Overcoming negative reactions of nonbeneficiaries to employment equity: The effect of participation in policy formulation.
通过两项实验研究,发现非受益者(如男性或白人)在参与就业公平政策制定时,尤其是拥有实质性发言权,会因产生心理所有权而更支持该政策。
In 2 experimental studies, we examined a way to overcome nonbeneficiaries' resistance to employment equity (EE) policies-participation in formulating the policy. We operationalized participation in terms of instrumental versus noninstrumental voice and proposed that nonbeneficiaries would be more likely to support an EE policy when allowed instrumental participation in the policy's development. Further, we proposed psychological ownership as the mediating mechanism underlying the effects of instrumental participation. Study 1 examined participation effects for a gender-based EE policy and Study 2 for a race-based EE policy. As predicted, we found that nonbeneficiaries (men in Study 1; Whites in Study 2) in the instrumental participation condition expressed greater behavioral intentions to promote the policy (Studies 1 and 2) and were more likely to engage in a behavior promoting the policy (Study 2). We also found support for psychological ownership as the underlying mediating mechanism in both studies. Contributions to theory and practice are discussed.