Reducing Interpersonal Discrimination for Pregnant Job Applicants Seeking Professional Jobs

This study seeks to extend previous research on the experiences of pregnant job applicants from retail settings (see Botsford Morgan, Walker, Hebl, & King, 2013) to entry-level professional jobs. The current research utilized a 2 (expectant status: not pregnant, pregnant) x 4 (counterstereotypic information: control, competence, commitment, flexibility) betweensubjects factorial design to empirically test the relative efficacy of real, practical interventions designed to reduce the interpersonal discrimination (enhanced negativity and reduced positivity) that pregnant women may encounter when applying for entry-level professional jobs. Results reveal that pregnant job applicants experience more positive interactions when presenting information about their competence than when they say nothing. This study extends our understanding of manifestations of bias and its reduction with regard to pregnant workers applying for entry-level professional jobs

Revising SIOP’s Guidelines for Education and Training Graduate Program Director Survey Results

SIOP commissioned the Education and Training Committee to revise the Guidelines for Education and Training at the Master’s and Doctoral Levels in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. As a part of that effort, the committee sent a survey to all the directors of graduate programs in industrial and organizational psychology and related fields per SIOP records. To identify who to send the survey to, the following three lists of e-mail addresses were compiled and cross-referenced resulting in 317 potential respondents: (a) points of contact within SIOP’s Graduate Training Program database, (b) respondents to the 2011 SIOP program benchmarking survey (Tett, et al., 2012), and (c) the SIOP I-O Program Directors’ discussion list

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

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP, Division 14 of the American Psychological Association [APA]) maintains Guidelines for Education and Training to provide guidance for the training of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists. The 2016/2017 revision combines separate documents for master’s- and doctoral-level training into one document, because the competencies required for each degree are not very different. Instead, the degrees differ in breadth and depth. The updated Guidelines were approved as APA policy in August 2017. In this article, we briefly review the revision process and highlight the updates made in the latest version of the Guidelines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved

Across the pregnancy lifespan: examining workplace outcomes of concealing across stages of pregnancy

Purpose: The authors aims to use stigma theory to predict and test a model wherein a person’s stage of pregnancy influences their workplace outcomes associated with pregnancy concealment behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: The authors tested the model using two separate survey studies, examining these relationships from the perspectives of both the pregnant employees and their supervisors. Findings: The authors find support for the model across both studies, showing that concealment of a pregnant identity predicts increased discrimination, but only for those in later stages of pregnancy. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine how one’s stage of pregnancy impacts identity management outcomes. This is important given that pregnancy is an inherently dynamic stigma that becomes increasingly visible over time

Negative consequence of benevolent sexism on efficacy and performance

Purpose: Previous research demonstrates the damaging effects of hostile sexism enacted towards women in the workplace. However, there is less research on the consequences of benevolent sexism: a subjectively positive form of discrimination. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing from ambivalent sexism theory, the authors first utilized an experimental methodology in which benevolent and hostile sexism were interpersonally enacted toward both male and female participants. Findings: Results suggested that benevolent sexism negatively impacted participants\u27 self-efficacy in mixed-sex interactions. Extending these findings, the results of a second field study clarify self-efficacy as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between benevolent sexism and workplace performance. Originality/value: Finally, benevolent sexism contributed incremental prediction of performance above and beyond incivility, further illustrating the detrimental consequences of benevolently sexist attitudes towards women in the workplace. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited