This study considers the predictive power of gender in the perceived job suitability of
male and female applicants seeking employment as knowledge workers. Four research
questions were generated in order to address the problem statement of identifying if
suitability for job fit in the knowledge economy is influenced more by gender or
qualification:
• Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of male and
female potential employees?
• Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of less-qualified
male and more-qualified female potential employees?
• Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of equally morequalified
male and female potential employees?
• Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of equally lessqualified
male and female potential employees?
In this simple study, respondents were asked to rank eight candidates’ suitability for a
knowledge worker job. The results were collated, cleaned and validated before being
subjected to a Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks test (for non-parametric
variables). The results demonstrated that overall, gender is the better predictor of job
suitability, however, the more qualified a candidate is, the less gender can be relied
upon as an accurate predictor for job suitability.
All the results from this study have been discussed in terms of their suggestions for
future research in selection bias in hiring and gender bias. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/43969 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Swinstead, Jamie Alistair |
| Contributors | Kleyn, Nicola, ichelp@gibs.co.za |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Mini Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria |
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