Predicting workplace perceived discrimination and religious prejudice through luso-tropicalism, values and individualism/collectivism

Abstract

The present investigation aimed to study the psychosocial issues of prejudice related to religion and discrimination towards immigrants in the Portuguese society, more specifically, in the work context in Portugal. Thereby, we assessed to what extent attitudes towards religious groups and perception of discrimination towards immigrants in the workplace were related with luso-tropicalism dimensions, human values and individualism/collectivism. To this end, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of 234 Portuguese workers of diverse organizations in Portugal. Principal Components Analyses (PCA) were run on the instruments of Social Representations of Luso-tropicalism, Individualism/Collectivism, Human Values, Attitudes towards Religious Groups and Perception of Discrimination. Using the results obtained with PCA, multiple regressions were run to test the established hypotheses. The results showed that social representations of luso-tropicalism, individualism/collectivism and human values were significant predictors of discrimination perception, but not of religious prejudice. Cultural integration was, for the first time, associated with discrimination, being able to negatively predict both undercover and blatant hostilities. Furthermore, the outcomes showed that kindness towards immigrant workers could be positively predicted by horizontal collectivism and self-transcendence. Inversely, undercover hostility could be negatively predicted by self-transcendence, meaning that self-transcendence tends to increase when unnoticed discriminatory behaviours in the workplace tend to diminish. In the end, the results are discussed taking into consideration the challenges that culturally diverse environments generate in organizations.

The present investigation aimed to study the psychosocial issues of prejudice related to religion and discrimination towards immigrants in the Portuguese society, more specifically, in the work context in Portugal. Thereby, we assessed to what extent attitudes towards religious groups and perception of discrimination towards immigrants in the workplace were related with luso-tropicalism dimensions, human values and individualism/collectivism. To this end, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of 234 Portuguese workers of diverse organizations in Portugal. Principal Components Analyses (PCA) were run on the instruments of Social Representations of Luso-tropicalism, Individualism/Collectivism, Human Values, Attitudes towards Religious Groups and Perception of Discrimination. Using the results obtained with PCA, multiple regressions were run to test the established hypotheses. The results showed that social representations of luso-tropicalism, individualism/collectivism and human values were significant predictors of discrimination perception, but not of religious prejudice. Cultural integration was, for the first time, associated with discrimination, being able to negatively predict both undercover and blatant hostilities. Furthermore, the outcomes showed that kindness towards immigrant workers could be positively predicted by horizontal collectivism and self-transcendence. Inversely, undercover hostility could be negatively predicted by self-transcendence, meaning that self-transcendence tends to increase when unnoticed discriminatory behaviours in the workplace tend to diminish. In the end, the results are discussed taking into consideration the challenges that culturally diverse environments generate in organizations.