{"id":3512,"date":"2025-04-01T13:49:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T13:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3512"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:11:36","slug":"the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Recruitment Bias that Undermines Meritocracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

While many leaders of elite organizations pride themselves on their belief in class-blind meritocracy, many biases favor candidates from wealthy, upper-class backgrounds, undermines efforts to hire, retain, and promote the best and brightest professionals, regardless of how much privilege they come from.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to Academy of Management Scholar Sean Martin of the University of Virginia<\/a>, who said that several notable research studies have shown that recruitment practices in elite firms prioritize applicants from wealthy families and that an applicants\u2019 social-class background plays an important role in determining interview invitations.<\/p>\n

While an ideal of capitalism is meritocracy (that individual effort and ability\u2014not family lineage\u2014is what matters most), research has found that hiring managers at high-paying organizations routinely discriminate based on candidates\u2019 social class, favoring male applicants from higher-class backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really great research by Lauren Rivera that showed that when people send out resumes that are largely the same but with just a couple of different cues here and there to indicate that one of these folks was from a higher-class background and one was from a lower-class background, the folks from a higher class background were more likely to be invited in for a job interview or to receive a response from these elite organizations, even though the lower-class candidates had achieved the same things and were just as qualified for the role,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat creates this issue of inequity, in that people who\u2019ve been on the up and up, who\u2019ve traveled more distance to get to the same place as people who might have always been in a more privileged position are still meeting this filter that weeds them out,\u201d he said. \u201cThat differential access to opportunity not only undercuts a lot of what national cultures espouse wanting to be, but also undercuts a lot of the values that leaders at the top of organizations claim to have of caring more about who can do the job well\u2014they say, \u2018We have a flat organization; we aren\u2019t built on hierarchy.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kinds of egalitarian ideals are often undercut by a biased recruitment trend, so, if you want people who are going to speak up and view things in a more communal, less narcissistic, self-oriented way, hire social climbers, as research shows that people who\u2019ve been upwardly mobile tend to be less entitled than people who’ve always been in a privileged position\u2014try to find out: what are some markers on people\u2019s resumes that give you that evidence of upward mobility?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher While many leaders of elite organizations pride themselves on their belief in class-blind meritocracy, many biases favor candidates from wealthy, upper-class backgrounds, undermines efforts to hire, retain, and promote the best and brightest professionals, regardless of how much privilege they come from. That\u2019s according to Academy of Management Scholar Sean Martin of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,44],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-motivation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Recruitment Bias that Undermines Meritocracy - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"The Recruitment Bias that Undermines Meritocracy\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-01T13:49:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:11:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":432,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CAREERS\",\"MOTIVATION\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-recruitment-bias-that-undermines-meritocracy\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Recruitment Bias that Undermines Meritocracy - 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You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes.webp",1080,720,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes.webp",1080,720,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes.webp",1080,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes-300x200.webp",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes-1024x683.webp",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes.webp",1080,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes.webp",1080,720,false],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes-600x400.webp",600,400,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes-350x450.webp",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/two-women-talking-one-takes-notes-100x100.webp",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":2,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/careers\/\" rel=\"category tag\">CAREERS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/motivation\/\" rel=\"category tag\">MOTIVATION<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher While many leaders of elite organizations pride themselves on their belief in class-blind meritocracy, many biases favor candidates from wealthy, upper-class backgrounds, undermines efforts to hire, retain, and promote the best and brightest professionals, regardless of how much privilege they come from. That\u2019s according to Academy of Management Scholar Sean Martin of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}