Ethnic gatekeeping on the shopfloor: a study of bases, motives and approaches

Abstract

Recent contributions on the discrimination of black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in organizations have suggested that overt forms of discrimination are now 'old-fashioned' and researchers are urged to focus on identifying different, 'modern' forms of discrimination. These are, however, set against studies that continue to report evidence of overt racism in organizations. This article argues that it may be premature and potentially counterproductive to celebrate the demise of overt discrimination in that such binary classification ('old-fashioned' and 'modern') may discourage efforts to investigate the full gamut of experiences of BME groups. The article contends that additional insights will be gained by concurrently studying not only the victims and the perpetrators of discrimination but also the organizational context in which discrimination occurs. Through the theoretical lens of gatekeeping, the article presents evidence of shopfloor discrimination against BME groups that is neither fully overt nor entirely covert.

The uneasy alliance of organisational culture and equal opportunities for ethnic minority groups: A British example

“…These approaches also suggest that the leadership search in many organisations is likely to favour those that share a common heritage (see Bourdieu, 1984;Welsch, 1999), as this may be viewed as the best way to encourage cultural continuity. This may help to explain why individuals with no history of cultural heritage are either not routinely made leaders or have more difficulty in gaining acceptance as leaders (see also Harris & Ogbonna, 2016;Park & Westphal, 2013;Wyatt & Silvester, 2015).…”

“…Arguably, social media adds a further complicating dynamic on social networking in relation to recruitment and selection in that the large amount of information (especially demographic information) available increases visibility in a manner that may give rise to othering and trigger implicit biases and discrimination (see Blount, Wright, Ashley, & Biss, ). These suggest that with their limited networks, EM groups are likely to be disadvantaged in any organisation that relies on informal recruitment methods (see Harris & Ogbonna, ) and are likely to experience additional disadvantage in strong‐culture organisations, which, by definition, recruit on the subjective and non‐transparent basis of the likelihood that the values of potential recruits will match those of the existing members of the organisation rather than on ability alone (see Chatman & Cha, ; Hawkins, ).…”

“…Research contributions have varied and have emerged from different countries, for example, Belgium (e.g., Derous, Pepermans, & Ryan, 2017), the United States (e.g., Pager, Western, & Bonikowski, 2009), Canada (e.g., Banerjee, 2008), and Australia (e.g., Mapedzahama, Rudge, West, & Perron, 2012). Studies from Britain point to the prevalence of overt and covert discrimination that continue to blight the labour market access and in-work careers of EM groups in general (e.g., Harris & Ogbonna, 2016), with the experiences of disadvantage by specific groups such as EM youths (see House of Commons, 2015) and EM women (see Kamenou & Fearfull, 2006) being highlighted as especially profound. The eclectic nature of these contributions suggests that the dynamics of discrimination differ and reflect the idiosyncrasies of particular contexts (see also Shen, Chanda, D'Netto, & Monga, 2009).…”

“…Although it can be argued that any discrimination that arises from interventions such as culture management is likely to impact on all disadvantaged groups in organisations, the labour market disadvantage of EM groups was chosen as the focus of this article for two reasons. The first is that the persistence of labour market racial inequality has encouraged researchers to call for new insights and approaches in understanding the sources of disadvantage and identifying appropriate measures to counter them (e.g., Harris & Ogbonna, ; Noon, ). The second and related reason is the need to elevate issues of race to generate similar interest and attention as other bases of discrimination such as gender.…”

The Value of Self-Employment to Ethnic Minorities

“…While setting up a business might be inherently attractive, for most people selfemployment is a risky enterprise (Borjas 1986;Vereshchagina and Hopenhayn 2009) with well-known problems of sustainability (Barrett et al 2002;Blackburn and Smallbone 2007). Ethnic minorities face a different order of risk, firstly in employment in the face of potential discrimination (Wood et al 2009;Andriessen et al 2012;Harris and Ogbonna 2016;Khattab 2012;Kirton 2009). Research also finds a substantial wage gap in employment relative to the majority group even taking background factors into account (Brynin and Güveli 2012;Longhi and Brynin, 2017;Heath and Cheung 2006).…”