The effect of workplace discrimination on job attitudes

Abstract

Discrimination is known to have negative effects on different aspects of people’s lives, mentally as well as physically. This study looks in to discrimination at work specifically, and at the effects that it has on job satisfaction, job connectedness, and job enthusiasm. Perceived organizational support (POS) in the form of the perceived amount of organizational attention to wellbeing is taken in to account as a moderator for this effect. Based on the social exchange theory and previous research in this field a negative relationship of discrimination on the three job attitudes is expected, and POS is thought to have a buffering role regarding this effect. These hypotheses are tested using data from WERKonderzoek2019 with multiple regression analyses and the results show a negative effect of workplace discrimination on job satisfaction, -connectedness, and -enthusiasm as expected. The effect is strongest for job satisfaction, and least strong for job enthusiasm. POS is found to have a positive moderating effect for all three job attitudes, meaning a higher level of POS makes the negative effects of workplace discrimination less negative