Are We Essential, or Sacrificial? The Effects of Felt Public Gratitude on Essential Worker Recovery Activities During COVID-19

COVID-19 has been characterized by unprecedented levels of public gratitude to some, but not all, essential workers. In this research, we integrate insights from the stigmatized occupations and gratitude literature to build theory on the positive and negative relationships between such displays of public gratitude and essential workers' recovery activities. We argue that felt public gratitude positively relates to adaptive recovery activities (e.g., exercise) and negatively relates to maladaptive recovery activities (e.g., overdrinking). We further explain how felt public gratitude impacts (mal)adaptive recovery activities through (a) felt invisibility and (b) negative/positive affect. We find support for our predictions in a two-wave survey of 186 corrections officers (Study 1) and an experiment with 379 essential workers across a variety of industries (Study 2).

The development and validation of multidimensional workplace compassion scale: Linking its conceptualization and measurement

Organizational compassion is a powerful force that possesses the capability to move individuals and groups towards a common good. Research on organizational compassion or compassion in the workplace has discussed its potential to reduce individual suffering and enhance positive emotions, wellbeing, and dignity. The existing literature lacks a valid and reliable measure of workplace compassion that follows the recent conceptualization of organizational compassion. This research presents the development and validation of workplace compassion scale. The scale development process consisted of four studies with a total sample of 947 respondents. In study 1, we developed the items for the new measure, by considering the four-factor conceptualization of organizational compassion. Study 2 and 3 focuses on item purification and testing the model fit indices of the proposed scale. In study 4, we followed a time separated design to test the nomological network and discriminant validity of the workplace compassion scale. The final workplace compassion scale consists of 12 items that measure other-oriented/expressed compassion in the workplace. The scale is beneficial for providing impetus to future quantitative research in organizational compassion.

Can Racial Diversity Attenuate Racial Discrimination in Service Interactions? Evidence from Cite-and-Release Decisions within Police Departments

Despite the belief that racial diversity in organizations will attenuate racial discrimination in service interactions, the extant literature suggests that it may often exacerbate discrimination by generating intergroup conflict. In this paper, I propose that the influence of racial diversity on racial discrimination in service interactions will depend upon (a) the level of interdependence within an organization and (b) whether an increase in diversity consists of a larger representation of a minority’s own racial group. To test my predictions, I combine interaction-level data covering approximately 200,000 cite-and-release decisions where suspects are either given a summons to attend court at a later date or transported to jail following arrest with longitudinal organization-level data from 93 police departments across the United States. Consistent with prior research, I found that minority suspects were less likely to be cited and released for the same offense relative to White suspects. Racial diversity among sworn officers in a police department exacerbated discrimination in cite-and-release decisions unless officers’ work roles were highly interdependent due to the adoption of community-oriented policing. Focusing on Black and Hispanic suspects, I observed this pattern regardless of whether an increase in racial diversity in the department was characterized by a larger representation of a minority suspect’s own racial group or other minority racial groups. Taken together, the findings suggest that diverse organizations can mitigate the emergence of intergroup conflict that exacerbates racial discrimination in service interactions by fostering interdependencies.