Workplace Prejudice and Discrimination Affecting Child Welfare Agency Climate

Background and Purpose: Research shows that organizational climate, also called psychological climate, directly affects employees’ job outcomes which ultimately impacts the communities they serve. Workers’ perception of their work climate includes experiences of individual workers, especially workers of color, with racism, prejudice, discrimination, exclusion, and lack of representation in higher decision-making bodies. The purpose of this research is to better understand the phenomena of workplace discrimination towards non-white identified workers and its effect on the organizational climate using two hypotheses.

H₁: There is a significant difference between workers of distinct ethno-racial groups in their experiences of workplace prejudice and discrimination.

H₂: Factors determining workplace prejudice and discrimination (Treatment at Work (TW), Fairness at Work (FW), and Inclusion and Consideration (IC)) are significant predictors of organizational climate.

Methods: Data for this study came from a federally funded workforce assessment survey in a western state in the U.S. of public and private child welfare agencies. A total of 341 child welfare staff completed an online survey through a secure email link. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used data analysis.

For H₁, ANOVA was used to test the between group differences of the race/ethnicity variable with respect to workers’ perception of workplace prejudice and discrimination, measured using the 16 item Likert scale (1= Strongly Disagree to 5=Strongly Agree) instrument called the Workplace Prejudice and Discrimination Inventory (WPDI).

For H₂, a multiple regression was performed to predict the workplace psychological climate (dependent variable) using the Psychological Climate Scale. The independent variables were the 3 components (TW, FW and IC) found using Principal Component Analysis of WPDI.

Results: For H₁, the ANOVA yielded a significant relationship (F=3.494, df= 6, p=0.002) between the independent variables and dependent variable, with White/Caucasian workers reporting the least amount of prejudice and discrimination (M=2.408), followed by Asian (M=2.7), Hispanic/Latino (M= 2.721) and African American (M=2.766) workers, and Multiracial (M=2.964) workers reporting the highest level of discriminatory experience at work.

For H₂, a significant regression equation was found (F(3, 270)=38.239, p=0.000), with R²=0.298. Examination of the individual t-ratios showed that the effects on climate by all three independent variables, TW (t=-4.780), IC (t=4.429) and FW (t=3.001), were statistically significant. The psychological climate was predicted to be equal to 3.509- 0.182 (TW) + 0.157 (FW) + 0.112(IC).

Conclusions and Implications: This study shows that Workers of Color experience higher levels of perceived prejudice and discrimination than their Caucasian counterparts. These results suggest meaningful levels of workplace inequality which may adversely affect not only individual workers, but also the organizational climate. Objective study findings such as these may help child welfare researchers and agency leaders to acknowledge the present issue. The implications of these findings can help motivate the child welfare field to seek solutions that promote workplace inclusion. To address the urgent needs of child welfare it is now more than ever important to strive for equitable representation of workers in making policies and developing culturally responsive services for racial and ethnically diverse children and families.