Intersectional Penalties for Perceived Interpersonal Justice Violations among Black and Hispanic Male Leaders in the Workplace

Abstract

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has drawn attention to the lack of progress toward racial equity in many domains. Chief among them is the unequal treatment that Black men often face when interacting with law enforcement or within the criminal justice system, which appears heavily associated with the pernicious stereotype that Black men are distinctly aggressive and dangerous. Evidence suggests that Hispanic men are also subject to similar negative stereotypes. We contend that the consequences of this intersectional stereotype are wide-ranging and explore how it manifests and continues to shape the experiences of Black and Hispanic men in contemporary work organizations. Across two field studies surveying employees supervised by a diverse set of leaders, we find evidence that leaders’ intersectional identities moderate the relationship between interpersonal injustice and leader evaluations (i.e., performance ratings, reward recommendations) and relational outcomes (i.e., supervisor-directed organizational citizenship behaviors), such that Black or Hispanic men are penalized more severely for violations of interpersonal justice relative to White men as well as Black or Hispanic women. Additionally, this unequal response across leaders is because subordinates find such aggressive actions less acceptable for Black or Hispanic men, as it violates societal proscriptions surrounding for whom aggressive behaviors are deemed acceptable, rather than due to greater fear associated with the content of this negative stereotype.