Part II - Proven Performance Versus Potential

Do employers extend greater confidence in the abilities of members of the dominant group?

• Do employer preferences contribute to sticky floors? Industrial and Labor relations Review, 69(3), 714-736.

Baert, De Pauw, & Deschacht (2016) studied the opportunities extended to potential applicants "applying up," or seeking a position above their current role. For their experiment, the authors sent pairs (male, female) of fictitious job applications to real job vacancies and measured the subsequent call backs. They looked specifically at two factors:

• occupational level (the same or above the fictional candidates current position)
• job-authority level

While they found no significant difference in terms of opportunities based on job-authority level, their results point to discrimination of young women seeking to move above their current position.

Part II - Share Your Thoughts? (10 points): Continuing on the themes of "opportunity" and "diversity" we began in part one of this discussion, answer the following:

1. Within a vigorous screening process, how do you weigh that "gut feeling" one candidate has greater potential over another candidate equal in background and experience?
2. How do you avoid unconscious bias in these situations?
3. Do measures to decrease bias in applicant screening inhibit your ability as an employer to get to know the character and integrity of your future hire?