Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T16:46:54.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Are You In or Out? Employment Discrimination in Online and Offline Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Enrica N. Ruggs*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Sabrina Speights
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Sarah Singletary Walker
Affiliation:
University of Houston Downtown
*
E-mail: [email protected], Address: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28223

Extract

In the current focal article, Lindsey, King, Dunleavy, McCausland, & Jones (2013) discuss how organizational scholars and practitioners can help eradicate employment discrimination across the employment cycle, focusing primarily on factors directly linked to organizational outcomes. In addition to facing discrimination that is linked to organizational outcomes, marginalized individuals often face subtle forms of discrimination, which may not directly affect organizational decisions and outcomes but instead may impact one's workplace experiences (e.g., social networking situations). Such negative experiences may indirectly influence organizational decisions and outcomes. Thus, in this commentary we argue that we should not only encourage evidence-based research on eradicating discrimination at the organizational level but ensure that such efforts also examine the social, individual level as well. We discuss manifestations of subtle discrimination that occur within the social aspects of each of the four cycles discussed in the focal article, paying particular attention to social networking situations, and examine steps organizational researchers can take to help reduce discrimination at a more social level as well.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avery, D. R., & McKay, P. (2006). Target practice: An organizational impression management approach to attracting minority and female job applicants. Personnel Psychology, 59, 157187. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00807.xGoogle Scholar
Barnes, S. B. (2009). Relationship networking: Society and education. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14, 735742. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01464.xGoogle Scholar
Blancero, D. M., & Delcampo, R. G. (2005). Hispanics in the workplace: Experiences with mentoring and networking. Employment Relations Today, 32, 3138. doi: 10.1002/ert.20061Google Scholar
Braddock, J. M., & McPartland, J. M. (1987). How minorities continue to be excluded from equal employment opportunities: Research on labor market and institutional barriers. Journal of Social Issues, 43, 539. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1987.tb02329.xGoogle Scholar
Breaugh, J. A. (2013). Employee recruitment. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 389416. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143757Google Scholar
Breaugh, J. A., Greising, L. A., Taggart, J. W., & Chen, H. (2003). The relationship of recruiting sources and pre-hire outcomes: Examination of yield ratios and applicant quality. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 22672287. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01884.xGoogle Scholar
Brown, V. R., & Vaughn, E. D. (2011). The writing on the (Facebook) wall: The use of social networking sites in hiring decisions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26, 219225. doi: 10.1007/s10869-011-9221-xGoogle Scholar
Davison, H. K., Maraist, C., & Bing, M. N. (2011). Friend or foe? The promise and pitfalls of using social networking sites for HR decisions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26, 153159. doi: 10.1007/s10869-011-9215-8Google Scholar
Davison, H. K., Maraist, C. C., Hamilton, R. H., & Bing, M. N. (2012). To screen or not to screen? Using the Internet for selection decisions. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 24, 121. doi: 10.1007/s10672-011-9178-yGoogle Scholar
Feeney, M. K., & Bozeman, B. (2008). Mentoring and network ties. Human Relations, 61, 16511676. doi: 10.1177/0018726708098081Google Scholar
Giuliano, L., Levine, D. I., & Leonard, J. (2009). Manager race and the race of new hires. Journal of Labor Economics, 27, 589631. doi: 10.1086/605946CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hebl, M. R., Tonidandel, S., & Ruggs, E. N. (2012). The impact of like-mentors for gay/lesbian employees. Human Performance, 25, 5271. doi: 10.1080/08959285.2011.631645Google Scholar
Hebl, M. R., Williams, M. J., Sundermann, J. M., Kell, H. J., & Davies, P. G. (2012). Selectively friending: Racial stereotypicality and social rejection. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 13291335. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.019Google Scholar
Kalev, A., Kelly, E., & Dobbin, F. (2012). Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies. American Sociological Review, 71, 589617. doi: 10.1177/000312240607100404Google Scholar
Karl, K., & Peluchette, J. (2009). Facebook follies: Who suffers the most? In Romm Livermore, C., & Setzekorn, K. (Eds.), Social networking communities and e-dating services: Concepts and implications (pp. 212224). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsey, A., King, E., Dunleavy, E., McCausland, T., & Jones, K. (2013). What we know and don't: Eradicating employment discrimination 50 years after the Civil Rights Act. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 6(4), 391413.Google Scholar
Madera, J. M. (2012). Using social networking websites as a selection tool: The role of selection process fairness and job pursuit intentions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31, 12761282. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.03.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, S. (2011). What's in the "old boys" network? Accessing social capital in gendered and racialized networks. Social Networks, 33, 317330. doi: 10.1016/j.socnet.2011.10.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, S., Lin, N., & Ao, D. (2009). Networks of opportunity: Gender, race, and job leads. Social Problems, 56, 385402. doi: 10.1525/sp.2009.56.3.385Google Scholar
Mehra, A., Kilduff, M., & Brass, D. J. (1998). At the margins: A distinctiveness approach to the social identity and social networks of underrepresented groups. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 441452. doi: 10.2307/257083Google Scholar
Mollica, K. A., Gray, B., & Trevino, L. K. (2003). Racial homophily and its persistence in newcomers' social networks. Organization Science, 14, 123136. doi: 10.1287/orsc.14.2.123.14994Google Scholar
Overman, S. (2008). Use the best to find the rest. Staffing Management, 4, 26.Google Scholar
Papacharissi, Z. (2009). The virtual geographies of social networks: A comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld. New Media & Society, 11, 199220. doi: 10.1177/1461444808099577Google Scholar
Postmes, T., Spears, R., & Lea, M. (1998). Breaching or building social boundaries?: SIDE-Effects of computer-mediated communication. Communication Research, 25, 689715. doi: 10.1177/009365098025006006Google Scholar
Ridgeway, C. L. (1997). Interaction and the conservation of gender inequality: Considering employment. American Sociological Review, 62, 218–235. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/2657301CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singletary, S. L., & Hebl, M. R. (2009). Compensatory strategies for reducing interpersonal discrimination: The effectiveness of acknowledgments, increased positivity, and individuating information. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 797805. doi: 10.1037/a0014185Google Scholar
Society for Human Resource Management (2008, July–September). Online technologies and their impact on recruitment strategies. SHRM Staffing Research, 3, 19.Google Scholar
Walther, J., Van Der Heide, B., Kim, S.-Y., Westerman, D., & Tom Tong, S. (2008). The role of friends' appearance and behavior on evaluations of individuals on Facebook: Are we known by the company we keep? Human Communication Research, 34, 2849. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00312.xGoogle Scholar
Zeinder, R. (2007). How deep can you probe? HR Magazine, 52, 5762.Google Scholar