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Discrimination and Unfair Treatment in the Workplace
Author(s) -
Fevre Ralph,
Grainger Heidi,
Brewer Rioch
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
british journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.665
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-8543
pISSN - 0007-1080
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2010.00798.x
Subject(s) - disadvantage , rationality , ideology , obstacle , sociology , work (physics) , positive economics , social psychology , public relations , labour economics , economics , political science , psychology , law , mechanical engineering , politics , engineering
The difficulties of researching discrimination are often unacknowledged when policy makers draw on survey data. We explore these difficulties by means of a discussion informed by labour‐market sociology and a subsequent empirical discussion that draws on the results of the first Fair Treatment at Work Survey (FTWS). The great majority of respondents to the FTWS appeared to trust instrumental rationality to ensure that there was no discrimination in the labour market or the workplace. Given what we know of the difficulties of establishing the existence of discrimination, this widespread belief in its absence is shown to be ideological. It is both a determinant of survey results and an obstacle to changes needed to address patterns of disadvantage.