Title
Contents
Acknowledgements 10
The Authors 11
Summary 12
1. Introduction 18
1.1 Background 18
1.2 Aim and objectives 18
1.3 Ethnic minority groups and the labour market 19
1.4 Disadvantage and unwitting discrimination 19
1.5 Discourse and sociolinguistic studies 20
1.6 'Linguistic capital' and the 'linguistic penalty' 21
1.7 Outline of the report 22
2. Methodology 23
2.1 Introduction 23
2.2 Methodology 23
2.3 Design and data collection 24
2.3.1 Promotion/management interviews 25
2.3.2 Case studies 25
2.3.3 DVD trialling sessions 26
2.3.4 Quantitative data 27
2.4 Analysis 28
2.5 Profile of companies 28
2.5.1 Factory Foods 28
2.5.2 Services Ltd 28
2.5.3 Supermarket X 29
2.6 Selection interviews in the three sites 29
2.6.1 The interview element in the selection process 29
2.6.2 Comparison with the earlier study 29
2.7 A note on ethnicity, culture and language 30
2.8 A reflexive note on ethnic positionings and the research process 30
3. Organisational practices and workplace discourses affecting promotion opportunities 32
3.1 Introduction 32
3.2 Access to informal networks 32
3.2.1 Relationship to managers: 'the tap on the shoulder' 33
3.2.2 Informal mentoring 33
3.3 Informal systems 34
3.4 'Standing out' 35
3.5 Organisational changes and structures 36
3.5.1 Organisational changes 37
3.5.2 Changing role of Human Resources departments 37
3.6 Operational changes 38
3.6.1 Technical changes 38
3.6.2 Impact of operational changes on levels of communication required 38
3.7 Age structuring 39
3.8 The discourses of community as a barrier to promotion 39
3.9 Cultural differences and stereotyping 41
3.10 Language and cultural practices 43
3.11 Other barriers to promotion: location and place perception 44
3.12 Workers' accounts of discrimination 45
3.13 Managers' accounts of racism 46
3.14 Perceptions of the formal procedures to tackle discrimination 47
3.14.1 Management perceptions 48
3.14.2 Formal procedures and the selection interview 48
3.14.3 The task of implementing formal policies 49
3.15 Identified good practice 49
3.16 Conclusions 50
4. The selection interview: outcomes, decision making criteria and judgements 52
4.1 Introduction 52
4.2 The candidates: ethnicity and success rates 52
4.3 Competency frameworks, judgements of personality and claimed objectivity 53
4.4 Themes covered in interviewers' questions 55
4.5 Interviewers' and middle and senior managers' criteria 56
4.5.1 Criteria based on the four themes 56
4.5.2 Criteria outside those used in main questions 56
4.5.3 Meta criteria 58
4.6 Contradictions in the selection interview 59
4.7 Perceptions of the interview process 60
4.7.1 Interviewers' perceptions 60
4.7.2 Candidates' perceptions 61
4.8 Conclusions 61
5. Candidates' contributions - 1: talking about work experience 63
5.1 Introduction 63
5.2 Alignment to different discourses 65
5.2.1 Candidate discourses 65
5.2.2 Three types of discourses 65
5.3 The management 'persona' and linguistic capital 66
5.4 Alignment to occupational/professional discourses 66
5.5 Managing the manager identity 67
5.5.1 Acknowledging weaknesses and difficulties 67
5.5.2 Being firm and decisive 71
5.5.3 Taking responsibility 73
5.6 Structure and vividness of accounts 74
5.7 Reporting own and others' talk 78
5.8 Conclusion 80
6. Candidates' contributions - 2: personal and organisational discourses 81
6.1 Introduction 81
6.2 Aligning to personal discourses 81
6.2.1 The analytic, self-reflective, self-aware self 82
6.2.2 The self that is 'given off' in the social relations of the interview 84
6.2.3 The domestic self 87
6.3 Aligning to organisational discourses 88
6.3.1 Analytic stance and euphemisation 89
6.3.2 Organisational discourses and affiliation 92
6.4 Blending of personal, occupational and organisational discourses 92
6.5 Conclusion 95
7. Interviewer-candidate interaction 96
7.1 Introduction 96
7.2 Joint production in the semi-structured job interview 96
7.2.1 Joint productions 96
7.2.2 Semi-structured job interviews 97
7.3 Positive and negative dynamics, misalignments and misunderstandings 98
7.3.1 Positive and negative dynamics 98
7.3.2 Misalignment 98
7.3.3 Discourse misalignments 99
7.3.4 Misunderstandings as opposed to misalignments 100
7.3.5 Contrastive case studies 100
7.4 Follow-on questions, cues and prompts 101
7.4.1 Follow-ons 101
7.4.2 Cues and prompts 102
7.4.3 Cues for more personal discourses 104
7.5 Embedded questions and more shared context 104
7.6 Co-authoring 106
7.7 Topic choice - opening up and negotiating questions/topics 108
7.8 Praise 109
7.8.1 The negative dynamic 109
7.9 Reformulations 109
7.9.1 Persistent reformulations around a theme 110
7.9.2 Role-play as reformulation 112
7.9.3 Misunderstandings and reformulations 114
7.10 Unembedded questions 115
7.11 Translating 115
7.12 Topic-control and closing down 116
7.13 Critical comments and questions 118
7. 14 Managing writing 120
7.14.1 The purpose of writing 120
7.14.2 The note-taking process 120
7.14.3 Writing and the positive and negative dynamic 121
7.15 Conclusion 122
8. Issues of language and diversity 123
8.1 Introduction 123
8.2 Communicative style 123
8.3 Directness and indirectness 124
8.3.1 Managing people 124
8.3.2 Individual motivation 126
8.4 Rhetorical strategies 127
8.5 Footing 130
8.5.1 Formality or solidarity 130
8.5.2 Positioning the self 130
8.6 Lack of shared assumptions about the promotion interview 131
8.7 Foreign work experience 132
8.7.1 Comparison between low-paid and promotion interviews 132
8.7.2 Structure and question type limit opportunities 132
8.7.3 Dismissal of FWE 134
8.7.4 Interviewer's negative assessment of FWE 135
8.8 The 'immigrant story' 136
8.8.1 'No problems here' 136
8.8.2 Making ethnicity explicit 137
8.9 Conclusion 137
9. Conclusions and recommendations 138
9.1 Conclusions 138
9.1.1 Key themes 138
9.1.2 Organisational practices and workplace discourses 139
9.1.3 The selection interview experience 142
9.1.4 Candidate contributions: professional/occupational discourse 143
9.1.5 Blending occupational, personal and organisational discourses 145
9.1.6 Interviewer-candidate interaction 146
9.1.7 Issues of language and diversity 147
9.2 Recommendations 149
9.2.1 Recommendations on organisational practices 149
9.2.2 Policy recommendations on the management selection/ promotion interview 150
9.2.3 Specific recommendations related to ethnic minority candidates born abroad 151
Appendix: Transcription conventions 152
References 154
Table 2.1 Details of the 62 informants 26
Table 4.1 Success at interview by ethnicity 53
Table 7.1 Interviewer question types and follow-ups 98
Table 7.2 Case study pairs 100
Table 7.3 Follow-ons compared to reformulations 101
Table 7.4 Prompts and cues 103
Table 7.5 Embedded and unembedded questions 105
Table 7.6 Co-authoring versus translation 107
Table 7.7 Negotiation of questions/topics 108
Table 7.8 Closed questions 116
Table 7.9 How note taking contributes to a more positive or negative dynamic 121
Figure 2.1 Different levels of data collection and analysis 27