Race and inequality at work: An occupational perspective

Abstract

Recent research on racial inequality at work offers fruitful insights on the organizational conditions that reproduce racial segregation, racial disparities in wages, and racial hierarchies in the labor market and the workplace. Much less is known, however, about the specifically occupational influences that impinge on equitable work outcomes by race. In this paper, we explore three processes at the occupational level that relate to racial segregation, racialized access to resources, and status in one's line of work. We review research on racial inequality at work over the last 20 years to elucidate what is known, and remains to be seen, about these occupational processes. First, we review how occupational members get selected, and attempt to self-select, into occupations via recruitment, licensing, credentialing, or certifications. Second, we consider how occupational incumbents teach, govern and evaluate new entrants, and with what consequences for racial inclusion/exclusion and retention in careers. Third, we examine research on client-or service-based work, and highlight how workers navigate not only their roles, but also racial dynamics, vis-a-vis clients. We conclude with suggestions for how future research can harness occupational analysis to advance understanding of racial inequality at work.

The role of organizational settings in social learning: An ethnographic focus on food-delivery platform work

“…These studies indeed suggest that to transform group diversity from a potential hurdle to an asset, certain forms of management are needed, whether through leadership or formalization of complementary roles, for instance (Cox and Blake, 1991; Edmondson, 2003). Since these managerial solutions remain absent in the organizational context of food-delivery platform work, the heterogeneity of the workforce might be thought of as a barrier to collective phenomena (Berg et al, 2018; Nelson and Vallas, 2021; Vallas, 2019). The symphonizing mechanism that our findings articulated nevertheless suggests that this variety can, instead, sow the seeds for the creation of functional CoPs that enable social learning processes.…”

“…Digitalness is indeed a key mediator of the sharing mechanism that, in our case, enables social learning (by allowing for a high responsivity of exchanges and for the cumulativity of shared knowledge), and of the symphonizing mechanism. By permitting CoP members to be anonymous, digitalness transforms the heterogeneity of the working crowd from impeding collective endeavour (Nelson and Vallas, 2021) to enabling social learning. In addition, while the literature on CoPs mostly neglects issues of power (Rennstam and Kärreman, 2020) or refers to their associated mechanisms within the communities under study (Contu, 2014; Mäkinen, 2021; Roberts, 2006) or in the relation between management and CoPs (Rennstam and Kärreman, 2020; Swan, 2002), we push the link between social learning processes in CoPs and power to a more macro level.…”

Medical Schools as Racialized Organizations: How Race-Neutral Structures Sustain Racial Inequality in Medical Education—a Narrative Review

“…Within present-day organizations, non-White people are typically relegated to less remunerative jobs, with little authority. 5 These processes of organizational segregation create a pathdependency that helps justify contemporary patterns of racial inequality within medical schools as "just the way things are." For instance, the Flexner report, whose recommendations led to the closure of all but two historically Black medical schools, 6 continues to have ripple effects limiting Black agency.…”

Prime Suspect: Mechanisms of Labor Control at Amazon's Warehouses

“…Workers of color did comment on the exclusion of minorities from supervisory positions but few ethno-racial divisions emerged among workers as a whole. On racial boundaries in the occupational structure see Vallas, 2003b andNelson andVallas, 2021. 4.…”