It’s commonly believed hard work pays off and in many cases that’s true. But other times there are unforeseen obstacles on the path to success that affect how, why, and when people climb the corporate ladder. The research of Assistant Professor Kelly Raz reveals some of these hurdles. Raz’s research looks at status, particularly how it is achieved and what are the resulting consequences.
One particular stream of her research looks at the impact of socio-economic status (SES; a measure of an individual or family's economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation) on job opportunities for African Americans.
In the study, recruiting managers were asked how likely they would be to hire an African American candidate graduating from a selective university in the U.S. More often than not, they were less likely to hire the candidate from a lower socio-economic background even though the candidate possessed identical credentials to the higher socio-economic candidate.
"Our big conclusion is that the labour market devalues the credentials of low SES African American candidates because they assume that their credentials reflect preferential selection,” she said. “In a third study, when we explicitly told recruiting managers that the selective university did not practice affirmative action, the bias was eliminated. We had to actively work at getting rid of that bias."
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