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Enjoying Your Work Richard Brislin |
Executives can use token
behaviors to placate
minoritiesEducational television stations frequently offer concerts by symphony orchestras, and I enjoy watching them. Camera shots offer views of the entire orchestra and also close-ups of individual musicians. During one program, one of the best-known American orchestras offered a program of Beethoven, Mozart and Prokofief. There were more than a hundred people playing, and I noticed exactly one African-American musician seated deep into the string section. I remember saying, "This is an example of tokenism that I'll have to remember when I talk to groups about prejudice and intergroup relations."
When people are prejudiced, they harbor negative attitudes about people from other groups who differ on traits such as skin color, nationality and accent within their language. People express their prejudiced attitudes in different ways. Some people are very direct in their expression. They openly tell friends and colleagues that they don't like members of certain out-groups, feel that they are inferior and that their country would be better off without them. Other people are much more indirect in their expression. Often well educated, these people know that there are social norms and legal repercussions that discourage open expression of intense prejudices. Given this awareness, these more indirect people sometimes engage in token behaviors toward members of other groups.
While positive in nature, these token behaviors offer minimum benefits to out-group members. The symphony orchestra that I saw on television has engaged in a token behavior by hiring one African American. Orchestra executives can point to the one violinist as evidence of a policy of encouraging minority employees. With this token gesture, the executives can continue to avoid more vigorous actions that would create a more positive atmosphere of intergroup tolerance.
In different organizations, token behaviors can take place at various stages of people's career development. Many people from minority groups might be offered job interviews, but only a few might be hired. Once on the job, these few minority group members might find that only one or two are offered advanced training programs that can lead to promotions and salary increases. Or, just one or two might be offered membership in local clubs where managers and executives from various organizations develop the networks necessary for career advancement.
Executives can engage in other types of token behaviors. Members of minority groups might want to meet regularly to discuss issues in their organizations. They may want to formulate recommendations about minority issues that they will present to senior level managers. Executives might encourage this and offer the use of the most prestigious meeting rooms. The executives might even prepare a press release about the meetings and send it to newspapers and television stations. These executive behaviors might be meaningless tokens. Minority group members might feel well treated, but there is no guarantee that there will be any action. In some parts of the world, executives might know that the minority group members will probably squabble among themselves and fail to reach agreement concerning recommendations. But the executives can say, "We gave them every opportunity!"
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The purpose of this column is to increase understanding of human behavior as it has an impact on the workplace. Given the amount of time people spend at work, job satisfaction should ideally be high and it should contribute to general life happiness. Enjoyment can increase as people learn more about workplace psychology, communication, and group influences.
Richard Brislin is a professor in the College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii. He can be reached through the College Relations Office: cro@cba.hawaii.edu