Missing Links: Referrer Behavior and Job Segregation

The importance of networks in labor markets is well-known, and their job segregating effects in organizations taken as granted. Conventional wisdom attributes this segregation to the homophilous nature of contact networks, and leaves little role for organizational influences. But employee referrals are necessarily initiated within a firm by employee referrers subject to organizational policies. We build theory regarding the role of referrers in the segregating effects of network recruitment. Using mathematical and computational models, we investigate how empirically-documented referrer behaviors affect job segregation. We show that referrer behaviors can segregate jobs beyond the effects of homophilous network recruitment. Further, and contrary to past understandings, we show that referrer behaviors can also mitigate most if not all of the segregating effects of network recruitment. Although largely neglected in previous labor market network scholarship, referrers are the missing links revealing opportunities for organizations to influence the effects of network recruitment

Bias in White: A Longitudinal Natural Experiment Measuring Changes in Discrimination

Many professions are plagued by disparities in service delivery. Racial disparities in policing, mortgage lending, and healthcare are some notable examples. Because disparities can result from a myriad of mechanisms, crafting effective disparity mitigation policies requires knowing which mechanisms are active and which are not. In this study we can distinguish whether one mechanism—statistical discrimination—is a primary explanation for racial disparities in physicians’ treatment of patients. In a longitudinal natural experiment using repeated quasi-audit studies of medical students, we test for within-cohort changes in disparities from medical student behaviors as they interact with white and black patient actors. We find significant increases in medical students’ disparate behaviors by patient race between their first and second years of medical school. This finding is inconsistent with statistical discrimination predictions and challenges the idea that statistical discrimination is primarily responsible for racial disparities in patient care

Tipping Points: The Gender Segregating and Desegregating Effects of Network Recruitment

Current scholarship commonly posits that network recruitment contributes to job sex segregation and that the segregated nature of personal contact networks explains this effect. A variety of empirical findings inconsistent with this explanation demonstrate its inadequacy. Building on Kanter’s observation that recruitment processes often resemble “homosocial reproduction” [Kanter RM (1977) Men and Women of the Corporation (Basic Books, New York)], we develop a population dynamics model of network recruitment. The resulting formal model builds a parsimonious theory regarding the segregating effects of network recruitment, resolving the puzzles and inconsistencies revealed by recent empirical findings. This revised theory also challenges conventional understandings of how network recruitment segregates: in isolation, network recruitment—even with segregated networks—is more likely to desegregate rather than segregate. Network recruitment segregates primarily through its interactions with other supply-side (e.g., gendered self-sorting) or demand-side (e.g., gendered referring rates) biasing mechanisms. Our model reveals whether and to what extent network recruitment segregates or desegregates, and it reveals opportunities for organizational intervention. There is an easily calculable tipping point where demand-side factors such as gender differences in referring can counteract and neutralize other segregating effects from referring. Independent of other personnel practices, organizational policies affecting employees’ referring behaviors can tip the balance to determine whether network recruitment serves as a segregating or desegregating force. We ground our model empirically using three organizational cases

Gendering professions : an analysis of peer effects

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-196).Professional identity is important both to professionals and to the professions of which they are members. In addition to being crucial for professional success at an individual level, and for the maintenance of professional boundaries and autonomy at the collective level, professional identity is an important contributor to the career decisions of professionals including persistence in the profession and specialization choices. When professional identities within a profession differ systematically by sex, these identity-dependent decisions contribute to the sex-segregation of professions or their specialties. Research often implicates professional identity as contributing to the segregation and related gender inequalities documented in numerous professions. Efforts to address these gender inequalities must be informed by the gender dynamics of professional identity formation processes. Despite copious theory, the literature on professional identity formation suffers from being under-tested. In decades of research, there has been little conclusive evidence as to which socialization mechanisms contribute to professional identity formation or how these mechanisms may be gendered. This dissertation provides conclusive evidence for peer influence and gendered peer influence on professional identity formation in engineering. After surveying the literature on identity formation theories, my first study investigates a host of professional identity indicators to establish which aspects of professional identity are associated with gendered persistence in the engineering profession. I identify a role-specific efficacy-related measure as a potential source of gendered persistence in the profession.(cont.) My second study conducts a causal test of peer influence on the development of the efficacy-related measure identified in the previous study. Using the quasi-experiment of roommate assignment, I address the methodological and analytical hurdles that have stymied previous research in this area. I find evidence that men are influenced by their male peers, and find no such influence among women. This result is replicated in a similarly-structured third study from a different professional setting. I conclude that men's informal professional socialization via peers serves a resource for professional identity formation that is not available to women. These studies provide the first conclusive evidence for the role of peers in professional identity formation, and how this peer influence mechanism is gendered.by Brian A. Rubineau.Ph.D

The Coevolution of Networks and Political Attitudes

How do attitudes and social affiliations co-evolve? A long stream of research has focused on the relationship between attitudes and social affiliations. However, in most of this research the causal relationship between views and affiliations is difficult to discern definitively: Do people influence each other’s views so that they converge over time or do they primarily affiliate (by choice or happenstance) with those of similar views? Here we use longitudinal attitudinal and whole network data collected at critical times (notably, at the inception of the system) to identify robustly the determinants of attitudes and affiliations. We find significant conformity tendencies: individuals shift their political views toward the political views of their associates. This conformity is driven by social ties rather than task ties. We also find that, while individuals tend to associate with similar others, political views are notably less a basis for associational choices than demographic and institutional factors

Missing Links: Referrer Behavior and Job Segregation

How does referral recruitment contribute to job segregation, and what can organizations do about it? Current theory on network effects in the labor market emphasizes the job-seeker perspective, focusing on the segregated nature of job-seekers’ information and contact networks, and leaves little role for organizational influence. But employee referrals are necessarily initiated from within a firm by referrers. We argue that referrer behavior is the missing link that can help organizations manage the segregating effects of referring. Adopting the referrer’s perspective of the process, we develop a computational model which integrates a set of empirically documented referrer behavior mechanisms gleaned from extant organizational case studies. Using this model, we compare the segregating effects of referring when these behaviors are inactive to the effects when the behaviors are active. We show that referrer behaviors substantially boost the segregating effects of referring. This impact of referrer behavior presents an opportunity for organizations. Contrary to popular wisdom, we show that organizational policies designed to influence referrer behaviors can mitigate most if not all of the segregating effects of referring

Tipping Points: Referral Homophily and Job Segregation

How does referral recruitment contribute to job segregation? Current theory emphasizes the segregated nature of job-seekers’ information and contact networks. The job-seeker perspective characterizing most research on network effects in the labor market leaves little role for organizational influence. But referrals are necessarily initiated within a firm by referrers. This paper focuses on the neglected half of the referring dyad and seeks to explain the segregating effects of referring from the referrer’s perspective. Our main finding is that if a firm can get its under-represented group to refer more, referral recruitment can be made neutral to job segregation, or even integrative. Our analysis reveals a tipping point in referring dynamics – precisely how much more the under-represented group needs to refer to neutralize the segregating effects of referring. We build upon previous research to generate a formal model of referring dynamics as a regular Markov population process. We use this model to build theory regarding the segregating effects of referring, and the role of organizations in this process. In so doing, we show the prevailing wisdom fails to explain how referring contributes to job segregation. We reveal the conditions necessary for referring to segregate and identify policy levers for firms to mitigate this effect

Missing Links: Referrer Behavior and Job Segregation (Appendix)

Rubineau1_Appendix.pdf: 122 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Network Recruitment and the Glass Ceiling: Evidence from Two Firms

Does network recruitment contribute to the glass ceiling? We use administrative data from two companies to answer the question. In the presence of gender homophily, recruitment through employee referrals can disadvantage women when an old boys’ network is in place. We calculate the segregating effects of network recruitment across multiple job levels in the two firms. If network recruitment is a factor, the segregating impact should disadvantage women more at higher levels. We find this pattern, but also find that network recruitment is a desegregating force overall. It promotes women’s representation strongly at all levels, but less so at higher levels. This article shows how administrative data can be used to tackle the complex problem of gender inequality in organizations to counter the glass ceiling