Comparing and Contrasting Employers' Concerns on People with Substance Abuse in Beijing, Hong Kong and Chicago

Abstract

The study explored and compared employers' concerns on hiring individuals with substance abuse in Chinese and Western work settings. One hundred employers from Beijing (n = 30), Hong Kong (n = 30), and Chicago (n = 40) were randomly recruited from small-sized firms and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guideline. The interview considered the following aspects: backgrounds of employers, their business and employees, hiring process and considerations, and hiring concerns towards people with substance abuse. Data were analysed using frequency count approach. Employers' concerns on hiring individuals with substance abuse in Beijing and Hong Kong focused more on communication abilities. In contrast, employers in Chicago focused more on job performance and productivity.

“[It's] what you do after the mistake that counts”: Positive employment credentials, criminal record stigma, and potential pathways of mediation

“…This limitation is mitigated by the open‐ended question that enabled respondents to elaborate on their decision explanations, including descriptions of these (and related) concepts in their own words. In addition, even though the main effects from our mediation results hold for our employer sample, the results from this study may not generalize to all types of employers, job contexts, or variations in work cultures (Jin et al., 2010), and different conviction record types could alter the public's perceptions (e.g., Denver, Pickett, et al., 2017; Pager, 2007). Another limitation is that our open‐ended response option was specific to the most influential factor in the decision process and limited in what we could capture.…”