Moreover, activism may entail a greater sense of control over the social world, beneficial social connections, or a meaningful life project to dedicate oneself to (Stetsenko, 2012). This raises the issue of whether activism may help to mitigate the experience of alienation.

argues that with the mounting frustration connected with alienation, prejudiced attitudes and outright antagonism towards minorities are likely consequences; this can divide workers and prevent them from recognizing common class interests

for instance, discusses the growth of consumerism as the product of an alienated labor force that works for purely instrumental, extrinsic goals, and which substitutes consumption for a lack of fulfilment through work

According to SDT, in contrast to intrinsic motivation, in which one’s actions and motivations are fully endorsed and freely chosen, external control and reward/punishment contingencies promote extrinsic motivation. Like alienation, extrinsic motivation has been linked to poor well-being, negative psychological states, and a lack of motivated persistence (Vallerand, Fortier, & Guay, 1997). Furthermore, it has been argued that individuals with an external locus of control experience greater alienation than those with an internal locus (Banai et al., 2004; Seeman, 1967), and research finds that individuals of lower social class tend to have a more external locus of control (Kraus, Piff, & Keltner, 2009).

Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) considers autonomy – feeling volitional and experiencing psychological freedom in choices and actions – to be a core human need that must be satisfied to achieve positive psychological functioning

The study found that work alienation was predicted by work factors that included a lack of meaningfulness in work, a lack of room for self-expression through work, and poor-quality work relationships

thus resulting in greater alienation among workers. However, some studies have found that higher-SES individuals have a greater psychological demand for fulfilling work (Rosner & Putterman, 1991), and thus may report greater alienation than lower-SES/ individuals when they feel unfulfilled at work

this research has improved our understanding of the impact of social class on individual psychology, revealing that individuals of higher (subjective and objective) SES behave less ethically (Piff et al., 2012), less prosocially (Piff et al., 2010), and tend to downplay situational causes of behavior (Kraus, Piff, & Keltner, 2009).

Job satisfaction ratings – which stood at only 50.8% satisfaction in the U.S. in 2017 (Conference Board, 2018) – depend primarily upon appraising a job (in terms of quality, pay, and status) in comparison to other attainable jobs on the market. In contrast, alienation focuses on workers’ direct experience of the work process itself

Work alienation has been found to harm workers’ well-being (Shantz, Alfes, & Truss, 2014) and work performance (Nair & Vohra, 2010), and has been linked to emotional exhaustion, alcohol abuse (Greenberg & Grunberg, 1995), and negative mental health symptoms

The professional and skilled jobs available mostly went to foreign, white men through contracts with the development authority. Most of these men were middle or upper middle class whites from South Africa and Europe.

Gender and development scholars conclude that large-scale international development has the potential to transform unequal gender relations but its effects have been uneven, tending to reproduce or exacerbate gender inequality

For musculoskeletal complaints, the lower-skilled employees have a 2.5 times higher prevalence compared to expert-level employees.

The social distribution of the psychosocial stressors shows that low autonomy, task variation, job strain and iso-strain are occurring more frequently in lower-skilled employees, while high demands are more prevalent in semi-skilled and expert-level employees (table 1). The latter category also has a significantly lower percentage of low superior support. Low autonomy, task variation, job strain and iso-strain are also most prevalent in workers without authority. Supervisors and higher managers more often report high demands. Low social support is least prevalent in managerial employees.

Finally, as our participants were homogenous in terms of race and gender, future research should examine the experience of class concealment and disclosure in other samples, especially among women and people of color

Future research should investigate each setting more thoroughly, to determine if there are differences in stigmatized identities based on the location participants live and work in.

While our sample was homogenous in terms of race and gender, it was diverse in terms of participants' former and current social class, and the nature of their class mobility. We included men who moved up from any social class level to any higher-class level, which we feel revealed important commonalities among those who moved up in class. However, moving from middle class to upper-middle class is certainly different from moving from being poor to middle class, especially in terms of how much stigma the former class identity carries with it. Moving forward larger samples of each class level should be collected to investigate differences between those who started - and ended - in different class levels.

These employee consequences can result in the organization suffering from reduced employee job performance and motivation

Experiencing psychological strain can have devastating individual and workplace consequences, such as physical ailment

work stress (Keith, 2013; Ragins, Singh, & Cornwell, 2007). For example, members of the mental health community who disclosed their mental illness at work have reported feeling shame and embarrassment, but also relief in experiencing honesty and self-acceptance (Keith, 2013). However, concealing this identity increased psychological strain and distress (Keith, 2013).

Research on other concealable stigmatized identities has indicated that concealing a stigmatized identity can have negative consequences at work, such as a reduced sense of belonging, self-esteem, job satisfaction, and work-related commitment

In systems of higher education, the middle- and upper-class value of independence is considered “normal” as compared to the working-class value of teamwork

In addition, many participants believed that if they revealed their former social class, they would be exposing themselves to pity and vulnerability - traits inconsistent with the Western male gender role

Text for this theme includes concealing for fear of being pitied by others (35.7%). This included any references of unwanted sympathy due to their previous living conditions.Letting them know how, you know, how bad off I was, I don't think, uh… I don't like, um, pity parties, or, feeling like I'm whining, you know?

4.1.3. It's personalText for this theme included concealing because the participant (42.9%) felt that social class was too personal to be discussed at work, and that they kept this piece of their image separate from who they self-presented at work.There are people that don't know, and it's just, uh, it's not a secret, the relationship just isn't such that we're sharing in that way.

Other participants felt a lack of understanding would cause the other person to disregard the conversation, change the topic, or say it was inappropriate to discuss at work. This included feeling that discussing a previous class would be seen as inappropriate or unprofessional.

Judgment was the most prominent theme among participants' reasons for concealing, with 78.6% of the men who concealed claiming it was due to this reason. This was described as a fear of being stereotyped due to their previous lower class.

Data analysis revealed that 70% of the men in this sample had intentionally concealed their previous social class at work.

Specifically, there is a need to investigate the benefits and harms of class disclosure and concealment; people who conceal a lower-income background may reap the benefits of being affiliated with a higher class, such as increased perceptions of social power (Kraus & Mendes, 2014), but may also suffer from reduced authenticity and increased stress

To a lesser degree, research also suggests that women are seen as lower in social class and status than men (Ridgeway & Bourg, 2004). While the groups “women” and “middle class” are near one another in the SCM, “men” are closer to the category of “rich” people than women

First, people of color are routinely stereotyped as working class or as coming from low-income backgrounds (Goodwin & Fiske, 1996). Black and Latinx people, in particular, are typically viewed as poor and low in social status

n addition, the constitution‘s failure toestablish a clear hierarchy between the high courts has led toacute confrontations, labeled in the press as the ―traincrash,‖in whichthe Constitutional Court has overturned Supreme Court andState Council decisions;thelatter have, in turn, refused at timesto follow Constitutional Court decisions. These quarrels have negatively affectedthe coherence and legitimacy of the Colombian judicial system, if not its independence.

RECOMMENDATIONSFocus judicial reform efforts onincreasedefficiency, while ensuring thatany reformpreservesjudicialindependence—especially of the high courts—and strengthensthe role of the civilian courts in the investigation of military and police abuses.In order to protect the electoral process from the persistence influence of criminal organizations, strengthen the electoral system and reinforce its independence from political partiesby providing the electoral authorities greater power to access party accounts and sanction noncompliant parties.Prioritize the transparency of government activities, including the enactment of more comprehensivetransparency legislation and theimplementation ofopen, modernizedgovernment contracting processes. The government must act todiminish the extreme inequality that persists in Colombia. A critical measure will be thearticulation of effective procedures to implement the Victims‘ Law, particularlythe restitution of land to IDPsandthe protection of citizens advocating on behalf of marginalized ethnic and economic groups

Another important scandal

For instance, all public servants must make sworn declarationsof income and assets, and strict regulations forbid employees fromcontractingwith relatives

COUNTRIES AT THE CROSSROADSIn spite of these legal advances, there is consistent evidence that Colombia has a serious and pervasive corruptionproblem. This is reflected in Transparency International‘s Corruption Perceptions Index, which in 2010 ranked the country 78 out of 178, with a score of just 3.5 out of 10.5

2,842 trade union members were murdered;39about 25 percentof the victimswere union leaders.

Of the 32,000demobilizedparamilitaries, only 3,000suspected war crimes perpetratorswere obligated to pass through formalLJP proceduresand confess their crimes.

First, the media is highly concentrated. The most important outletsare either themselves part of economic conglomerates

Defamation remains criminalized, andin 2010, at least 10 journalists faced potential prosecution for libel, with charges mostly filed by politicians and other public servants

Third, there is clear evidence that criminal organizations, especially paramilitary groups, have been interfering with elections for at least the last 10 years.

First, in institutional terms, the independence of the electoral authoritiesis still weak. As theCNE‘s nine members are elected by Congress for a period of fouryears,the body‘scompositiondepends on the will of the mostpowerful political parties