Individual and situational predictors of intention to hire gay male and ultra-orthodox male job applicants

Abstract

PurposeThis paper examines personal and situational factors that may contribute to biases in hiring decisions at the workplace, focusing on willingness to hire male gay or male Jewish ultra-Orthodox Jewish job candidates.Design/methodology/approach942 Jewish participants in Israel responded to an anonymous online questionnaire regarding a scenario addressing the possible employments of two male applicants: a homosexual and an ultra-Orthodox Jew. A variety of statistical tools, including regression analysis were performed to test hypotheses.FindingsFindings show that social dominance orientation, conservatism, gender and religiosity as well as frequency of contact with the “unlike other” impacted on hiring intention of the participants. These relationships varied in strength and direction with regard to the two applicant types in question.Practical implicationsThe explication of the phenomenon in question has both important theoretical and practical importance in a world where – concurrently – there exists increasing contact among individuals from different backgrounds and (perhaps not coincidently) increased signs of wariness of and discrimination toward those unlike ourselves. In light of economic costs related to discrimination – not to mention the personal costs to those discriminated against – organizations must better understand the dynamics of the phenomenon in question.Originality/valueThis is one of the first empirical examinations of the relative impact of personal and situational factors on hiring bias. In addition, it is the first study of its kind in Israel focusing on the mechanisms behind hiring bias toward gay males and ultra-orthodox males.

LGBTQ+ in workplace: a systematic review and reconsideration

“…, 2018). This distasteful attitude towards LGBTQ + persons might originate from diverse factors, including one's belief in traditional gender roles, social dominance orientation, risk-avoidance, religious attendance, less contact with sexual minorities, belief in homosexuality as a choice and conservatism (Estrada and Weiss, 1999; Blackwell, 2008; Baert, 2018a, b; Bryant-Lees and Kite, 2021; Brender-Ilan and Kay, 2021). Negative health-related prejudice, too, determines the hiring of transgender women (Van Borm and Baert, 2018).…”

Middle ageism: when social climate and perceived employability relate to attitudes and intent to hire middle-aged employees

“…Individuals who make decisions regarding others are influenced not only by their attitudes toward the others, but also by their own experience and affect, and by the degree of relevance of the issue at hand to themselves (Millar and Tesser, 1989; Liberman and Chaiken, 1996). Personal and situational factors may bias hiring decisions at the workplace (Brender-Ilan and Kay, 2021). Thus, the extent of the decision maker's security regarding his or her own position in the labor market could affect the decision to hire others, either implicitly or explicitly (Gawronski and Bodenhausen, 2006).…”