Doctoral Dissertation Research: Hiring and Inequality in High Prestige Professions

博士论文研究：高级职业中的招聘和不平等

• 批准号: 0727427
• 负责人: Michele Lamont
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-15 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0727427&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Hiring; Inequality

SES-0727427Michele LamontLauren RiveraHarvard UniversityHiring is powerful yet understudied way in which employers shape labor market inequalities. Although a number of recent studies have demonstrated that hiring practices systematically disadvantage certain groups of applicants, such as women, ethnic minorities, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, existing research does not adequately explore why such outcomes occur. The proposed dissertation seeks to remedy this gap by opening up the "black box" of employer hiring decisions. Specifically, the study examines how employers in three economically elite professions -- investment banking, management consulting, and corporate law -- recruit and select newly credentialed M.B.A. and J.D. hires. Drawing upon 120 interviews with employers and ethnographic observation of hiring committees in these industries, the dissertation explores the criteria of evaluation employers use to assess the merit of job applicants as well as how processes of evaluation and selection vary by profession. The dissertation provides important intellectual contributions to social science research by bringing together developments in economics, economic sociology, and organizational studies with the literature in cultural sociology to illuminate how interpersonal processes of evaluation contribute to macro-level labor market inequalities. The results of the dissertation will have implications for policy debates on employment discrimination and will contribute to a growing body of knowledge on the relationship between employment practices and diversity outcomes. In practical terms, the findings may help employers structure hiring practices in ways that reduce bias and increase diversity within organizations.

SES-0727427米歇尔拉蒙特劳伦里维拉哈佛大学招聘是强大的，但研究不足的方式，雇主塑造劳动力市场的不平等。尽管最近的一些研究表明，招聘做法系统地使某些群体的申请人处于不利地位，如妇女、少数民族和社会经济背景较低的人，但现有的研究并没有充分探讨为什么会出现这种结果。拟议的论文旨在弥补这一差距，通过打开“黑匣子”的雇主雇用决定。具体来说，这项研究考察了三个经济精英行业的雇主--投资银行、管理咨询和公司法--是如何招聘和选择新获得证书的MBA的。和J.D.雇用。本文通过对120名雇主的访谈和对这些行业招聘委员会的人种学观察，探讨了雇主用来评估求职者价值的评估标准，以及评估和选择过程如何因职业而异。本论文通过将经济学、经济社会学和组织研究的发展与文化社会学的文献结合起来，阐明人际评价过程如何对宏观层面的劳动力市场不平等做出贡献，为社会科学研究提供了重要的智力贡献。论文的结果将对就业歧视的政策辩论产生影响，并将有助于就业实践和多样性结果之间的关系越来越多的知识。实际上，这些发现可能有助于雇主以减少偏见和增加组织内部多样性的方式来构建招聘实践。