Agency in Organizational Inequality: Organizational Behavior and Individual Perceptions of Discrimination

Abstract

This study takes an agency approach to inequality, examining how employees interpret organizational practices. By interpreting organizational behavior as discriminatory, employees mobilize the law and inject agency into inequality processes, albeit cognitively. Employees with disabilities interpreted discrimination based on their individual characteristics, organizational context and procedures, and their opportunities for training. Employees who worked in organizations that were focused on disability issues or who were offered opportunities for training were less likely to perceive discrimination. Employees who worked in organizations with grievance procedures were more likely to perceive discrimination. Disability-related human resource management structures played a symbolic role with little influence on employees' perceptions of discrimination.