Credential Privilege or Cumulative Advantage? Prestige, Productivity, and Placement in the Academic Sociology Job Market

Academic Hiring Networks and Institutional Prestige: A Case Study of Canadian Sociology

“…Among these are the qualities of the individuals seeking jobs. For instance, a candidate's scholarly productivity (i.e., publication record, citations, and awards) is strongly associated with an increased likelihood of getting a tenure-stream job, as research output in graduate school is perceived to predict future research potential (Buchmueller, Dominitz, and Hansen 1999;Headworth and Freese 2016). Specifically, first-authored articles in flagship journals have the largest positive effect on hiring outcomes (Headworth and Freese 2016).…”

“…For instance, a candidate's scholarly productivity (i.e., publication record, citations, and awards) is strongly associated with an increased likelihood of getting a tenure-stream job, as research output in graduate school is perceived to predict future research potential (Buchmueller, Dominitz, and Hansen 1999;Headworth and Freese 2016). Specifically, first-authored articles in flagship journals have the largest positive effect on hiring outcomes (Headworth and Freese 2016). Expectations for publishing have only increased over time with new hires at top departments in the United States having about twice as many publications as those who secured assistant professor jobs in the 1990s (Warren 2019).…”

“…One of the most researched factors in academic hiring is related to institutional or departmental prestige; however, these studies have almost exclusively focused on the American context. The common conclusion in the literature is that a "prestige principle" plays a prominent role in the stratification of the higher education system; that is, the prestige of one's graduating institution is a significant determinant of the prestige of one's employing institution (Baldi 1995;Burris 2004;Han 2003:251;Headworth and Freese 2016). Status-based inequalities in academia are reproduced through hiring practices that often reward institutional prestige above other indicators of merit related to human and social capital (Baldi 1995).…”

“…The argument here is that prestigious institutions offer enhanced graduate training and, on average, cultivate stronger abilities among their doctorates, such that meritocratic competition explains PhD placement rates. In this manner, prestige can be used as a signal of a candidate's qualifications by serving as a holistic indicator of skills that predict future success (Headworth and Freese 2016;Podolny 2005). Furthermore, due to oversaturation in the job market, there is greater uncertainty regarding potential candidates, which increases pressure for departments to have successful hiring outcomes; thus, prestige is often used to access an applicant pool that is perceived to be of high quality (Podolny 2005;Rivera 2017).…”

“…Institutional prestige provides an assumed marker of research skills due to "the dearth of reliable evidence of scholarly potential at [an] early stage of the career" (Burris 2004:250). In this sense, high prestige neatly summarizes qualifications and signals a "brand" tied to perceptions of quality and merit (Headworth andFreese 2016:1259;Podolny 2005). Accordingly, hiring committees commonly rely on the prestige of educational credentials and advisors for determining the long lists of candidates for academic jobs (Rivera 2017).…”