Measuring and defining discrimination

Given the prevalence and myriad consequences associated with actual and perceived workplace discrimination, research addressing this topic has grown rapidly in recent years. This expansion of the literature has been accompanied by a proliferation of constructs, definitions, and measures. This chapter reviews and summarizes current definitions and measurement approaches, highlighting discrepancies and deficiencies where they exist in the literature. The chapter concludes by identifying gaps in the workplace discrimination literature, organized around issues of who, what, where, when, and why. Recommendations for future research include employing study designs that minimize the potential for common method variance, assessing perpetrator and target perspectives simultaneously, paying more attention to issues of timing in order to study discrimination as a dynamic and event- based phenomenon, identifying contextual factors that influence the likelihood of perceiving and reporting discrimination, and further clarifying and addressing the bases by which discrimination occurs.