The disclosure of concealable stigmas: Analysis anchored in trust

The role of women as change agents in a male-dominated context: Empirical findings from the transport and mobility industry

BACKGROUND

A variety of scholars deal with change agents' role within change processes and highlight their relevance as role models in an organisation, but there are shortcomings. First, research on the impact of change processes has traditionally focused on the impact on employees' (change recipients') wellbeing but only limited attention has been paid to the impact on change agents' own well-being, resilience, and health. Second, studies that reflect on female CAs' well-being are missed.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to enhance our knowledge on the role of women as change agents in analysing their perceived self-efficacy during change and their job satisfaction as job-related dimension of wellbeing.

METHODS

We applied a mixed-method design, conducting two studies based on data from 71 specialists - change agents - working in the transport or mobility departments of seven local authorities participating in the H2020 CIVITAS SUITS project, from six different countries, Greece, Spain, Italy, Romania, United Kingdom, and Lithuania.

RESULTS

The first quantitative survey shows that female change agents may have to perceive higher levels of self-efficacy during organisational change to perceive similar levels of job satisfaction as men. The second qualitative study (focus groups) provides more in-depth explanations of these results. This allows us to derive managerial implications to prevent decreases in women's well-being and strengthen their resilience and health during change.

CONCLUSION

This mixed-method study highlights the role of women as change agents, driving organisational change within male-dominated transport departments of local authorities. Our results show that female change agents need extra support in managing change processes within male-dominated contexts as the transport and mobility field to avoid a decrease in their perceived job satisfaction, their well-being and herewith, their physical and mental health.

"Should I Tell My Leader or Not?"-Health-Oriented Leadership and Stigma as Antecedents of Employees' Mental Health Information Disclosure Intentions at Work

OBJECTIVE

To investigate how health-oriented leadership and stigma facilitate or impede employees' disclosure intentions to leaders.

METHODS

In two studies-an experimental vignette (n = 73) and a cross-sectional study (n = 220)-we manipulated or measured health-oriented leadership, transformational leadership, and organizational stigma and compared different reasons for disclosure (mental health problems and severe error) to separate general and specific disclosure decisions.

RESULTS

Health-oriented leadership fostered disclosure above and beyond transformational leadership. High organizational stigma was associated with lower disclosure. Health-oriented leadership had a stronger effect on disclosing mental problems than on disclosing a severe error and slightly mitigated the negative relationship between stigma and disclosure in study 1. Findings were not influenced by employees' current mental health status.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the importance of health-oriented leadership as a facilitator and organizational stigma as a barrier to disclosure intentions.

Explaining sexual minorities’ disclosure: The role of trust embedded in organizational practices

This paper reports on an empirical study that demonstrated how organizational inclusion practices and employees’ trust in their organization and supervisors affect their willingness to share personal information that could potentially lead to workplace discrimination. The findings are based on data obtained from 431 sexual- and gender-minority employees using an anonymous online survey. The results reveal that trust in the organization and the supervisor fully mediates the relationship between organizational policies and practices and workplace disclosure. In other words, in organizations where policies and practices generate trust, employees are more willing to disclose their minority identity. Our analysis also reveals how trust in the organization and the supervisor interacts with psychological variables associated with the workplace disclosure decision.

Approaching the Discriminatory Work Environment as Stressor: The Protective Role of Job Satisfaction on Health

Discrimination is a complex phenomenon with adverse consequences at personal and organizational levels. Past studies have demonstrated that workers who are victims of discrimination might show less job satisfaction, less organizational commitment and worse levels of health and productivity. Although most research has focused on the effects of discrimination on victims, less is known about the extent to which discrimination produces consequences on workers who perceive the existence of a discriminatory work environment. The goal of this article is to analyze the consequences of the perception of a discriminatory work environment on employees' health. The importance of this relationship is studied taking into account the mediating effect of job satisfaction. In order to reach this goal a cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 1633 Italian workers (male = 826, female = 764), employed in private and public sectors, and in different hierarchical positions. Results suggest that the perception of a discriminatory work environment is negatively associated with employees' health. This relationship is partially mediated by job satisfaction (R (2) = 0.17). This study demonstrates that perceiving a discriminatory work environment might have a negative impact on workers' health. A higher level of job satisfaction might buffer this effect. These findings have several practical implications. On the one hand, Human Resource Managers need to intervene in order to recognize and diminish implicit biases, creating a healthy and inclusive environment (e.g., through training, diversity policies, etc.). On the other hand, promoting job satisfaction (e.g., providing mechanisms of voice) might help workers to preserve their well-being, coping with the negative effects of a discriminatory work environment.