The effects of foreign accents on employment-related decisions

摘要

Purpose - Although statistical evidence clearly demonstrates discrimination againstrnforeign-accented individuals in the workplace, surprisingly little research attention has been paid tornhow such individuals are evaluated when they apply for jobs. Thus, the aim of this paper is to examinernthe effects of applicant accent on access-related employment decisions across four jobs that differed onrnjob status and communication demands.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The study used a 3 (applicant accent: Standard AmericanrnEnglish, French, and Japanese) × 2 (job status: low vs high) × 2 (communication demands: low vsrnhigh) mixed-factorial design, and data from 286 college students at two different locations.rnFindings - Results show that in comparison with French-accented applicants, Japanese-accentedrnapplicants fared worse on employment-related decisions, especially for jobs that had highrncommunication demands, even after controlling for applicant understandability and location.rnFrench-accented applicants were viewed as favorably as, or more favorably than, Standard AmericanrnEnglish-accented applicants.rnResearch limitations/implications - Applicant accent was confounded with applicant names.rnThus, it is not known whether the obtained results are due to applicant accent, names, or both.rnPractical implications - It was found that organizations could do one of the following: usernstructured interviews; train interviewers on potential biases against foreign-accented applicants; andrnprovide more individuating information to reduce the effects of accent-based stereotypes onrnemployment-related decisions.rnOriginality/value - The paper considers the communication demands of jobs and job status asrninfluences on the evaluation of foreign-accented applicants.