Recent scholars have identified a phenomenon known as the motherhood wage penalty with research demonstrating that women with children face wage discrepancies beyond those associated with being female. This project adds to our understanding of non-wage-related penalties by investigating two distinct gatekeeping stages: screening and interviewing. I asked do employer hiring practices create barriers to mothers’ access to jobs? To answer this question, I used a novel mixed-methods approach, combining a dual-state audit study with qualitative employer interviews. I framed my study using the status theory of motherhood, which suggests that whenever motherhood is salient in the labor market, mothers will face discrimination. This study is the first of its kind in the field of motherhood and organizational discrimination. In phase one, I completed an audit study in two states: Utah and California. Each week, I applied for 10 jobs in each state using two fictitious applicants for a total of 40 resumes per week. This resulted in 960 applications (480 companies) over a 24-week period. I then randomly selected employers in each state for a total of 27 interviews, allowing me to speak directly with hiring managers regarding their employment practices. Throughout this project I identified employer bias at both the screening and interviewing stages. This included three key mechanisms: employers’ ideal expectations for their workers, the subjective assessment of both soft skills and family responsibilities, and the employment gap inquiry. Findings also varied by state suggesting that the salience of motherhood may be impacted by larger cultural and policy contexts resulting in varied labor market outcomes.

This study was conducted to determine if employers were inclined to discriminate between two-year and four-year educated accountants in making hiring and promotional decisions. In addition, accounting graduates of two-year and four-year institutions were studied to see if there were differences between these two groups in regard to educational programs taken, perceptions of the benefit received from the courses taken, salaries received, and views concerning employer hiring and promotional practices. This study included three different groups consisting of 39 employers in the private business sector as well as 43 two-year accounting associate degree graduates and 43 bachelor accounting degree graduates. A sample of businesses from the Wasatch-Front Area of the State of Utah was drawn and personal interviews held in order to collect the desired data. Conclusions based upon the significant differences found during the analyses of the data indicated that employers paid four-year accounting educated graduates higher salaries and believed these graduates did not need as much additional education as two-year graduates when education was a criteria used in determining promotions. Employers indicated, too, that four-year accountants were better prepared educationally to handle "detailed and difficult accounting tasks," as well as "accounting theory and principles." There was a difference in the accounting educational programs taken between two-year and four-year accounting graduates. Differences were found in 21 courses, with four-year graduates having had more instruction in 19 of these subjects while the two-year graduates had more exposure in two of the courses. The benefits received from courses taken was also viewed differently by accountants. The four-year graduates earned a significantly higher salary and were given more opportunities for financial assistance in upgrading accounting skill and knowledge. Conclusions based on similar opinions and views revealed that most employers were willing to hire graduates from postsecondary schools without previous work experience and considered graduates from the various postsecondary educational institutions as being adequately prepared to handle the positions to which they were assigned. Most employers also deduced that graduates did need additional education in certain areas and believed that accounting internships would have been helpful. Most companies did not have a policy dictating annual salary increases nor job advancement plans for accounting personnel. Most accountants on the job had been with their current employer between three and four years, and the time spent in their present positions was slightly over two and one-half years. Most accountants believed that an internship experience would have been beneficial to them prior to their entering the work force and would have been willing to work for a company in connection with their school preparation.

In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, principals are often ill prepared for the demands of the job. According to Baxter (2012), every year in the Archdiocese approximately 30 principal vacancies are filled. Many of the Pastors who hire for these vacancies do not have an educational background, nor do they have much experience in hiring practices. With the increase of lay educators leading Catholic schools, not only are competent principals needed, but principals who can be Pastoral, educational, and managerial leaders (Manno, 1985). To increase the probability of hiring strong candidates for the principal vacancies in schools across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a hiring protocol is needed to standardize the process, while encouraging collaboration and input from multiple stakeholders. This case study implemented and evaluated a hiring protocol at one school site within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The protocol was designed to help Catholic schools hire qualified principals, and its development was guided by previous research on effective hiring procedures for such positions. The case-study data collected provides insight into the benefits and of using this specialized hiring protocol while also identifying potential changes to further strengthen the protocol. The results of the case study will be shared with the Department of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to provide a framework for a principal hiring protocol that can be used at all school sites.

Leaders of third-party logistics companies face a critical talent shortage because of the global deficiency of supply-chain professionals. The lack of trained supply-chain professionals negatively affects business and market performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by third-party logistics hiring managers to recruit supply-chain talent to meet industry demands. The resource-based view theory was used as a lens for this study. Data were collected from 5 Pennsylvania third-party logistics hiring managers from interviews, organizational documents, and company websites. Member checking occurred after transcription and summarization of the interview data. Data analysis occurred using Yin's 5-step process of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding data. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) strategies for recruitment resourcing, (b) strategies to address market drivers, (c) interview method strategies, and (d) strategies for determining skill requirements. The findings and recommendations resulting from this study might be valuable to senior management, human resource leaders, and hiring managers for creating strategic plans to address recruitment to alleviate supply-chain talent shortages. The implications for positive social change include the potential for business leaders to decrease unemployment, produce greater local economic stability, and improve the standard of living of community residents.

In this exploratory case study, I compare and contrast the self-employment experiences and hiring practices of Black, Latino, and White business owners in the Atlanta construction industry. While much of the ethnic entrepreneurship literature has explained the racialized differences between racial and ethnic groups concerning self-employment and their hiring practices, few studies have been able to provide a clear explanation of the mechanisms racial groups use to maintain an economic and social edge without being overtly racist. Furthermore, many scholars have not yet begun to compare the experiences of Whites, Blacks, and Latinos in the South and how their racial ideologies and competition spur on discrimination and racism in a supposedly “color-blind” environment. To address these gaps, I interviewed 42 White, Black, and Latino sub- and general contractors in the Atlanta metropolitan area. I also collected observational data by visiting the worksites of my respondents and attending organizational meetings. Results suggest that even though many of my respondents indicated that racial dissimilarities were due to individual effort and poor motivation, I find that these color-blind ideologies work well to solidify the racial hierarchy and privilege White contractors. I also find that these ideologies block Blacks and Latinos from obtaining better financing, building a good reputation, or having access to important social connections that introduced most contractors to more lucrative prospects. More importantly, the White “good ole’ boy” networks worked as a mechanism to exclude Blacks and Latinos from more lucrative connections, and keep any interactions to a strictly employee-employer relationship. However, these business owners’ hiring practices are the same: they want the cheapest and hardest-working employees they can get, who are usually Latino laborers. By moving beyond the black/white dichotomy, this study offers new explanations of race relations and racial inequality in a metropolitan area recently affected by immigration. Finally, I show that competition pushes these contractors to be more discriminatory, especially when Latino immigrants threaten their "hard-earned" social positions. My empirical and conceptual analyses provide a good start toward explaining how racism and discrimination is organized and continues to persist in a major U.S. industry.

No description available.

Few women in academia occupy the leadership role of chief information officer (CIO), yet little is known about the underlying causes for gender disparity in this role. The purpose of this causal comparative study was to investigate whether gender stereotypes may impact perceptions about managerial characteristics of CIO candidates in academic settings. The theoretical foundation for this study was Schein's 'Think Manager, Think Male' paradigm and Acker's gendered organization theory. Data were acquired from 48 hiring officials from four-year public, private, and nonprofit colleges, universities, and research institutions in the Northeastern region of the United States who completed the Schein Descriptive Index. Data were analyzed using ANOVA to determine whether gender of the hiring authority was associated with the perceived managerial skills of male, female, and non-gender-specific CIO candidates. Data analysis revealed no significant difference in male and female hiring officials' ratings of male, female, and non-gender-specific CIO candidates. The findings demonstrated the theoretical construct of Schein's 'Think Manager, Think Male' paradigm are outdated and Acker's gendered organization theory persistently exists where males' dominant in organizations and roles deemed masculine. Implications for positive social change in the area of public policy are increasing awareness to hiring officials and women seeking the role of CIO in academia about other factors such as age, ethnicity, and experience that may affect candidate selection in the role of CIO.

The improper promotion of police officers who lack effective police management skills results in poor supervisor/employee relationships and could have a further negative effect on the relationships between officers and citizens. Yet, few police departments utilize leadership testing in making promotional decisions. The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive study was to explore whether servant leadership, from the perspective of police officers, is viewed as an effective leadership strategy. In particular, the focus of this study was on the element of humility as part of servant leadership theory. Data were collected by distributing the Servant Leadership Survey (SLS) to 2,794 police officers of a large metropolitan area law enforcement agency, resulting in 386 useable surveys. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and factor loading analysis. Findings indicated that most, approximately 60 percent, of police officer participants perceive that their supervisors engage in servant leadership practices related to humility. Further, findings suggest the humility score from the SLS could be used to measure perceptions from subordinates as part of a police manager promotional process. Thus, the use of the SLS Questionnaire for measuring the humility construct within the context of servant leadership was determined to serve as a robust measure. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include providing recommendations to the law enforcement executives of this agency to engage in training and promotional processes that focus on servant leadership in order to promote strong working relationships between officers and supervisors, which in turn may improve relations with the public.

<p>Labour mobility can in theory be an efficient channel for knowledge transfer between cluster firms, thus contributing to growth and competitiveness. In the thesis labour mobility in two Swedish ICT clusters is studied. The purpose of the thesis is to develop an understanding of processes of labour mobility in clusters and to investigate whether mobility can be regarded as a cluster advantage. Both interview data and extensive registry data are used in order to analyse processes of mobility at three levels: individual, firm and cluster level.</p><p>The results show that labour mobility can to some extent be considered a cluster advantage for Swedish ICT firms, since cluster firms are likely to experience a higher level of labour mobility. It is also shown how mobility to and from the clusters contributes to the upgrading of formal competencies within cluster firms. However, the firms themselves are shown to rather focus on staff retention than turnover. </p><p>To some degree, labour mobility in the Swedish clusters in focus is presumably constrained by the formal institutional framework, as well as by informal rules and agreements between cluster firms. It is argued nonetheless that the sheer potential for mobility and the viability of informal hiring practices in clusters may be viewed as cluster advantages, besides the actual extent of labour mobility.</p>

Labour mobility can in theory be an efficient channel for knowledge transfer between cluster firms, thus contributing to growth and competitiveness. In the thesis labour mobility in two Swedish ICT clusters is studied. The purpose of the thesis is to develop an understanding of processes of labour mobility in clusters and to investigate whether mobility can be regarded as a cluster advantage. Both interview data and extensive registry data are used in order to analyse processes of mobility at three levels: individual, firm and cluster level. The results show that labour mobility can to some extent be considered a cluster advantage for Swedish ICT firms, since cluster firms are likely to experience a higher level of labour mobility. It is also shown how mobility to and from the clusters contributes to the upgrading of formal competencies within cluster firms. However, the firms themselves are shown to rather focus on staff retention than turnover. To some degree, labour mobility in the Swedish clusters in focus is presumably constrained by the formal institutional framework, as well as by informal rules and agreements between cluster firms. It is argued nonetheless that the sheer potential for mobility and the viability of informal hiring practices in clusters may be viewed as cluster advantages, besides the actual extent of labour mobility.