Recruitment and Selection Devices in Financial Services Companies: Exploring the case of Chilean Banking

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of the role of ‘social’ devices at the time of producing and reproducing organizational behavior, taking the case of recruitment and selection processes in financial services organizations in Chile and the UK. Based on 42 in-depth interviews in Santiago, London and Edinburgh, and building on science and technology studies and the concept of device the article aims to understand how recruitment and election mechanisms are adopted and legitimated in organizations. Analysis suggests that recruitment and selection mechanisms connect technical and moral elements, allowing managers to deal with uncertainty and carry out organizational reproduction. However, devices in Chile and the UK differ in the modes that connect technical and moral elements.