Illusions of Opportunity: Employee Expectations and Workplace Inequality

In this article, we develop a process model that specifies how managers come to understand and approach the evaluation of merit in the workplace. Interviews from a diverse sample of managers and from managers at a U.S. technology company, along with supplemental qualitative online review data, reveal that managers are not blank slates: we find that individuals’ understandings of merit are shaped by their (positive and negative) experiences of being evaluated as employees prior to promotion to management. Our analysis also identifies two distinct managerial approaches to applying merit when evaluating others: the focused approach, in which managers evaluate employees’ work actions quantitatively at the individual level; and the diffuse approach in which managers assess both employees’ work actions and personal qualities, quantitatively and qualitatively, at both the individual and team levels. We further find that, as a result of their different past experiences as subjects of evaluation, individuals who experience mostly negative evaluation outcomes as employees are more likely to adopt a focused approach to evaluating merit, whereas individuals who experience mostly positive evaluation outcomes are more likely to adopt a diffuse approach. Our study contributes to the scholarship on meritocracy and workplace inequality by showing that merit is not an abstract concept but a guiding principle that is produced and reproduced over time based on individuals’ evaluation experiences in the workplace.

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Rural Reform and the Gender Gap in Post-Soviet Russia

Slavic Review ◽

10.1017/s0037677900016703 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 69 (1) ◽

pp. 65-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Stephen K. Wegren ◽

Valery V. Patsiorkovsky ◽

David J. O'Brien

Keyword(s):

Gender Gap ◽

Soviet Period ◽

Private Business ◽

Specialized Knowledge ◽

Equal Pay ◽

Skill Sets ◽

Rural Reform ◽

Equal Work ◽

Workplace Inequality ◽

Soviet Russia

Using survey data from 900 rural households, this article assesses the degree to which Soviet-era workplace inequality between rural males and females has been remediated by the introduction of democratic and market reforms. The overall effects of reform institutions are mixed. Concerning male-female workplace inequality, three continuities were found with the Soviet period. First, rural males have larger total incomes than do rural females. Second, equal pay for equal work does not exist: females holding similar positions to males earned less in all categories of employment. In addition, males continue to dominate numerically the ranks of farm managers and leaders. Third, managers and leaders of both sexes are the most entrepreneurial, measured by income from private business. Male managers, however, have over three times the income from private business as do female managers. Concerning intragender inequality, it was found that females with advanced education and specialized knowledge or skills have significantly higher incomes than women with lower skill sets.

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Unpacking Workplace Inequality

Critical Management Studies - Making Critical Sense of Immigrant Experience ◽

10.1108/s2059-65612017024 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 119-127

Keyword(s):

Workplace Inequality

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“We Will Handle It Ourselves”: The Micropolitics of Resistance in Low-Wage Care Work

Sociological Perspectives ◽

10.1177/0731121418796220 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 42-58

Author(s):

Jillian Crocker

Keyword(s):

Work Experience ◽

Nursing Assistants ◽

Care Work ◽

Group Norms ◽

Certified Nursing Assistants ◽

Daily Work ◽

Care Workers ◽

Two Factors ◽

Workplace Inequality ◽

Rule Breaking

This article examines the micropolitics of resistance among low-wage care workers in a gendered organization. Focusing on the dynamics of workers’ daily efforts to endure organizational structure, I illustrate not only the ways in which certified nursing assistants (CNAs) perform routine resistance but also the significance of gendered group norms for rule-breaking. Drawing on 10 months of observations and 30 interviews in a nursing home, findings illustrate two factors fundamentally linked to the gendered character of the work as particularly salient for peer support of others’ rule-breaking: perceptions of resident safety and the expectation of coworker reciprocity. The article considers both the implications of these practices for daily work experience and the extent to which our understanding of routine resistance is complicated by the possibility that the same features of work that form the backbone of workplace inequality are those that shape resistance and worker solidarity.

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Designing more effective practices for reducing workplace inequality

Behavioral Science & Policy ◽

10.1353/bsp.2020.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 39-49

Author(s):

Quinetta Roberson ◽

Eden King ◽

Mikki Hebl

Keyword(s):

Effective Practices ◽

Workplace Inequality

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Language Attitudes Studies Between the Past and the Present: The Current State of Research in the Arab World and Within the Saudi Context

International Journal of English Linguistics ◽

10.5539/ijel.v11n5p19 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 19

Author(s):

Abdullah Abdulrahman Bin Towairesh

Keyword(s):

Linguistic Diversity ◽

Language Attitudes ◽

Arab World ◽

Current Status ◽

Guest Workers ◽

Current State ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

French And English ◽

Workplace Inequality ◽

State Of Research

Language attitudes studies are integral to our understanding of language-society dynamics, specifically in regions where linguistic diversity can create issues connected to social structure and social cohesion. The field of language attitudes studies heavily impacts research in areas such as language planning and policy, education and workplace inequality, and cultural discrimination. Thus, it is important to have a work that presents an overview of the most important notions and concepts in this field, with a specific focus on topics such as defining language attitudes, the components of an attitude, and the different methods of measuring it. This paper aims at providing this overview in addition to assessing the current status of language attitudes studies in the Arab world and outlining the challenges and opportunities for researchers in this field. One of the significant characteristics of language attitudes research in this region is the lack of studies that focus on the inequality dimension. Many studies in this region have opted to investigate the Standard-Spoken dichotomy and the attitudes of speakers toward foreign languages such as French and English. Researching issues such as the attitudes toward other Arabic varieties and toward migrant guest workers’ use of pidgins remains limited in the Arab context. Factors such as cultural rivalry and national pride may represent some of the obstacles in the path of conducting broader studies in the field of language attitudes in this region.

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