Lived experiences of inequalities in the USA: a sense-making perspective

Khilji, Shaista E.

doi:10.1108/edi-12-2020-0373

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…As Ant onio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, states in the forward, "together, we must challenge the status quo and take action to tackle deep-seated as well as emerging inequalities once and for all" (United Nations, 2020, p. 3). Simultaneously, opposition to race-based policies in employment and recent national debates call for a renewal and restoration of the status quo (Ng and Stamper, 2018;Khilji, 2021). The observed racial disparities in employment have generated renewed interest in understanding how status quo and group social hierarchies maintain and justify intergroup behavior (Amis et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Résumé screening heuristic outcomes: an examination of hiring manager evaluation bias

Moore

Livingston

Susskind

2022

EDI

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PurposeHiring managers commonly rely on system-justifying motives and attitudes during résumé screening. Given the prevalent use of modern résumé formats (e.g. LinkedIn) that include not only an applicant's credentials but also headshot photographs, visible sources of information such as an applicant's race are also revealed while a hiring manager simultaneously evaluates a candidate's suitability. As a result, such screening is likely to activate evaluation bias. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of a hiring manager's perceptions of race-system justification, that is, support for the status quo in relations between Black and White job candidates in reinforcing or mitigating hiring bias related to in-group and out-group membership during résumé screening.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from system justification theory (SJT) in a pre-selection context, in an experimental study involving 174 human resource managers, the authors tested two boundary conditions of the expected relationship between hiring manager and job candidate race on candidate ratings: (1) a hiring manager's affirmative action (AA) attitudes and system-justifying attitudes and (2) a job candidate's manipulated suitability for a position. This approach enabled us to juxtapose the racial composition of hiring manager–job candidate dyads under conditions in which the job candidate's race and competency for a posted position were manipulated to examine the conditions under which White and Black hiring managers are likely to make biased evaluations. The authors largely replicated these findings in two follow-up studies with 261 students and 361 online raters.FindingsThe authors found that information on a candidate's objective suitability for a job resulted in opposite-race positive bias among Black evaluators and same-race positive bias among White evaluators in study 1 alone. Conversely, positive attitudes toward AA policies resulted in in-group favoritism and strengthened a positive same-race bias for Black evaluators (study 1 and 2). We replicated this finding with a third sample to directly test system-justifying attitudes (study 3). The way in which White raters rated White candidates reflected the same attitudes against systems (AA attitudes) that Black raters rating Black candidates exhibited in the authors’ first two studies. Positive system-justifying attitudes or positive attitudes toward AA did not, however, translate into the elevation of same-race candidate ratings of suitability above those of opposite-race candidates.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the size of the sample is on par with the percentage of Blacks nationwide in private-sector managerial-level positions ideally, the authors would have preferred to oversample Black HR managers. Given the scarcity of focus on Black HR managers, future researchers, using diverse samples of evaluators should also consider not only managers' and candidates' race but also their social dominance orientation. Moreover, it is important that future researchers use more racially diverse samples from other industries to more fully identify the ways in which the dynamics of system-justifying processes can emerge to influence evaluation bias during résumé screening.Practical implicationsAdvances in technology pose new challenges to HR hiring practices. This study attempts to fill a void regarding the unintended effects of bias during digital résumé screening. These trends have important HR implications. Initial screening of a job applicant's credentials while concurrently viewing the individual's photograph is likely to activate subconscious evaluation bias, produces inaccurate applicant ratings. This study's findings should caution hiring managers about the potential for bias to arise when viewing job candidates' digital résumés and encourage them to carefully examine various boundary conditions on racial similarity bias effects on applicant pre-screening and subsequent hiring decisions.Social implicationsThe study’s results suggest that bias might be attenuated as organizational leaders engage in efforts to understand their system-justifying motives and examine perceptions of the workplace social hierarchy (i.e. responses to status hierarchies) linked to perceptions of the status quo. For example, understanding how system justifying motives influence evaluation bias will inform how best to design training and other interventions that link discussions of workforce diversity to the relationships among groups within the organization's social hierarchy. This line of research should be further explored to better understand the complex forces at work when hiring managers adopt system-justifying motives during hiring evaluations.Originality/valueThe authors address the limitations of prior research by examining interactions between boundary conditions in a real-world context using real human resources hiring managers and more contemporary personnel-screening practices to test changes in the direction and strength of the relationship between hiring manager–job candidate race and hiring manager evaluations. Thus, the authors’ findings have implications for hiring bias and understanding of system-justification processes, particularly regarding how, when and why hiring managers support the status quo (i.e. perpetuate inequity) even if they are disadvantaged as a result.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Résumé screening heuristic outcomes: an examination of hiring manager evaluation bias

Moore

Livingston

Susskind

2022

EDI

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“…Crew, 2020; Crumb et al. , 2020; Hurst and Warnock, 2015; Khilji, 2021) and higher education research (Jones, 2014; Magalhaes and Veiga, 2015). The choice of method was dictated by the centrality of experiential knowledge in this research.…”

Section: Study Design (Methods and Participants)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The choice of method was dictated by the centrality of experiential knowledge in this research. Following the proponents of critical race theory, claiming that “knowledge of People of Color is legitimate, appropriate, and critical to understanding, analyzing and teaching about racial subordination” (Yosso, 2005, p. 74), I assume that the lived experiences (Khilji, 2021) of working-class academics are indispensable in analyzing class location and its consequences. The empirical material comprises the collection of 25 narrative interviews conducted according to the biographical narrative interpretive method (BNIM) (Wengraf, 2001).…”

Section: Study Design (Methods and Participants)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study is based on the narrative, phenomenological, approach, which has been applied both in working-class studies (see, e.g. Crew, 2020;Crumb et al, 2020;Hurst and Warnock, 2015;Khilji, 2021) and higher education research (Jones, 2014;Magalhaes and Veiga, 2015). The choice of method was dictated by the centrality of experiential knowledge in this research.…”

Section: Study Design (Methods and Participants)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social class as a blessing in disguise? Beyond the deficit model in working-class and higher education studies

Łuczaj

2022

EDI

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PurposeThe overarching question of this paper is, “What are the advantages of being an upwardly mobile academic?” The extant academic research on working-class academics has usually emphasized various kinds of “deficits” of working-class academics. In this paper, the author demonstrates that although class positions can constitute a formidable burden, they can translate into specific advantages in academia.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on the narrative, phenomenological approach, which has been applied in working-class studies and higher-education research. The empirical material comprises the collection of 25 narrative interviews conducted and analyzed according to the biographical narrative interpretive method (BNIM).FindingsThis paper looks at the experience of working-class academics from a holistic perspective, including both the downsides and upsides of being an “outsider within,” or “insider without.” It uncovers four assets of a working-class background – referred to as “navigational capital,” “revolutionary potential,” “wisdom” and a distinct “working-class pedagogy.”Practical implicationsThe working-class pedagogy can be turned into support programs for working-class individuals. Their navigational capital can foster evolutionary changes and small improvements for the benefit of the entire academic community. Their revolutionary dispositions can trigger major reforms, and their unique experiences can be utilized as case studies in teaching.Originality/valueThis paper engages with the literature on the cultural mismatch and cleft habitus in the academic context. It analyzes the positive but rarely discussed aspects of being an upwardly mobile academic with a working-class background. By recognizing these unique assets, it engages with the literature on inclusive universities and can help make higher education more inclusive and sustainable.

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“…Regimes of inequality also exist at higher levels of analysis, including those that are embedded in the policies, practices and (in)formal norms that govern organizational culture (Gupta, 2020). Further, and at a more macro level, inequality regimes manifest as broader societal and economic factors, including factors embedded within regulatory environments, societal norms and values and market conditions (Khilji, 2021). At this level of analysis, there are important and unexamined issues across markets and economies, including ones that shape the way we examine and prioritize the examination of the Global North versus the Global South, or alternatively, of multinational corporations (MNCs) versus smaller and more local forms of business.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial: Producing actionable knowledge about marginalized populations and communities: a challenge to editors and journals

Van Buren,

Karam,

Afiouni

2024

EDI

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Lived experiences of inequalities in the USA: a sense-making perspective

Cited by 4 publications

References 60 publications

Résumé screening heuristic outcomes: an examination of hiring manager evaluation bias

Résumé screening heuristic outcomes: an examination of hiring manager evaluation bias

Social class as a blessing in disguise? Beyond the deficit model in working-class and higher education studies

Editorial: Producing actionable knowledge about marginalized populations and communities: a challenge to editors and journals

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