Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 405-423 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Journal of Vocational Education and Training |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Jul 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
Children of immigrants from non-EU countries face particular problems to access apprenticeship training in German-speaking countries. In this context this article asks how recruiters in small and medium sized companies (SME) make sense of national and ethnic origin when hiring new apprentices. The author proposes Boltanski and Thévenot’s theory of justification in order to conceptualise ethnic discrimination in hiring. Accordingly, the social body of a company consists of multiple interweaved (industrial, domestic, market) ‘worlds’ of social coordination and justification. In order to avoid organisational trouble and to guarantee the further existence of the company, these worlds claim different principle of personnel assessment, some of them penalising applicants of specific ethnic origin. Empirically, the article refers to apprentice recruitment in Switzerland and Germany. It illustrates that employers in SME expect trouble in the domestic and in the market world of the company when hiring school leavers they perceive as foreigners. Hence, discriminatory categories such as ethnicity are used as symbolic and organisational resources for trouble avoidance in hiring apprentices.
Keywords
- assessment, human resources, organisations, race/ethnicity, Vocational education & training
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Education
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Journal of Vocational Education and Training, Vol. 69, No. 3, 03.07.2017, p. 405-423.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding discrimination in hiring apprentices
T2 - how training companies use ethnicity to avoid organisational trouble
AU - Imdorf, Christian
PY - 2017/7/3
Y1 - 2017/7/3
N2 - Children of immigrants from non-EU countries face particular problems to access apprenticeship training in German-speaking countries. In this context this article asks how recruiters in small and medium sized companies (SME) make sense of national and ethnic origin when hiring new apprentices. The author proposes Boltanski and Thévenot’s theory of justification in order to conceptualise ethnic discrimination in hiring. Accordingly, the social body of a company consists of multiple interweaved (industrial, domestic, market) ‘worlds’ of social coordination and justification. In order to avoid organisational trouble and to guarantee the further existence of the company, these worlds claim different principle of personnel assessment, some of them penalising applicants of specific ethnic origin. Empirically, the article refers to apprentice recruitment in Switzerland and Germany. It illustrates that employers in SME expect trouble in the domestic and in the market world of the company when hiring school leavers they perceive as foreigners. Hence, discriminatory categories such as ethnicity are used as symbolic and organisational resources for trouble avoidance in hiring apprentices.
AB - Children of immigrants from non-EU countries face particular problems to access apprenticeship training in German-speaking countries. In this context this article asks how recruiters in small and medium sized companies (SME) make sense of national and ethnic origin when hiring new apprentices. The author proposes Boltanski and Thévenot’s theory of justification in order to conceptualise ethnic discrimination in hiring. Accordingly, the social body of a company consists of multiple interweaved (industrial, domestic, market) ‘worlds’ of social coordination and justification. In order to avoid organisational trouble and to guarantee the further existence of the company, these worlds claim different principle of personnel assessment, some of them penalising applicants of specific ethnic origin. Empirically, the article refers to apprentice recruitment in Switzerland and Germany. It illustrates that employers in SME expect trouble in the domestic and in the market world of the company when hiring school leavers they perceive as foreigners. Hence, discriminatory categories such as ethnicity are used as symbolic and organisational resources for trouble avoidance in hiring apprentices.
KW - assessment
KW - human resources
KW - organisations
KW - race/ethnicity
KW - Vocational education & training
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020196822&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13636820.2016.1278397
DO - 10.1080/13636820.2016.1278397
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85020196822
VL - 69
SP - 405
EP - 423
JO - Journal of Vocational Education and Training
JF - Journal of Vocational Education and Training
SN - 1363-6820
IS - 3
ER -