kramer, 2011), as is training

in verbal self-guidance whereby unemployed people are taught to translate their negative internal dialog into

positive self-talk (Latham & Budworth, 2006; Yanar et al., 2009). Heslin and Klehe (2006) identify 20 initiatives

that mentors might adapt to build chronically unemployed individuals’job search self-efﬁcacy. Dweck (2008) and

Heslin (2010a, 2010b) discuss how mentors can foster the kind of incremental implicit theories—also known as a

growth mindset (Dweck, 2008)—that may increase the resilience of self-efﬁcacy in the face of setbacks (Wood &

Bandura, 1989).

Helping individuals apply the functional explanatory style at the core of learned optimism (Seligman, 1991), as well

as Seligman’s more comprehensive resilience training (Seligman, 2011a) and guidelines for ﬂourishing (Seligman,

2011b) could usefully counteract the scourge of learned helplessness. Such resources might also be useful for parents,

mentors, and helping professionals eager to prevent stigmatized minorities from becoming discouraged workers, and

assist those who have.

Socialization regarding how to deal with name-based discrimination should grapple with a troublesome

“opportunity”for those who have ethnically identiﬁable names. On the one hand, adopting a “traditional”name

could allow one to pass the ﬁrst hurdle and at least obtain an interview (Arai & Thoursie, 2006). On the other

hand, denying such an important aspect of one’s identity may come with serious negative identity consequences

that could outweigh the beneﬁts (Ibarra, 2003).

Conclusion

The “devil”of discrimination can lead members of stigmatized minority populations to become discouraged work-

ers not only by providing structural barriers to employment but also more insidiously by undermining job search

self-efﬁcacy, creating learned helplessness, and being internalized through minority socialization processes. Further

theorizing and research, including consideration of the human and social capital dynamics that were beyond the

scope of this paper, are needed on when and how learned helplessness, minority socialization, and subsequent

minority identity help or hinder stigmatized minorities’job search self-efﬁcacy and subsequent likelihood of becoming

a discouraged worker. We hope that the opportunity to better understand and assist some of the most disadvan-

taged members of society will inspire further scholarship to address these issues.

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Montreal,

QC and appeared in the Best Paper Proceedings. The authors appreciate the very helpful suggestions of Dr. Ans De Vos

and other participants in this paper session, as well as Dr. Annelies van Vianen and three anonymous reviewers.

DISCRIMINATION AND DISCOURAGED WORKERS

DOI: 10.1002/job

Author biographies

Peter Heslin is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of New South Wales. He conducts research

on motivation, leadership, and careers. Peter leads the Managerial Skills elective at the Australian Graduate School

of Management and served as the 2011–2012 Program Chair for the Academy of Management Careers Division.

Myrtle P. Bell is Professor of Management at the University of Texas–Arlington. Her teaching and research focus

on diversity and social issues. Her book, Diversity in Organizations (2E, 2012), is a research-based diversity text.

She is past chair of the Gender and Diversity in Organizations division of the Academy of Management.

Pinar O. Fletcher is a doctoral student in the Micro Organizational Behavior Program at Harvard University. Her

research focuses on gender, diversity, and decision making. Prior to her doctoral studies, she obtained an MBA de-

gree from Columbia Business School and worked as a researcher in the investment banking industry.

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DISCRIMINATION AND DISCOURAGED WORKERS

DOI: 10.1002/job

Withdrawing from job search: The effect of age discrimination on occupational future time perspective, career exploration, and retirement intentions ☆

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

Older job seekers dropping out of the active workforce is a major challenge for individuals, organizations, and society, resulting in the need to protect and extend their working lives. Based on the discouraged workers approach, this study used career construction theory to study how past experiences can discourage older job seekers and make them withdraw from the job search. Specifically, we explored how age discrimination is connected to lower levels of older job seekers' occupational future time perspective (i.e., remaining time and future opportunities) and how it results in less career exploration and higher retirement intentions. Using a three-wave design, we followed 483 older job seekers in two countries (the United Kingdom and the United States) over a total period of two months. Results of structural equation modeling showed that perceived age discrimination decreased older job seekers' remaining time and future opportunities. Further, remaining time was negatively linked to retirement intentions, whereas future opportunities were positively linked to career exploration. Furthermore, results revealed two indirect effects of age discrimination on (1) retirement intentions via remaining time and (2) career exploration via future opportunities. These results show how damaging age discrimination can be in the job search context and we call for the search of potential moderators that can buffer the negative impact of age discrimination. Practitioners should work on protecting older job seekers' occupational future time perspective to keep them active instead of losing them to early retirement.

Use it or lose it: The problem of labour underutilization among immigrant workers in Canada

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2024
Ind Relat J

Canada is widely recognized as a desirable destination for new immigrants and all levels of governments are generally supportive of ambitious immigration targets set to help meet labour demand. Canada's immigration system is based primarily on human capital, selecting the world's most highly skilled newcomers. However, immigrants to Canada have often faced difficulty in attaining labour market outcomes commensurate with their knowledge and experience. In this analysis, we examine the paradox apparent in the Canadian immigration system—the selection criteria attract highly educated and skilled workers, yet many are not able to find employment opportunities that match their abilities—through the lens of the Labour Utilization Framework. Using data from the Canadian Labour Force Survey for the years 2006–2019 inclusive, we explore five different dimensions of skill underutilization or brain waste: involuntary part‐time work, minimum wage work, unemployment, over‐education (i.e., underemployment), and worker discouragement. Our results suggest that on all dimensions of labour underutilization measured in the study, immigrants are overwhelmingly at a disadvantage relative to their Canadian‐born, non‐Indigenous counterparts. We discuss the ethical implications of immigrant brain waste for both individuals and society and conclude by suggesting some possible policy responses to improve the utilization of immigrant talent in Canada.

INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRANSPORT AND LABOUR DISCOURAGEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Jul 2022

South Africa recorded an unemployment rate of 34.4% in 2021, its highest since the first Quarterly Labour Force Survey was conducted in 2008. South Africa has also seen a rise in the number of discouraged work seekers, reaching 3.3 million individuals in 2021. These are individuals who want to work, but are discouraged to actively search for employment. This research seeks to determine whether the rise in transport cost impacts on an individual's decision to search for employment. Descriptive statistics are used to report on the discouragement and transport trends between 2008 and 2020, making use of the Quarterly Labour Force Surveys, National Household Travel Surveys and National Income Dynamic Surveys. This research indicated the disproportionate household expenditure on transport to search for employment between different income groups. A panel regression model indicated a positive relationship between transport cost increase and discouragement. Understanding the impact of transport cost and affordability on job search can assist with strategies to reduce discouragement and long-term unemployment.

In Search of Regained Time? Autism and Organizational [A]temporality in the Light of Humanistic Management

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2023
J BUS ETHICS

Coralie Fiori-Khayat

This paper investigates the relationship that people with high functioning autism have with organizational temporality by considering this operationalization within the framework of humanistic management. To do so, it proposes an analysis based on seven propositions. Autism is a disorder that is still poorly understood and often linked to social depictions that are as unfounded as they are repulsive. It remains an unexplored area of study in the field of management sciences. Existing scholarship has established that people with autism have great difficulty finding and retaining employment. While it is well known that they have weak social skills, their difficulties in relation to time have only been studied in medical research, even though organizational temporality substantially shapes the functioning of teams. The operationalization of autistic temporality as a particular temporality within humanistic management allows for the development of a new conceptual framework based on a consideration of neuro-atypia. This paper begins with a presentation of the theoretical background. It then develops the theoretical model. Implications, limitations and directions for further studies are discussed before concluding.

Enhancing employment outcomes for autistic youth: Using machine learning to identify strategies for success

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023

BACKGROUND: The employment rates of autistic young adults continue to be significantly lower than that of their neurotypical peers. OBJECTIVE: Researchers in this study sought to identify the barriers and facilitators associated with these individuals’ transition into the workforce to better understand how educators and stakeholders can support students’ post-secondary career plans. METHODS: Investigators used a classification tree analysis with a sample of 236 caregivers of autistic individuals or the individuals themselves, who completed an online survey. RESULTS: The analysis identified critical factors in predicting successful employment for respondents 21 years and under and those over 21 years old. These factors included: difficulties in the job search process, challenges with relationships at work, resources used, job maintenance, motivation to work, and the application process. CONCLUSION: These findings represent the first use of machine learning to identify pivotal points on the path to employment for autistic individuals. This information will better prepare school-based professionals and other stakeholders to support their students in attaining and maintaining employment, a critical aspect of achieving fulfillment and independence. Future research should consider the perspectives of other stakeholders, including employers, and apply the findings to the development of interventions.

A theoretical integration of leader emergence and leadership effectiveness: Over, under, and congruent emergence

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023
J ORGAN BEHAV

There is a long and rich history of research on the concept of leader emergence. Much of this research positions leader emergence alongside leadership effectiveness as an epiphenomenal criterion in leadership research. Although this view has enhanced our understanding of factors that influence leader emergence and leadership effectiveness individually, our understanding of the potential alignment or misalignment of these concepts remains opaque. Following from this, we are left with unanswered questions concerning how, why, and under what conditions do the right or wrong leaders emerge or fail to emerge. Theory that develops insights into these questions is needed to advance our understanding of leadership and to cope with challenges of identifying and developing effective leaders and maximizing leadership potential in organizations. By integrating theories of leader emergence and leadership effectiveness—and considering their implications jointly—we provide a conceptual basis for identifying and understanding a more complete range of leader emergence than has been suggested in the literature. Importantly, our theoretical frame explains how our leader emergence types—over‐emergence, under‐emergence, congruent emergence, and congruent non‐emergence—are differentially associated with a common set of factors. In doing so, we illuminate tradeoffs that might accompany different interventions intended to enhance leadership in organizations.

TÜRKİYE'DE CESARETİ KIRILMIŞ İŞGÜCÜNÜN BÖLGESEL VE CİNSİYET AYRIMI BAĞLAMINDA ANALİZİ ANALYSIS OF DISCOURAGED WORKFORCE IN TURKEY IN THE CONTEXT OF REGIONAL AND GENDER DISCRIMINATION

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2023

Ekonomik kalkınmanın ve büyümenin en temel göstergeleri arasında işgücüne katılım oranları yer almaktadır. Ülkelerin temel problemleri arasında yer alan işsizlik gerek ortaya çıkış nedenlerine göre gerek doğurduğu sosyal politik ve ekonomik sonuçlar nedeniyle önem arz etmektedir. Bireylerin ekonomi durgunken cesaretleri kırılır ve daha az iş arama eğilimine girerler. Bunun nedeni olarak, işçilerin iş bulma şanslarının azaldığına inanmalarıdır. Ayrıca iş bulma imkanı düşüktür ve iş aramanın ekonomik ve psikolojik maliyetleri daha yüksektir. İşgücü arzının iş çevrimlerine göre değişiklik gösterdiğinin gözlemlenmesi cesareti kırılmış işçi kavramının ortaya çıkmasına neden olmuştur. Bu çalışma cesareti kırılmış iş gücünün Türkiye'deki görünümü bölgesel ve cinsiyet bağlamında incelemek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Sonuç olarak, cesareti kırılmış işçi sayısını azaltacak politikaların belirlenmesi bu bağlamda önem arz etmektedir. Bu tür politikalar piyasa katılımcılarının davranışlarını etkileyecektir. Eğer verimlilik yoğunluğu artan bir fonksiyon ise, sosyal yardım ödemesindeki bir düşüş cesareti kırılmış işçi sayısını azaltacak ve piyasaya katılan işverenlerin sayısı artacaktır. Cesareti kırılmış işgücünün azaltılması amacıyla gerekli politikalar düzenlenmeli, devlet, ilgili kurumlar, sendikalar, işçi kurumları gereken özeni daha fazla göstermelidir. ABSTRACT Labor force participation rates are among the most basic indicators of economic development and growth. Unemployment, which is one of the main problems of countries, is important due to the reasons for its emergence and its social, political and economic consequences. When the economy is in recession, individuals become discouraged and tend to look for work less. This is because workers believe that their chances of finding a job are diminishing. Moreover, the chances of finding a job are so low that the economic and psychological costs of looking for a job are higher. The observation that labor supply varies across business cycles 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market outcomes of Indigenous persons living off-reserve in Canada

Article

Nov 2024

Danielle Lamb

The recent COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the labour force activity of many, but the effect of the crisis on the labour market outcomes of Indigenous peoples in Canada is relatively understudied. Using data from the master files of the Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS), this analysis first considers the relative probability of four mutually exclusive labour force states: employed; unemployed; not in the labour force, but not discouraged; and not in the labour force due to being a discouraged worker. Differences in hours worked as well as earnings comparing Indigenous and non-Indigenous workers are then examined. The findings reveal that, regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigenous Canadians were relatively more likely to be either unemployed or not in the labour force (including being a discouraged worker) than to be employed as compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Indigenous workers earned roughly 3 percent less than their non-Indigenous counterparts. The earnings penalty experienced by Indigenous workers, was slightly smaller at the bottom of the wage distribution at 2 percent, increasing to roughly 3.3 percent at the top 90th percentile of the earnings function. During the COVID-19 period, while the risk of unemployment was lower for Indigenous persons, the risk of being a discouraged worker was even higher for Indigenous Canadians during the pandemic. Using an ad-hoc supplement to the LFS conducted by Statistics Canada in response to the pandemic, this study finds that Indigenous respondents were less likely than non-Indigenous respondents to either work from home or receive any form of Canada relief benefit from April 2020 to October 2021. The implications of these findings suggest a role for policy makers to improve access to funding supports for Indigenous workers and students seeking to pursue higher education to improve labour market outcomes. Additionally, employers play an important role in ensuring that Indigenous workers have fair access to job opportunities.

EXPRESS: Do Gender-Diverse Teams Deliver Better Operational Performance: an Experimental Study

Article

May 2024

The routines-based approach to operations management emphasizes the role of routines in operational performance. However, little is known about how gender diversity in teams could alter coordination and change behaviors of team members, potentially impacting performance. In this study, we report on two laboratory experiments that induce routines to assess the stability of coordination and adaptability to organizational changes across mixed-gender teams of varying diversity and empirically examine operational performance via routines. Based on frequentist and Bayesian statistical approaches, our findings reveal that compared to other mixed-gender teams, balanced-gender teams (a) attain stability in routines faster, (b) exhibit varying levels of adaptability to internal and external changes, and (c) deliver better economic benefits via resource- and time- efficiencies under normal and change conditions, and this is attributable to their higher pace of routine formation. We find the operational-performance effect more prominent in situations of change than in normal conditions. Alongside our theoretical contributions, our study has several implications for management and effective operations management in terms of team composition, hiring, and staffing decisions.

THE EFFECT OF BUSINESS OWNER DEMOGRAPHICS ON LOAN FORGIVENESS IN A PANDEMIC

Article

Oct 2023

Generally, crisis situations entail economic hardship for entrepreneurs and their businesses. As such, historical crisis events may be accompanied by government policy to lessen the adverse effects for business owners and their employees. By analyzing a sample of 139,006 U.S. businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans of $150,000 or more from the United States Treasury, we empirically show that female, racial and ethnic minority business owners will be at a disadvantage in receiving loan forgiveness relative to their peers. These findings advance the literature by highlighting post funding gender, racial and ethnic disparities in accessing venture resources. Practically, the results highlight how governmental intervention during a historical shock may disproportionately increase constraints on female, racial and ethnic minority business owners.

Voices of the Forgotten Half: The Role of Social Class in the School-to-Work Transition

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2002

This study examines the impact of social class on the school-to-work (STW) transitions of young adults in working-class occupations. Using an exploratory, qualitative research methodology, interviews were conducted with 10 men and 10 women to examine the role of social class in the STW transition. All participants were working in low-skilled jobs and grouped into 2 cohorts based on their family's socioeconomic background: higher socioeconomic status (HSES) and lower socioeconomic status (LSES). The findings indicate that social class played an important role in the participants' STW transition. Individuals from the HSES cohort expressed greater interest in work as a source of personal satisfaction, higher levels of self-concept crystallization, greater access to external resources, and greater levels of career adaptability compared with their LSES counterparts.

Impact of Conceptions of Ability on Self-Regulatory Mechanisms and Complex Decision Making

Article

Full-text available

Mar 1989

Tested the hypothesis that induced conceptions of ability as a stable entity or as an acquirable skill would affect self-regulatory mechanisms governing performance in a simulated organization. Ss served as managerial decision makers in which they had to match employees to subfunctions and to discover and apply managerial rules to achieve a difficult level of organizational performance. Those who performed the challenging managerial task under an entity conception of ability suffered a loss in perceived self-efficacy, lowered their organizational goals, and became less efficient in their analytic strategies. Ss who managed the organization under an acquirable skill conception of ability sustained their perceived self-efficacy, set challenging organizational goals, and used analytic strategies effectively. These divergences in self-regulatory factors were accompanied by substantial differences in organizational performance. Path analysis revealed that perceived self-efficacy had both a direct effect on organizational performance and an indirect effect through its influence on analytic strategies. Personal goals also affected organizational performance through the mediation of analytic strategies. The relation of prior organizational performance to subsequent performance was mediated entirely by the combined influence of the self-regulatory factors.

Attributional Style in Depression: A Meta-Analytic Review

Article

Full-text available

May 1986

In this article we report meta-analyses of the relation of attributional styles to depression. In 104 studies involving nearly 15,000 subjects, several attributional patterns had reliable associations with depression scores. For negative events, attributions to internal, stable, and global causes had a reliable and significant association with depression. Studies in which the attribution factors of ability and luck were measured also showed a reliable association with depression. For positive events, attributions to external, unstable, and specific causes were associated with depression. Ability and luck attribution factors for positive events were also associated with depression. The relations for positive events, however, were weaker than the corresponding ones for negative events. In general, these patterns of relations were independent of a number of potential mediators suggested by authors in this literature, including the type of subject studied (psychiatric vs. college student), the type of event about which the attribution is made (real vs. simulated), the depression measure used, or the publication status of the research report. These conclusions are compared with those of other reviews. Implications for attributional models of depression are discussed.

Effects of Race on Organizational Experiences, Job Performance Evaluations, and Career Outcomes

Article

Full-text available

Mar 1990

International Unemployment Indicators, 1983–93

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1995
Mon Labor Rev

Constance Sorrentino

The job search grind: perceived progress, self-reactions, and self-regulation of search effort

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2009

Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control

Book

Oct 2023

The psychological syndrome of learned helplessness is a uniquely modern phenomenon, deeply rooted in cultural concepts of personal power and security. This timely and valuable work examines learned helplessness with reference to the salient emphases in contemporary culture of individuality and personal control. An indispensable reference of interest to a broad spectrum of researchers in psychology.

Oppositional Identities and Employment for Ethnic Minorities: Evidence from England

Article