Buckets under a leaky roof: A dual pathway framework of obfuscated anti-egalitarian hierarchies in organizations

Arbitrary social hierarchies permeate our working lives in ways not always visible, introducing anti-egalitarian norms which stymie productivity. Reviewing bodies of work that identify and describe systems of oppression, we develop a framework that illuminates the cascading influence of such socio-historical factors on organizational processes. We contend that the literatures converge on a single, sobering logic: because organizations are embedded in—and seek legitimacy from—broader socio-historical contexts, the same arbitrary hierarchies that stratify societies are naturally imported into organizational life. At the same time, individuals are motivated to obscure the influence of these hierarchies to reduce psychological distress. We leverage institutional theory and systems psychodynamics to map how organizations are at the crux of external pressures (from society) and upward pressure (from employees) which both perpetuate and obfuscate the replication of anti-egalitarian hierarchies in organizations. In doing so, we clarify the most appropriate applications of common terminology used to describe the experiences of disadvantaged groups (e.g., discrimination, marginalization, minoritization). Specifically, we redirect scholars’ usage of the term “microaggressions” away from the commonplace or subtle nature of the microaggression to highlight their origin in – and maintenance of – anti-egalitarian organizational power structures. We then utilize this framework to generate recommendations to help organizational leaders “stop the leak” or ameliorate the influence of anti-egalitarian hierarchies in their workplace.