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Browsing by Author "Derricks, Veronica"
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Item Diversity-Valuing Behaviors as a Performance Asset instead of a Liability: The Role of DEI Accountability Mechanisms(2023-06) Washington, Darius M.; Stockdale, Margaret S.; Derricks, Veronica; Johnson, India R.Women and racial minorities are perceived negatively when they engage in diversity-valuing behaviors (i.e., behaviors that promote demographic balance), which increases negative perceptions of their competence and performance effectiveness in modern organizations. Although organizational attention to the topics of workplace equity and inclusion has increased, Black women continue to be excluded from leadership positions motivated by race and sex-based judgments of intellectual inferiority and leadership incongruity. Diversity management continues to be an important research domain to ensure the effective implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) relevant strategies to reduce bias and discrimination. This work infuses accountability for DEI into a performance management system to address the backlash Black women receive for engaging in DEI-relevant behaviors. I used accountability for DEI as a relevant structure to test whether holding employees accountable for diversity-valuing behavior (i.e., promoting DEI goals) through competence mitigates negative performance evaluation and promotion rating of a Black woman. In the current study, MTurk participants (N = 280) with employment experience were surveyed about their evaluation of performance and promotion ratings. Participants were randomly assigned to receive information about dimensions of an employee’s annual evaluation, including “Diversity and Inclusion” (DEI accountability condition) or “Corporate Social Environmental Responsibility” (CSR; control condition). Dependent on participant condition, participants received more information about extra-role behaviors (i.e., diversity-valuing behavior vs. organizational citizenship behaviors) demonstrated by a Black woman. Results were not statistically significant but showed that participants reported more favorable performance evaluation and promotion ratings toward the fictitious employee in the DEI accountability condition who engaged in diversity-valuing behavior compared to the fictitious employee in the CSR (control condition) who engaged in diversity-valuing behavior. These results suggest that organizations that embed a framework for measuring and evaluating DEI efforts among all employees may reduce negative competence perceptions, which in turn, can help mitigate negative performance evaluations and increase promotion ratings among Black women.Item Effects of Feedback Seeking Behavior on Supervisor Perceptions: Examining the Interaction of Seeking Frequency With Supervisor Implicit Person Theory and Feedback Orientation(2024-05) Schneider, Jacob; Williams, Jane; Stockdale, Margaret; Derricks, VeronicaFeedback seeking is an essential process for employees to improve performance and clarify expectations (Renn & Fedor, 2001; Ashford & Tsui, 199). Certain factors such as ego and image defense limit feedback seeking in the workplace due to avoidance of negative outcomes (Ashford & Cummings, 1983), however we know less about whether feedback seeking does lead to actual negative outcomes for the employee (Ashford, De Stobbeleir, & Nujella, 2016). The current study examines the existence of actual costs to the seeker for seeking more frequently and adds to the literature by examining whether supervisor individual differences are related to perceptions of seeking behavior, namely implicit person theory and feedback orientation. With a sample of 275 adult supervisors recruited from Mturk, the current study measured participants on these individual differences and assessed perceptions of a fictional employee who either sought feedback with high or low frequency. The employee was rated on a selection of performance potential outcomes related to promotability, expectations of future performance, willingness to mentor, and candidacy for career development opportunities. Findings suggest there is a cost associated with seeking feedback at a higher frequency which manifests as a decrease in perceptions of confidence in the employee. Additionally, this perception of lower confidence from seeking feedback could contribute to more significant downstream outcomes such as expectations of lower quality performance and lower likelihood of being promoted. By understanding more about individuals’ perceptions of feedback seeking behavior, we may train supervisors how to be more receptive of different feedback seeking behavior. This could assist in fostering a performance improvement environment that ultimately improves organizational performance.Item Employee and Supervisor (Mis)Matching IPT and Performance Management Consequences(2022-05) Findley, Mya; Williams, Jane; Stockdale, Margaret; Derricks, VeronicaAlthough performance management (PM) is a common, vital system used in most organizations, both supervisors and employees have been routinely disappointed with PM experiences, despite extensive research. Recent studies have identified certain individual differences that impact PM effectiveness. Specifically, the inclination to believe that one’s core traits are either malleable (an incremental mindset; high IPT) or fixed (an entity mindset; low IPT), a concept called "implicit person theory" (IPT), predicts many important supervisor behaviors that subsequently influence employee’s behaviors and attitudes. Furthermore, there is substantial support indicating that employee IPT also predicts their own performance, behaviors, and attitudes. This research shows the many benefits of having a high IPT over a low IPT. In this study, I examined the matching or mismatching IPT between employees and their respective supervisors and whether this differentially predicts employee attitudes that relate to PM. Responses were gathered from 211 participants. In an initial survey, participants were asked to report their IPT and their perceptions of their supervisor’s IPT. Two days later, participants reported their perceptions of procedural justice, satisfaction with PM, and motivation to improve performance. Employee perceptions of procedural justice and satisfaction were combined into a single measure measuring general affective reactions to PM, after an exploratory factor analysis revealed the two outcomes loaded onto a single factor. PROCESS Model 1 was used to examine the central hypothesis. I found significant interactions of employee and supervisor IPT on motivation and affective reactions to PM. The relationship between employee IPT and motivation was positive and strongest when supervisors had a high IPT, and was positive but weaker when supervisors had a low IPT. Interestingly, the relationship between employee IPT and affective reactions was negative when supervisors had a low IPT, such that low IPT employees reported better affective reactions to PM when they perceived their supervisors to have a low IPT rather than a high IPT. This research contributes to the literature by demonstrating the nuances of how IPT predicts employee outcomes. Organizations can benefit from this research by increasing awareness of one’s IPT and implementing cultural changes alongside interventions to increase favorable outcomes.Item Health vs Success: Examining Whether Exposure to Negative Stereotypes Motivates Engagement in Unhealthy Behaviors among Low-SES College Students(2023-11) Gonzalez , Daniela; Derricks, Veronica; Johnson, India R.; Hirsh, Adam T.Individuals from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds experience worse health outcomes than high-SES individuals. Those disparities may be explained, at least in part, by low-SES individuals' routine exposure to stigma that can activate concerns about belonging in several settings, including academics. The current study tested whether activation of negative stereotypes (e.g., low academic ability) among low-SES students affects their motivation to engage in unhealthy behaviors (e.g., pulling an "all-nighter") in an effort to maximize academic success and disconfirm negative stereotypes about their group. Moreover, we assessed the role of key moderators (e.g., contingencies of self-worth in academic settings and stereotype threat concerns about one’s ingroup) and mediators (e.g., motivation to disconfirm negative ingroup stereotypes and stereotype threat concerns) on these outcomes. In an online experiment, college students recruited on Prolific Academic read a hypothetical news article indicating that low-SES students underperform academically relative to high-SES students (stereotype activation condition) or that low-SES students perform just as well as high-SES students (control condition). Although the findings indicated that our manipulation was effective, our results did not reach significance across the hypothesized outcomes. Implications for coping behaviors and academic outcomes for students from low-SES backgrounds are discussed.Item Patient activation reduces effects of implicit bias on doctor-patient interactions(National Academy of Science, 2022) Gainsburg, Izzy; Derricks, Veronica; Shields, Cleveland; Fiscella, Kevin; Epstein, Ronald; Yu, Veronica; Griggs, Jennifer; Psychology, School of ScienceDisparities between Black and White Americans persist in medical treatment and health outcomes. One reason is that physicians sometimes hold implicit racial biases that favor White (over Black) patients. Thus, disrupting the effects of physicians' implicit bias is one route to promoting equitable health outcomes. In the present research, we tested a potential mechanism to short-circuit the effects of doctors' implicit bias: patient activation, i.e., having patients ask questions and advocate for themselves. Specifically, we trained Black and White standardized patients (SPs) to be "activated" or "typical" during appointments with unsuspecting oncologists and primary care physicians in which SPs claimed to have stage IV lung cancer. Supporting the idea that patient activation can promote equitable doctor-patient interactions, results showed that physicians' implicit racial bias (as measured by an implicit association test) predicted racially biased interpersonal treatment among typical SPs (but not among activated SPs) across SP ratings of interaction quality and ratings from independent coders who read the interaction transcripts. This research supports prior work showing that implicit attitudes can undermine interpersonal treatment in medical settings and provides a strategy for ensuring equitable doctor-patient interactions.Item Real and Perceived Discordance in Physicians and U.S. Adults’ Beliefs Regarding the Causes and Controllability of Type 2 Diabetes(Taylor & Francis, 2021) Derricks, Veronica; Mosher, Jeremy; Earl, Allison; Jayaratne, Toby E.; Shubrook, Jay H.Discordance between physicians and patients’ health beliefs can impede health communication efforts. However, little research considers physicians’ perceptions of patient beliefs, despite the importance of perceptions in shaping communication. In the current work, we examine instances of actual and perceived discordance between physicians and U.S. adults’ beliefs regarding the causes and controllability of type 2 diabetes. 229 family physicians completed an online survey measuring their health beliefs and perceptions of their patients’ beliefs. Physicians’ responses were contrasted against beliefs from a national survey sample of 1,168 U.S. adults. T-tests assessed whether (a) physicians’ beliefs diverged from the national sample’s beliefs (actual discordance), (b) physicians perceived that their health beliefs diverged from their patients’ beliefs (perceived discordance), and (c) physicians’ perceptions of patient beliefs diverged from the national sample’s beliefs (accuracy of perceived discordance). Findings revealed evidence of actual discordance; compared to the national sample, physicians were more likely to attribute type 2 diabetes to genes (versus lifestyle factors) and perceived greater control over developing diabetes. Moreover, although physicians perceived discordance between their own and their patients’ beliefs, data from the national sample suggested that these gaps were less substantial than physicians expected. In particular, findings showed that physicians generally overestimated discordance, expecting that people would be less likely to (1) attribute the development of diabetes to lifestyle factors (versus genes), and (2) perceive control over developing diabetes, than was actually reported. Implications of actual and perceived discordance for effective health communication and patient education are discussed.Item Reducing the Occurrence of Sexual Harassment: Investigating the Novel Approach of Empathy Training(2024-05) Tucker-Cesar, Mya Michele; Stockdale, Margaret S.; Derricks, Veronica; Johnson, India R.Sexual harassment remains prevalent, underscoring the urgent need for an updated approach to training aimed at reducing its occurrence. Previous studies have revealed that interventions focusing on elements of empathy, such as empathetic concern and perspective-taking, have been effective in diminishing antisocial attitudes like prejudice (Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000; Levin et al., 2016; Paluck & Green, 2009). Thus, I suggest that cultivating empathy and perspective-taking may target the root cause of sexual harassment by disrupting the mechanisms that sustain its prevalence. The current study uses a 3 (training modality: Empathy Video Plus Exercises, Empathy Video, Control Video) × 2 (gender: Female and Male) between-subjects research design to investigate the effectiveness of empathy training, encompassing a ten-minute video and perspective-taking exercises, in fostering empathy toward targets of sexual harassment. The empathy video features a Ph.D. graduate student, "Diana," recounting her experiences with sexual harassment, based on a true story and portrayed by a professional actor. Participants engaged in perspective-taking exercises where they described the harassment experience from Diana's perspective and identified short and long-term consequences of experiencing sexual harassment. As anticipated, empathy training significantly increased feelings of empathy, aligning with the findings of Bolinger et al. (2023). Empathy training also significantly increased feelings of personal distress. This heightened feeling of empathy and personal distress subsequently bolstered intentions to engage in bystander intervention and supportive behaviors. However, empathy training did not yield a significant impact on reducing the acceptance of sexual harassment myths. Lastly, empathy training did not diminish intentions among men to engage in sex-based harassment. These findings underscore both the potential and limitations of empathy training in addressing attitudes and behaviors related to sexual harassment.Item They’re comparing me to her: Social comparison perceptions reduce belonging and STEM engagement among women with token status(SAGE, 2021) Derricks, Veronica; Sekaquaptewa, DeniseBelonging and academic engagement are important predictors of women’s retention in STEM. To better understand the processes influencing these outcomes, we investigate how numerical underrepresentation (i.e., token status) triggers social comparison perceptions – concerns that others are comparing oneself to another person – that can undermine women’s STEM outcomes. Across four experiments, female college students recruited via subject pool (Study 1a) and MTurk (Studies 1b-3) read a hypothetical scenario in which another female (Studies 1a-3) or male student (Study 2) performed well or poorly in an engineering course. Findings showed that having token (versus non-token) status in the course increased social comparison perceptions (i.e., perceptions about being compared to an ingroup peer), which subsequently reduced course belonging (Studies 1a-1b). Study 2 found that (a) token status increased social comparison perceptions in response to the ingroup (versus outgroup) peer, and (b) social comparison perceptions decreased belonging through stereotype threat concerns, particularly when the peer performed poorly. Study 3 directly manipulated social comparison perceptions to further establish their causal role on negative outcomes and demonstrated that these perceived direct comparisons predicted additional consequences signaling STEM disengagement. Collectively, findings identify a novel process that can diminish belonging and academic engagement for women in STEM. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website.Item Too Close for Comfort: Resisting Relevance as a Lever for Persuasion(2019-11-22) Derricks, Veronica; Earl, AllisonObjective: This work investigates how broad principles of persuasion (e.g., the role of relevance) operate in the context of social identities. Although relevance is expected to facilitate persuasion, we use information targeting as a relevance intervention to test whether and why signaling relevance through identities (e.g., race) backfires. Methods: In Study 1, medical practitioners were surveyed about their evaluations and use of information targeting. In Studies 2-5, European Americans and African Americans were told they received information about HIV and/or flu after providing their demographics (targeting condition) or due to chance (control condition). Collectively, these studies tested the direct consequences of increasing relevance via targeting identities (Study 2), the mechanism underlying these consequences (Studies 3-4), whether consequences emerge only when identities are used as a relevance cue (Studies 3-4), and whether perceptions about the source of relevance produces divergent consequences (Study 5). Results: Practitioners reported favorable evaluations and use of targeting (Study 1). In Studies 2-5, being in the targeting (versus control) condition generally decreased attention to the information and produced more negative source evaluations for African Americans, but not European Americans. Studies 3-4 showed that consequences emerged due to perceptions of being unfairly judged, and only emerged when racial identities were used as a relevance cue. Study 5 revealed that targeting backfires when recipients perceive that relevance is derived from the research team. Conclusions: Leveraging relevance through social identities can preclude the expected benefits of relevance by increasing perceptions of judgment and/or beliefs that relevance is being externally imposed.Item What Works for You Might Not Work for Me: Consequences of IPT, Feedback Orientation, and Feedback Environment on Performance Management Effectiveness(2023-05) Burton, Bobbie; Williams, Jane; Derricks, Veronica; Porter, Christopher O.L.H.Despite its status as a commonly used and seemingly vital talent management system, performance management has received an abundance of criticism surrounding its effectiveness and utility in organizations. Existing deficiencies in performance management are largely attributed to gaps in its strategy and implementation, with researchers arguing that organizations need to spend more effort supporting personnel engagement in informal, “everyday” performance management behaviors to drive performance. The present study sought to expand on existing performance management research by investigating: 1) how supervisor engagement in informal performance management behaviors influences employee perceptions of overall performance management and 2) how employee feedback orientation and implicit person theory potentially alter those perceptions. The hypothesized model was tested using an online survey sent through Prolific academic to a random sample of 351 full-time United States employees. A series of hierarchical regressions revealed that employee perceptions of performance management were positively predicted by supervisor engagement in informal performance management behaviors. However, employee feedback orientation and implicit person theory were not found to significantly moderate these effects. The present study contributes to performance management literature by examining the degree to which informal supervisor performance management behaviors shape employee reactions to performance management. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.