Toward an understanding of employment discrimination claiming: An integration of organizational justice and social information processing theories

This research examines predictors of actual discrimination claiming among terminated workers by investigating a number of variables suggested by organizational justice and social information processing theories. This study investigated initial decisions to claim in a sample of 439 terminated workers who were surveyed at several unemployment offices. Logistic regression was used to examine how the decision to claim for discrimination was affected by procedural and distributive justice, social guidance, minority status, gender, age, tenure, and education. All of the variables except education and gender were found to be significant. Thus, the results support variables from each of the theories. Social guidance was found to have a major influence on discrimination-claiming. A counter-intuitive finding for minority status was found such that Whites were more likely to claim than minorities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.