The effect of foreign accent on employability : a study of the aural dimensions of aesthetic labour in customer-facing and non-customer-facing jobs

Using quantitative methods, this article examines the effect of foreign accents on job applicants’ employability ratings in the context of a simulated employment interview experiment conducted in the USA. It builds upon the literature on aesthetic labour, which focuses largely on the role of physical appearance in employment relations, by shifting attention to its under-investigated auditory and aural dimensions. The results suggest that the managerial respondents actively discriminate in telephone-based job interviews against applicants speaking Chinese-, Mexican- and Indian-accented English, and all three are rated higher in non-customer-facing jobs than in customer-facing jobs. Job applicants who speak British-accented English, especially men, fare as well as, and at times better than, native candidates who speak American English. The article makes a contribution to the sociological literatures surrounding aesthetic labour and discrimination and prejudice against migrant workers.PostprintPeer reviewe

Body art as branded labour : at the intersection of employee selection and relationship marketing

Using mixed methods, this paper examines the role of body art as a form of branded labour in customer-facing jobs. It brings together employee selection and relationship marketing into one framework, and uniquely conceptualizes body art as an asset in the labour market, rather than the traditional liability. In Study 1, 192 respondents with management experience participated in an online laboratory experiment in which they were asked to rate photographs of tattooed and non-tattooed job applicants in two hypothetical organizations: a fine dining restaurant and a popular nightclub. In Study 2, 20 in-depth, qualitative interviews were carried out with managers, tattooed front-line employees and potential consumers in two real-world service sector firms. The results show how body art can be strategically used to positively convey the brand of organizations, primarily those targeting a younger, ‘edgier’ demographic of customer.PostprintPeer reviewe

An experimental study of the effects of tattoo genre on perceived trustworthiness : not all tattoos are created equal

This paper examines the effects of different genres of body art on the perceived trustworthiness of hypothetical men and women with tattoos. It argues that body art is a salient cultural signal that denotes group membership and can also lead to the perception of a potential threat of harm on the part of the truster. The research finds that tattoos depicting images of violence and nudity result in the lowest levels of perceived trustworthiness; tattoos depicting images of Christianity and natural floral settings result in the highest levels of perceived trustworthiness; and the tribal tattoo genre occupies a neutral position on the trustworthiness spectrum. Whether the truster has a tattoo and shares the Christian faith with the trustee are also significant factors, as is the gender of the tattooed trustee. This paper is the first study ever to examine the effects of different genres of tattoos, thus going beyond previous research that overwhelmingly measures body art as a simple binary variable (e.g., whether or not the respondent has a tattoo).PostprintPeer reviewe

Dissonant cognitions in European works councils: A 'comparative ethnomethodological' approach

Drawing from case study research conducted at a UK-based European works council, this article explores the dynamics of cross-national labour relations using a theoretical framework that the author calls ‘comparative ethnomethodology’. The merging of qualitatively distinct national industrial relations systems into one geographical space is identified as a key social psychological obstacle to labour internationalism. When brought together in a transnational context, workers’ representatives frequently suffer from ‘dissonant cognitions’ in consequence of the absence of commonly constituted ‘background assumptions’. This dynamic is exemplified by the interpersonal relations between the British and Dutch delegations in the case study European works council.The study has implications with respect to the debates on the problems, prospects and possibilities of labour internationalism