Organizational policies: A license to discriminate in selection procedures?

Although companies implement moral policies to prevent discrimination of minorities in selection procedures, evidence shows its persistence. Drawing on insights from the concept of moral licensing we predict that the presence (versus absence) of a moral policy may increase the expression of prejudices and concrete discriminatory hiring decisions. Moreover, we suggest that this effect is more likely to occur when the context allows for a rationalization of discrimination and as such renders the behavior ambiguous, (e.g., in the presence of information about a hostile work environment versus no information). In an experimental study with 115 participants we show that a moral policy licensed the expression of prejudice when this behavior is ambiguous. Participants in general expressed greater prejudices when their behavior was ambiguous.. No effects on the concrete decision for a white or equally qualified black candidate were observed.