Warren, M. T., Warren, M.A., Smith, B.*, & LaVelle, J. M. (submitted for publication). Impostor phenomenon and social justice allyship at work: Investigating profiles of allyship functioning and links to employee mental health and work outcomes.

Many employees self-label as allies, yet few engage in concrete allyship action. We propose that one critical barrier is impostorism –possessing allyship competencies yet feeling like a fraud –which may stifle action and undermine individual mental health and workplace functioning. Latent profile analyses tested whether this unique confluence of competencies and feelings of fraudulence were present with respect to the ally role. Results from a preregistered study with two representative samples of working adults in Michigan, US (N= 778) and Canada (N= 973), identified four profiles: (1) Competent Ally Impostors (high allyship competencies, high impostorism), (2) Confident Allies (high allyship competencies, low impostorism), (3) Average Allies (average allyship competencies, moderate impostorism), and (4) Disengaged Individuals (low allyship competencies, low impostorism). As hypothesized, we found that Competent Ally Impostors had significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety than Confident Allies, suggesting that this subgroup of skilled individuals may nevertheless be impeded by impostorism, and their mental health may suffer as a result. Unlike our hypotheses, Disengaged Individuals and Average Allies reported significantly less psychological safety, work efficacy, and job satisfaction than Confident Allies and Competent Ally impostors suggesting that allyship competencies and not impostorism may drive employees’ levels of psychological safety, work efficacy, and job satisfaction at work. Our findings point to the outcomes associated with allyship impostorism and other subgroups of allyship functioning, which in turn sheds light on how we can better target research and practice to boost allyship.

* Brooklynn Smith is a current graduate student in the MS psychology program at Western.

Warren, M. A., Warren, M. T., & Bordoloi, S. D., Bock, H.* & Smith, B. * (in progress). Anti-Racism Allyship Readiness Questionnaire: Developing a measure of Anti-Racism Allyship Readiness in the workplace.

In corporate America, organizations tend to utilize statements, policies and training as strategies for improving equity and inclusion (Joshi et al., 2015). However, these organizational strategies for addressing anti-racism may be unrealistic, disconnected from employees’ experiences, and resources devoted toward anti-racism may be clumsy and inefficient when organizations are not taking into account employees’ existing allyship competencies. One-size-fits-all anti-racism trainings, policies and statements are often insufficient in motivating productive action at all levels. For example, these “go-to” anti-racism strategies may disenchant employees who view them as punitive (Kalev et al., 2006; Kidder et al., 2004) while also “missing the mark” for many would-be allies and BIPOC employees (Warren & Bordoloi, accepted).

Therefore, a multidimensional measure that identifies employees’ allyship competencies (or lack thereof) could inform more effective ways of supporting allyship growth and result in better outcomes for BIPOC. This 3-study project will develop the Anti-Racism Allyship Readiness Questionnaire (AR-ARQ). Allyship is conceptualized as an individual difference variable that is comprised of three socio-cognitive mechanisms (sensitivity, allyship motivation, and competencies) that captures how individuals effectively process contextual affordances for allyship in the workplace (i.e., problems involving bias and opportunities for allyship growth), and consistently produce allyship-appropriate behaviors across a wide variety of allyship-relevant work situations and over time.

* Haley Bock and Brooklynn Smith are current graduate students in the MS psychology program at Western.

Warren, M. A., Bordoloi, S. D., Bock, H.*, & Warren, M. T. (in progress). An exploration of socio-economic status, education level, and urban/rural residence on allyship behavior in the United States and Canada

Perceptions of one’s effectiveness as an ally in the workplace, imposterism (i.e., feeling like a “fake” when acting as an ally), and psychological safety (i. e., feeling safe to discuss bias) may vary depending on one’s socio-economic status, education level, and geographic region in which one is located (e.g., urban vs rural areas). In this study, we are exploring how these different demographic characteristics may influence (or not) allyship behaviors across three different workplace samples in Michigan (n=779), California (n=504), and Canada (n=1003).

* Haley Bock is a current graduate student in the MS psychology program at Western.

Warren, M. A., Bock, H.*, Sekhon, T., & Winkelman K. M.* (submitted for publication). Allyship against pregnancy discrimination: Exploring observers’ spontaneous responses towards pregnancy self-disclosure, discrimination, and male allyship.

* Haley Bock is a current graduate student in the MS psychology program at Western

* Katie Winkelman is a Western alumna with a BA in communication studies and business minor

Warren, M. A., Warren, M. T., Bock, H.*, & Smith, B.* (submitted for publication). “If you want to be an ally, what is stopping you?” Mapping the landscape of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual barriers to allyship in the workplace using ecological systems theory.

Many claim to be allies to marginalized groups, yet few actively engage in allyship behaviors. We focus on this disconnect and explore what barriers hinder individuals’ allyship. Open-ended responses from two representative samples of employed individuals from Michigan (n = 778) and Canada (n = 973) were analyzed. The ecological systems framework was loosely applied to map intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual barriers to allyship from the perspectives of potential allies in their workplaces. Resultswere consistent across the two samples and revealed that about 19% of barriers arose from the organizational context (e.g., lack of training), and 8% arose from interpersonal dynamics (e.g., lack of coworker support). Among intrapersonal barriers, cognitive (9.5%) and motivational (9.5%) factors rose to the top; fewer responses pertained to personality (5%), social identity (5%), or emotional barriers (2%); 27.5% claimed no barriers. Given the predominance of the organizational context and workplace interpersonal barriers, as well as leaders’ ability to influence individuals’ cognitive and motivational (intrapersonal) barriers, this paper highlights the need for organizations to adopt a systems perspective. Organizations can play a stronger role in empowering and nurturing employees’ allyship and provide low-risk, structured opportunities for allyship action that simultaneously builds trusting relationships among coworkers.

* Haley Bock and Brooklynn Smith are current graduate students in the MS psychology program at Western.

Warren, M. A. & Bordoloi, S. D. (2021). Going beyond good colleagues: Men’s and women’s perspectives on allyship behaviors toward women faculty in male-dominated disciplines in academia. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000369

Allyship is increasingly viewed as a crucial practice to address social and economic inequities faced by marginalized groups. However, little research explores how dominant group members can behave as allies and what marginalized group individuals consider as valuable. Research shows that women faculty in male-dominated academic disciplines regularly experience gendered microaggressions and sexism. In this study, using qualitative narratives from 202 female and male faculty in male-dominated academic departments, we explore women’s experiences as recipients of allyship, and men’s experiences engaging in allyship. Further, we compare narratives about and from men considered ‘good colleagues’ versus ‘exceptional allies.’ The findings reveal that good colleagues engage in an array of interpersonally supportive allyship behaviors (e.g., active listening). In contrast, exceptional allies go beyond them by undertaking consequential and conspicuous actions on behalf of women (e.g., impression promotion), a set of behaviors we term as visible advocacy. By exploring the range of allyship behaviors engaged in by men and viewed by women as valuable, we highlight implications for literature on gender equity and allyship. This study carries practical implications for men who desire to become better allies to women.

Warren, M. A. & Kanov, J. (in progress). Positive relational allyship behavior: An integrative review and future research agenda.

As the unfair treatment of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) and other marginalized groups has become more visible in recent times, organizational scholars have grown increasingly interested in examining the role of allies in supporting anti-racism work in particular and in understanding the dynamics of organizational inclusion more generally. Despite significant strides, the extant research and scholarship on organizational inclusion has fallen short in effectively eliciting the experience of inclusiveness among marginalized groups members. This elusivity stems from an underappreciation of the powerful role of organizational members’ everyday behaviors in influencing people’s experiences of inclusion. To shed crucial light on this missing piece of the inclusion puzzle, the present paper will review literatures focusing on the following three topics: the experience of inclusion, allyship behavior, and positive work relationships, to offer a relational understanding of allyship work as a key driver of the experience of inclusion in the workplace. Through this review, we will describe various domains of allyship behaviors and map the behavioral ecosystem of allyship. Insights from the review are expected to alter the trajectory of research in the positive work relationships, allyship, and inclusion literatures. 

*Katie Winkelman assisted on this project by organizing literature review database and brainstorm analyses plans

Winkelman, K. M.*, & Warren, M. A. (January 2020). I know how to be an ally, or do I? Effective and ineffective communication practices of allies. Presentation at the 5th Western Positive Psychological Association Conference, Claremont, CA

This paper contrasts what allies believe are effective communication strategies in positive intergroup interactions and what in fact are and are not effective in practice. Using data from 25 interviews with strongly committed allies, we first explored what they believed to be good allyship communication strategies. Next, we used data from their stories of times they were successful allies, and times when they fell short or their allyship backfired. These stories were coded to assess what allyship communication strategies were in fact effective, and those that were not. Findings reveals that allies frequently believed active listening, compassion, and humility to be critical. However, what worked was a focus on actively building trust and collaborating with marginalized group members to arrive at solutions. Passive interventions (i.e., simply listening) or missing opportunities for active intervention led to outcomes that were less desirable. Implications for effective allyship behaviors will be discussed. 

*Katie Winkelman, a BA Communication Studies, Business Minor student at Western, presented this research at a conference in California.

Warren, M. A. & Schwam, A.* (2022). So you think you are an ally? Effects of (in)congruence between men’s and women’s allyship perceptions on women’s inclusion. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12415

Recently, there has been a growing interest in how men can be allies to women in the workplace. This study uses a multi-informant design to consider men’s allyship toward women in male-dominated disciplines (e.g., Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Business) in elite academic institutions. Based on data from 101 men-women colleague pairs, this study tested links between men’s self-perceptions of their allyship behaviors, women’s perceptions of men as allies, and the effects on women’s inclusion. Using polynomial regression and response surface analyses, we tested the differential impacts of (in)congruence between men’s perceptions and women’s perceptions on women’s sense of inclusion. Results revealed that when women perceived men as having stronger values and being more relationally adept than men reported themselves, it positively predicted women’s inclusion outcomes. 

* Allison Schwam is a current graduate student in the MS psychology program at Western.

Warren, M. A., Sekhon, T., & Waldrop, R. J.* (2022). Highlighting strengths in response to discrimination: Developing and testing an allyship positive psychology intervention. International Journal of Wellbeing, 12(1), 21-41. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v12i1.1751

Recently, there has been greater interest in how positive psychology can contribute to social justice. Allyship can offer an important avenue. Research on allyship as a response to discrimination, often focuses on the effect on the perpetrator or the target. However, observers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of an allyship intervention is exponentially important because it has the capacity to inspire observers to engage in allyship in the future and consequently shift culture. As such, the tone of an allyship intervention can be particularly influential for observers. We develop and test a novel allyship positive psychology intervention in an organizational setting – highlighting female employees’ identity-relevant strengths after a discrimination episode, and examine observers’ reactions. Results show that any intervention by an ally is perceived by observers to boost women’s feelings of inclusion and vitality. However, highlighting women’s identity-based strengths is perceived as more effective than communicating a firm’s diversity policy or confronting the transgressor. Highlighting resources signals the ally’s sincerity and is expected to make the female employee feel more included and hence, more vitalized. Amongst various types of identity resources, highlighting psychological and intellectual capital of a female employee is parsimonious yet as effective as highlighting all types of resources combined, because it is perceived as more sincere. This research provides allies with a quick, actionable and non-confrontational intervention that is perceived by observers to increase the wellbeing of marginalized individuals.  

*Rachael Waldrop is a 2020 alumna from the MS Psych program at Western

Warren, M. A., Sekhon, T., Winkelman, K. M.*, & Waldrop, R. J.* (2022). ‘Should I ‘check my emotions at the door?’ or express how I feel? Role of emotion regulation versus expression of male leaders speaking out against sexism in the workplace. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12878

As witnesses to workplace sexism, male leaders have the opportunity to leverage both their relative social privilege as men and authority as leaders to enact allyship. However, allyship is fraught. Expression of indignation may be viewed by observers as unprofessional, yet a muted response may lead observers to question their motives for allyship. Further, allyship that does not hit the mark may have a ripple effect on observers’ perceptions of the leader-ally, victim, transgressor and organization. Thus, the present research 1) examined whether emotion expression during allyship influences observers’ motive inferences of the leader-ally, 2) examined whether emotion expression influences favorability of the leader-ally, and 3) explored how a leader-ally’s emotional (or not) allyship behavior influences observers’ perceptions of the victim, transgressor, and organization. Study 1 (n = 298) showed that prejudice confrontation accompanied by anger or sadness (versus not) is associated with intrinsic motive inferences of the leader-ally, and anger is seen as more appropriate and sincere when confronting prejudice. Study 2 (n = 112) showed that the leader-ally was viewed as more favorable when prejudice confrontation was accompanied by anger (versus not) because the leader-ally was perceived as more sincere. Finally, qualitative data from thought-listings across both studies showed that leader-allies’ anger expression was associated with greater calls for accountability of the transgressor and more positive impressions of the organization. However, anger expression also wrought highly polarized responses toward the victim, consisting of both support and victim-blaming. Thus, authentic but measured emotion expression during confrontation is recommended.

*Katie Winkelman is a BA communication studies major and business minor; Rachael Waldrop is a MS Psychology student at Western