Abstract
•Racial minority employees were likely to choose emotion-focused coping strategies when experiencing discrimination at work.•Emotion-focused coping strategies may lead to negative employee outcomes among racial minority employees.•Problem-focused coping strategies may lead to positive employee outcomes among racial minority employees.•Transparent communication was found to reduce the negative impacts of discrimination experiences.•Transparent communication was found to increase the motivation of adopting problem-focused approaches.
This study evaluates whether and how internal communication efforts are connected to racial minority employees’ coping strategies for workplace discrimination. Using a survey with 453 full-time employees, we found that racial minority employees were likely to choose emotion-focused rather than problem-focused coping strategies when experiencing discrimination at work, which in turn impacted the relational and behavioral employee outcomes. Transparent communication was found to reduce the negative impacts of discrimination experiences while increasing the motivation of adopting problem-focused approaches.
