Questions

HRM 3014: Contemporary Issues in Managing a Workforce

Dr. Alexandra Beauregard [email protected]

Lecture 13: Dimensions of Diversity III

– Race and Religion

Learning objectives for today:

1. To examine labour market participation, pay gaps, and occupational segregation according to race and religion

2. To identify some explanations for different employment trends and outcomes among ethnic and religious minorities

Ethnicity and employment

Department for Business Innovation and Skills (2016). Graduate labour market statistics: 2015. London: DBIS.

Ethnicity and unemployment

Reading list: See Ghumman & Ryan (2013) for an experimental study of discrimination against female Muslim job applicants

Department for Business Innovation and Skills (2016). Graduate labour market statistics: 2015. London: DBIS.

Ethnicity, pay gaps and qualifications

• Black and Asian groups earn less than White British with same qualification level

• Black male graduates earn 24% less

Why?

Type of university?  Polytechnic vs. Russell Group

 8% Black, 24% White students attend RG

Equality and Human Rights Commission Triennial Review 2010

Religion and occupational segregation

Who is best off?

 Jewish and Hindu men overrepresented in high level jobs

 Muslim men underrepresented

No similarly large differences for women

Equality and Human Rights Commission Triennial Review 2010

Vertical segregation and race / ethnicity

Professional jobs:  27% of Chinese, 25% of Indian men

 14% of White British men

Managerial jobs:  20% of Chinese, Indian, White British men

 15% of Pakistani, 14% of Bangladeshi, 11% Black African & 10% Black Caribbean men

Unskilled jobs:  23% of Black African, 21% of Bangladeshi men

 10% of White British, 15% of Pakistani men

Women:  13% overall in professional jobs (16% of Bangladeshi, 18% of

Indian, 21% of Chinese)

Equality and Human Rights Commission Triennial Review 2010

Horizontal segregation and race / ethnicity

Extreme examples of clustering:

 24% of Pakistani men are transport drivers

 17% of Chinese men are chefs

 9% of Indian men are in IT

 8% of Black African men are in low-level security jobs

 Black African & Caribbean women in healthcare & related personal services

 Pakistani women overrepresented as health professionals and sales assistants

 Bangladeshi women clustered in sales assistant and teaching assistant jobs

Equality and Human Rights Commission Triennial Review 2010

What’s in a name?

What are the effects of ethnic or religious signifiers in CVs?

What are the effects of ‘whitening’ CVs?

Forstenlechner, I., & Al-Waqfi, M. A. (2010). “A job interview for Mo, but none for Mohammed”: Religious discrimination against immigrants in Austria and Germany. Personnel Review, 39(6), 767-784

A rational actor model of hiring decisions

Pager, D., & Karafin, D. (2009). Bayesian bigot? Statistical discrimination, stereotypes, and employer decision making. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621(1), 70-93.

Known group characteristics Prior personal experience

Beliefs about minority group

Hiring decisions

Experiences with minority

group employees

Updating of beliefs

The resilience of stereotypes

Pager, D., & Karafin, D. (2009). Bayesian bigot? Statistical discrimination, stereotypes, and employer decision making. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621(1), 70-93.

[Known group characteristics] [Prior personal experience]

Cultural stereotypes Media imagery

Beliefs about minority group Hiring decisions

Experiences with minority

group employees

Subtyping

Implicit bias

A positive or negative mental attitude towards a person, thing, or group that a person holds at an unconscious level

Test your implicit biases at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

• social behaviour may not always be under a person’s conscious control

• much of human behaviour is driven by stereotypes that operate automatically and therefore unconsciously

• over 80% of people who completed an IAT on age bias demonstrated a negative implicit bias against the elderly

• about 75% of Whites and Asians demonstrated an implicit bias in favor of Whites compared to Blacks

New forms of racism

“Discrimination isn’t a problem. Minorities just don’t try hard enough.”

“I’m not racist! I love minorities!”

Aversive racism

Modern or ‘symbolic’ racism

System justification theory

“People are motivated to justify and rationalize the way things are, so that existing social, economic, and political arrangements tend to be perceived as fair and legitimate”

- Jost & Hunyady, 2005

Some system justification ideologies

Meritocratic ideology The system rewards individual ability and motivation, so success is an indicator of personal deservingness.

Economic system justification Economic inequality is natural, inevitable, and legitimate; economic outcomes are fair and deserved.

Belief in a just world People typically get what they deserve and deserve what they get

Power distance Inequality is a natural and desirable feature of the social order; large power differences are acceptable and legitimate.

Social dominance orientation Some groups are superior to others; group-based hierarchy is a good thing.

Opposition to equality Increased social and economic equality is unattainable and undesirable; it would be detrimental for society

Political conservatism Traditional institutions in society should be preserved; social and economic inequality is

When are people more likely to adopt system-justifying ideologies?

 When they have a stronger need for order, structure, and closure

 When they have higher levels of uncertainty avoidance

 When they have lower levels of openness to experience and cognitive complexity

 When they have stronger perceptions of a dangerous world

 When they have higher levels of death anxiety or mortality salience

 When they perceive greater levels of system instability and threat

Jost, J. T., & Hunyady, O. (2005). Antecedents and consequences of system-justifying ideologies. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 260-265.

What are the outcomes of adopting system justification beliefs?

Members of advantaged groups

Members of disadvantaged groups

Increased positive affect, decreased negative affect

Increased positive affect, decreased negative affect

Increased perceptions of legitimacy Increased perceptions of legitimacy

Increased in-group favouritism Increased out-group favouritism (decreased in-group favouritism)

Increased self-esteem and subjective well-being

Decreased self-esteem and subjective well-being

Decreased support for social change

Decreased support for social change

Racism as a social construct: a system of group privilege that defends the advantaged

– Many perceive racism as individual words and biased actions

– “As long as individuals avoid committing these, they aren’t racist. By this standard, no one is racist anymore.”

Summers (2013)

Racism and invisible privilege

Racism and invisible privilege

Racism as a social construct: a system of group privilege that defends the advantaged

– Many perceive racism as individual words and biased actions

– As long as individuals avoid committing these, they aren’t racist.

“If you exist inside a system that benefits you to the detriment of others, and do nothing to challenge the status quo, you’re enforcing it.”

Summers (2013)

“Equality is very low down on the list of priorities in most organisations. To become a member of this elite club of senior managers and directors, it isn’t simply a question of whether you are able to do the job – other things come into play: social background, how you spend your leisure time, whether other members of that club would like to spend social time with you. All too often, people of colour fail these tests.”

- Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, British businessman, farmer, & founder of "The Black Farmer" range of food products (2009)

Reading list: See Van Laer & Janssens (2011) for a study of subtle discrimination toward ethnic minority workers

Key takeaways

 Some ethnic minorities have better employment outcomes than others

 Bias toward ethnic and/or religious minorities can be conscious and unconscious

 Old-fashioned racism has largely been replaced by newer and more subtle forms

For the seminar

1) Read the “Religion in the Workplace” vignettes posted on Moodle and answer the questions – Use the readings to inform your answers

2) Bring the vignettes and your notes with you to the seminar