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Centering the Target of Mistreatment in Our Measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Thomas Sasso
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
M. Gloria González-Morales*
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to M. Gloria González-Morales, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. E-mail: mggonzal@uoguelph.ca

Extract

Victim precipitation is embedded deeply within industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology. Cortina, Rabelo, and Holland (2018) are right to challenge the assumptions that have perpetuated victim blaming in our discipline (consciously and unconsciously); however, a significant source of victim precipitation discourse within our field was strikingly absent in their discussion: construct measurement. The nature of how we measure most of our workplace aggression and mistreatment constructs (e.g., incivility, abusive supervision, bullying) have potential to negate the experiences of targeted employees as well as the unique impact of various perpetrator behaviors. Furthermore, how we interpret these measures can result in researchers and practitioners privileging the experiences of some individuals and dismissing the experiences of others. How can we hope to achieve a progressive approach to mistreatment in our disciplines if our measures do not keep pace?

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2018 

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Footnotes

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council supported this research that was conducted in partial fulfillment of Thomas Sasso's master's thesis.

References

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