Observing Discrimination: Implications for Group‐Based Respect and Organizational Morality

When organizational authorities or representatives discriminate, it not only impacts the discrimination target; it also affects those who witness it. In this article, we argue that discrimination within workplace and educational contexts implicates the larger organization in which it occurs in two ways. First, it communicates to targets the extent to which the representatives of an organization respect their group. Second, discrimination implicates the morality of the larger group or organization in which it occurs. This second threat to the organization's morality affects all observers, even those who do not share a social category with the target. We argue that both forms of threat can decrease organization identification, well‐being, and increase withdrawal. For all observers, whether one is a member of the targeted group or not, to witness an organizational authority clearly discriminate against another organizational member is distressing and leads to withdrawal. We offer recommendations for policy and decision‐making procedures aimed at (1) adopting organizational decision‐making structures that minimize the opportunity for personal acts of bias (to prevent discrimination before it occurs), and (2) offering those who witness (or experience) discrimination clear avenues for addressing it (to minimize its destructive consequences). If organization members, especially organizational authorities, confront discrimination, it offsets the negative consequences of a single organizational representative's biased behavior.