Racial discrimination against Asian American employees: impact of employee coping strategies on employee competence and work quality of life

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effects of workplace racial discrimination among Asian American (AA) employees in the restaurant industry and examines what kinds of employee coping responses can mitigate its detrimental effects on their work behaviors. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach, starting with a qualitative study using the critical incident technique followed by a quantitative between-subjects experiment to examine the impact of employee coping responses to racial discrimination on employee competence and work quality of life (WQOL). Findings The study reveals that customer-perpetrated racial discrimination is the most common form of racial discrimination that AA employees face in the restaurant industry. In addition, confrontation is the most effective coping strategy to increase employee’s self-competence. Also, the severity of discrimination moderates the effect of coping strategies on employee’s self-competence. Employees’ self-competence mediates the relationship between their response strategy against discrimination and their WQOL. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study suggest that confrontation is an effective coping strategy for targeted employees, compared to support-seeking or avoidance. Confrontation was perceived as competent, compared to other coping strategies, and in turn, enhanced WQOL. Originality/value This study expands the scope of racial discrimination research in the hospitality literature for the growing diversified hospitality workforce. In addition, this study provides practical insights into competent ways of coping with racial discrimination.