Endured, but Not Valued? The Effects of Being Tolerated on Women's Team Engagement, Disidentification, and Organizational Behaviors

ABSTRACT Organizational and team disidentification—where members psychologically distance themselves from their workgroups—poses significant challenges for organizational success. In diverse teams and organizations, the way in which minority group members are treated by their teammates can have implications for team disidentification and other organizational outcomes. Across two experimental studies, we tested whether being tolerated, a begrudging acceptance where disapproval is combined with behavioral acceptance, leads to worse organizational outcomes than being fully accepted, but better organizational outcomes than being outright rejected. Using an adapted Cyberball paradigm, women interacted with a team of all men who accepted, tolerated, or rejected them. In Study 1 ( N = 469), women who were tolerated reported higher levels of team disidentification—measured as detachment and perceived dissimilarity—compared to those who were accepted, but lower levels than those who were rejected. In a pre‐registered Study 2 ( N = 593), we replicated and extended these findings to key organizational outcomes by demonstrating that, relative to acceptance, being tolerated led to reduced team engagement, greater willingness to engage in counter‐organizational behaviors, and increased public criticism of the team. However, relative to rejection, tolerance increased team engagement and reduced willingness to engage in counter‐organizational behaviors and public criticism. Together, these results demonstrate that while tolerance may enable diverse groups to work together, being tolerated can have negative side‐effects on team disidentification and related organizational outcomes relative to acceptance, although nonetheless far preferable to rejection and discrimination.