People have long made invidious distinctions between individuals (e.g.,
the clean and the unclean, good and evil, black and white, sacred and
profane, etc.) (Smith, 1996), and these distinctions affect the degree
to which individuals experience prejudice, unfair discrimination, and
oppression in organizations and society as a whole. As a result, there
has been an increased interest in research on these distinctions and
unfair discrimination in organizations. Despite this research, most of
the studies have focused on only a subset of minorities including
African Americans, women, older workers, and people with physical
disabilities (Dipboye & Colella, 2005). A number of other minorities
have been forgotten or neglected by organizational researchers including
people with neurological or psychological disabilities, veterans, Native
Americans, people with a criminal history, and those who come from low
socioeconomic or poor backgrounds. Thus, the primary purposes of this
issue of Research in HRM is to foster research on "Forgotten Minorities"
or those who are members of groups that have been excluded from
organizations and neglected by organizational research. In view of these
arguments, this issue (a) presents a brief review of the organizational
research on the exclusion and repudiation of people who are forgotten
minorities, (b) offers directions for future research on these outgroup
members, and (c) considers key implications for practice that can
facilitate the inclusion of forgotten minorities in organizations.
