The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

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The Leadership Quarterly

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/leaqua

Full length article

Is there a glass ceiling for ethnic minorities to enter leadership positions?

Evidence from a field experiment with over 12,000 job applications
Mladen Adamovic a,⇑, Andreas Leibbrandt b
a
Department of Human Resource Management & Employment Relations, King’s Business School, King’s College London, 30 Aldwych, London WC2B 4BG, United Kingdom
b
Monash Business School, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: We conducted a field experiment to analyze if there is a glass ceiling for ethnic minorities entering leadership
Ethnic discrimination positions in organizations. We submitted over 12,000 job applications, to over 4,000 job advertisements, to
Hiring discrimination investigate hiring discrimination against six ethnic groups for leadership positions. Drawing on implicit lead-
Resume study ership theory, we argue that ethnic discrimination is particularly pronounced in the recruitment of leadership
Glass ceiling
positions. The results confirm this hypothesis. For leadership positions, applicants with English names received
Field experiment
Audit study
26.8% of positive responses for their job applications, while applicants with non‐English names received 11.3%
CV study of positive responses. This means ethnic minorities received 57.4% fewer positive responses than applicants
Correspondence testing with English names for leadership positions despite identical resumes. For non‐leadership positions, applicants
Recruitment with English names received 21.2% of positive responses for their job applications, while applicants with non‐
Labor market English names received 11.6% of positive responses. This means ethnic minorities received 45.3% fewer pos-
Implicit leadership theory itive responses for non‐leadership positions despite identical resumes. Ethnic discrimination for leadership
Leadership prototype positions was even more pronounced when the advertised job required customer contact. In contrast, hiring
Human resource management
discrimination for leadership positions was not significantly influenced by whether the job advertisement
emphasized individualism or learning, creativity, and innovation. Our findings provide novel evidence of a
glass ceiling for ethnic minorities to enter leadership positions.

Introduction of the present study, only 8.4% of workplace leaders are born in a non‐
English speaking country (Gahan et al., 2016), although 21.5% of Aus-
Ethnic minorities represent a high percentage of the workforce in tralia’s population was born in a non‐English speaking country (ABS,
industrialized countries but only a low percentage in leadership posi- 2018).
tions (Fitzsimmons & Callan, 2020; Flores & Matkin, 2014; Ospina & The causes for this ethnic imbalance in corporate leadership are
Foldy, 2009; Obenauer & Langer, 2019). This discrepancy is particu- unclear (Anderson et al., 2019). One explanation for the lack of ethnic
larly difficult to understand given that ethnic minorities are often born minority leaders is the existence of negative stereotypes and their lack
and educated, and have worked, in their country of residence. The of a social network and mentoring opportunities in their workplace
terms “glass ceiling”1 and “bamboo ceiling” are used in the U.S. to (Johnson et al., 2017; Kilian et al., 2005; Schoen & Rost, 2021;
describe the barriers that employees face in their career advancement Thomas, 1995). Another explanation is that ethnic minorities face dis-
due to their different name, physical appearance, and cultural values crimination when starting their professional careers. Indeed, there is
(Hyun, 2005; Lu et al., 2020). In the United States, only 16.1% of board evidence that they receive fewer job interview invitations for entry‐
seats in Fortune 500 companies are occupied by ethnic minorities level positions (Adamovic, 2022a; Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004;
(Deloitte, 2018), although 36.4% of employees in the United States Neumark, 2018; Quillian et al., 2019; Quillian, Pager, Hexel, &
are ethnic minorities (U.S. Department of Labor, 2019). This problem Midtbøen, 2017; Zschirnt & Ruedin, 2016; Gaddis, 2018). It is plausi-
also exists for many different ethnic minorities in many countries ble that such discrimination at entry‐level percolates through all ranks
(Bush, 2019; Gahan et al., 2016). For example, in Australia, the context and ultimately results in underrepresentation at the top. A complemen-

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Adamovic).
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, glass ceiling is defined as “an unofficial or unacknowledged barrier to personal advancement, especially of a woman or a member of an
1

ethnic minority in employment.”.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2022.101655
Received 11 September 2020; Revised 27 August 2022; Accepted 5 October 2022
Available online 31 October 2022
1048-9843/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

tary explanation is that there is explicit discrimination in the recruit- how a leader should look like and behave (House et al., 2004; Olsen
ment of leaders (Hyun, 2005; Lu et al., 2020). While there is a dearth et al., 2022). Previous research has reported that these leadership pro-
of evidence, there are reasons to believe this is the case. For example, totypes are related to the evaluation of leadership effectiveness
implicit leadership theory (Epitropaki et al., 2013; House et al., 1999; (Junker & Van Dick, 2014; Rosette et al., 2008) and key employee out-
Junker & Van Dick, 2014; Lord et al., 1984; Lord & Maher, 1991) comes such as well‐being, commitment, and the relationship quality
posits that ethnic minorities are not regarded as prototypical leaders, between leader and follower (Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; Junker &
and thus may face barriers to enter leadership positions. Implicit lead- Van Dick, 2014).
ership theory focuses on “cognitive structures thought to guide pro- Implicit leadership theory focuses on an ideal or typical leader that
cessing of leader characteristics and facilitate inferences about likely is likely to be successful in different contexts and refers to a general
behaviors and outcomes” (Lord et al., 2020: 50). knowledge structure of typical leadership. Implicit leadership theory
This study investigates ethnic discrimination in recruitment of takes a general approach and focuses on a leader’s representatives of
leadership positions with a large‐scale field experiment. We submitted the general category of leaders (Steffens et al., 2021). In their initial
more than 12,000 job applications to over 4,000 job advertisements work on implicit leadership theories, Foti, Fraser, and Lord (1982)
where we varied the names of job applicants from six ethnic groups consider prototypes as followers' implicit perceptions and assumptions
in Australia. We targeted job advertisements for leadership and non‐ of leadership. This means implicit leadership theory operates at a glo-
leadership positions. This offered the possibility to directly compare bal level (Tee et al., 2013). Group leadership prototypes are based on
the extent of hiring discrimination between leadership and non‐ the beliefs of the group members (e.g., members of political party,
leadership positions. In addition, we investigated when ethnic discrim- sports club, police team, and military team) and what they think
ination in leadership positions is likely to occur (Adamovic, 2022a; reflects the group’s identity, norms, and values (Epitropaki et al.,
Bertrand & Duflo, 2017). Building on implicit leadership theory 2017). Implicit leadership theory focuses on general and stable sche-
(House et al., 1999; Lord et al., 1984; Lord & Maher, 1991), we ana- mas of leadership (Giessner & Van Knippenberg, 2008).
lyzed whether the job advertisements emphasize customer contact, In our study, we focus on implicit leadership theory, because it is
individualism, or learning, creativity, and innovation, and whether applicable when the group membership is not salient (Hogg et al.,
these attributes influence the degree of discrimination against ethnic 2005). In such context, employees apply more general leadership pro-
minorities in the recruitment of leadership positions. totypes to evaluate leaders (Hogg et al., 2005). In contrast, if the group
Our findings paint a bleak picture for ethnic minorities, showing membership was salient, the social identity theory approach would be
levels of ethnic discrimination for leadership positions that even an appropriate alternative (Barreto & Hogg, 2017; Hogg et al., 2005;
eclipse the high levels for non‐leadership positions. For leadership Hogg et al., 2012; Van Knippenberg, 2011). The social identity
positions, our results show that applicants with English names receive approach to leadership is another important theoretical approach to
26.8% of positive responses for their job applications, while applicants understand leadership prototypes (Hogg, 2001; Van Knippenberg &
with non‐English names only receive 11.3% of positive responses. This Hogg, 2003), arguing that employees perceive a person as more lead-
means ethnic minorities receive 57.4% fewer positive responses than erlike if the person represents the leadership prototype of the employ-
applicants with English names for leadership positions despite identi- ees’ social group. The social identity approach and leadership group
cal resumes. For non‐leadership positions, our results demonstrate that prototypicality become more important, when employees identify
applicants with English names receive 21.2% of positive responses for strongly with the group such as in a sports team, military team, police
their job applications, while applicants with non‐English names only team, or a political party (Barreto & Hogg, 2017; Giessner et al., 2009).
receive 11.6% of positive responses. This means ethnic minorities As we do not know how strongly the recruiters in our study identify
receive 45.3% fewer positive responses for non‐leadership positions themselves with their team, organization, or with being an ethnic
despite identical resumes. majority member in Australia, we think that it is appropriate to draw
We further find that ethnic discrimination for leadership positions on implicit leadership theory.
is particularly pronounced for jobs that require customer contact. For
these jobs, our results show that applicants with English names receive
30.6% of positive responses for their job applications, while applicants Theory and hypotheses
with non‐English names receive 11.1% of positive responses. This
means ethnic minorities receive 63.7% fewer positive responses than Ethnic discrimination in leadership jobs
applicants with English names for leadership jobs that require cus-
tomer contact. One potential cause for the underrepresentation of ethnic minori-
Understanding the different barriers that ethnic minorities face is a ties in corporate leadership is that they face discrimination in the
crucial first step in leveling the playing field. Our study provides novel recruitment process of leadership positions (Hyun, 2005; Lu et al.,
evidence that one important barrier is at the point of the recruitment 2020). Implicit leadership theory (Epitropaki et al., 2013; House
of leaders. As we also observe that the height of this barrier systemat- et al., 1999; Junker & Van Dick, 2014; Lord et al., 1984; Lord &
ically varies with job characteristics, we can predict in which environ- Maher, 1991) highlights several underlying reasons why this might
ments ethnic minorities are most disadvantaged and can focus our be the case. To explain the basis of implicit leadership theory, Lord
efforts on addressing them accordingly. and Maher (1990, 1991) state that people rely on cognitive categoriza-
tions to process information, because they are often not willing or able
to process all available information (Lord et al., 1986). This cognitive
Implicit leadership theory and leadership prototypes categorization process is based on the comparison of the available
information (e.g., name/cultural background of the job applicant for
According to implicit leadership theory, employees evaluate lead- a leadership position) to an abstract and general knowledge structure
ers against a general leadership prototype, which is a mental represen- (e.g., name/cultural background of a prototypical leader) (Van
tation of how typical leaders should look like and behave (House et al., Quaquebeke & Eckloff, 2013). If a leader’s characteristic matches a
1999; Lord et al., 1984; Lord & Maher, 1991). This process is called leadership prototype, a leader is evaluated as being a typical leader.
leader categorization process (Van Knippenberg, 2011; Van Previous research suggests that these recognition‐based processes
Quaquebeke et al., 2014; Van Quaquebeke et al., 2011). Due to social- are related to a bias against ethnic minority leaders due to negative
ization, cultural values, social norms, and commonly held beliefs in a stereotypes (Carton & Rosette, 2011). In the recruitment context,
society, employees develop a shared, implicit understanding about recruiters often receive many job applications and therefore may have

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M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

no time to evaluate each job application in detail and to process all fore, be more concerned about customer expectations for leadership
available information. Indeed, according to recent eye‐tracking positions, which may manifest in more hiring discrimination against
research, the average time to scan a CV is only seven seconds for ethnic minorities. Although employees in non‐leadership positions
recruiters (TheLadder, 2018). Therefore, it is possible that many also deal with customers, we expect that customer contact plays a
recruiters engage in limited information processing and rely on their more important role for leaders. The reason is that customers are more
general leadership prototype as decision‐making heuristic to invite likely to consider employees in leadership positions as representatives
applicants for leadership job positions. We expect that this general of the organization.
leadership prototype in Australia also includes the characteristic being
White with an English name. Hypothesis 2. Ethnic discrimination increases in the recruitment of
One fundamental assumption of implicit leadership theory is that leadership jobs, when jobs require customer contact.
“individuals hold a set of beliefs about the kinds of attributes, person-
ality characteristics, skills, and behaviors that contribute to or impede
outstanding leadership” (Dorfman et al., 2004: 669). The Globe study Cultural congruence proposition and ethnic discrimination in leadership jobs
(House et al., 2004), conducted in 62 societies, has shown, that these
beliefs are related to cultural factors and people from the same culture Based on implicit leadership theory (House et al., 1999; Lord et al.,
tend to share their beliefs of outstanding leadership (Dorfman et al., 1984; Lord & Maher, 1991), Dorfman and House (2004) developed the
2004; Hanges & Dickson, 2004). In the U.S., there is evidence that cultural congruence proposition. The cultural congruence proposition
being White with an English name can be an important characteristic argues that organizations may prefer leaders who endorse a country’s
of a leadership prototype (Anderson et al., 2019; Cunningham, 2010; culture and values, because they are more likely to create a more har-
Gündemir et al., 2014; Nkomo & Al Ariss, 2014; Rosette et al., 2008; monious workplace and better correspond to employees’ expectations
Sy et al., 2012). We predict a similar situation for the Australian con- of a leader (see also Olsen et al., 2022). The cultural congruence
text. In Australia, more White people with English names (as compared proposition (Dorfman & House, 2004: 64) further states that “behavior
to ethnic minorities with non‐English names) are business leaders that is consistent with collective values will be more acceptable and
(Gahan et al., 2016). We therefore argue that recruiters are more likely effective than behavior that represents conflicting values.” When hir-
to categorize applicants with English names as leaders. The leadership ing in Australia, recruiters could think that job applicants with English
prototype development process is based on history, socialization, and names are more likely to represent the country’s leadership prototype
experience (Rosette et al., 2008). In modern Australia, business and (Flores & Matkin, 2014; Gündemir et al., 2014; McCray et al., 2007;
political leaders often have been White people with English names. Olsen et al., 2022; Rosette et al., 2008). In cultural value research, Aus-
In contrast, ethnic minorities have rarely attained leadership positions tralia scores high on individualism and Australian leaders are expected
and even experienced discrimination and exploitation in Australia’s to act in line with individualistic values (Ashkanasy, 2007; Hofstede
history. et al., 2010; House et al., 2004). People, who live in countries with
Recruiters and managers may, therefore, not consider ethnic high scores on individualism, tend to value autonomy, independence,
minorities as prototypical leaders in their country (Eagly & Chin, freedom, individual skills, personal development, individualistic work
2010; Kawahara et al., 2013; Lee & Williams, 2017; Rosette et al., methods, decisiveness, and confidence (Adamovic, 2022b; Hofstede,
2008), thereby explaining ethnic discrimination for leadership posi- 2001). If organizations search for a leader with these values, we argue
tions. Indeed, prior research indicates that people sometimes consider they are less likely to employ applicants with non‐English names,
ethnic minorities as lacking leadership and interpersonal skills (Craig because recruiters could believe they are less likely to act with these
& Feasel, 1998; McCray et al., 2007; Ospina & Foldy, 2009; Rosette values.
et al., 2008). Importantly, these reasons specifically apply to leader-
ship roles and are in addition to other barriers, stereotypes, and types Hypothesis 3. Ethnic discrimination increases in the recruitment of
of discrimination that ethnic minorities already face in non‐leadership leadership jobs, when job advertisements emphasize individualism.
jobs (Adamovic, 2022a; Adamovic et al., 2022; Fiske et al., 2002;
Quillian et al., 2017, 2019). Hence, we expect that discrimination is
Cultural difference proposition and ethnic discrimination in leadership jobs
more pronounced for leadership roles.
To complement the cultural difference proposition, Dorfman and
Hypothesis 1. Ethnic discrimination in recruitment is higher for
House (2004) developed the cultural difference proposition, in which
leadership jobs than non‐leadership jobs.
they argue that, in some cases, organizations may prefer ethnic minor-
ity leaders, because they bring new ideas and perspectives to the orga-
nization (see also Olsen et al., 2022). Dorfman and House’s (2004: 65)
Customer contact and ethnic discrimination in leadership jobs
explanation for the cultural difference proposition is that by “being dif-
ferent with respect to some behaviors, (ethnic minority) leaders intro-
We further argue that discrimination against ethnic minorities
duce more changes of the kind required for innovation and
entering leadership positions is particularly pronounced if the position
performance improvement.” Thus, we argue that ethnic discrimination
involves customer contact. Implicit leadership theory (House et al.,
will be less pronounced in the recruitment of leadership positions,
1999; Lord et al., 1984; Lord & Maher, 1991) states that people may
when organizations emphasize learning, creativity, and innovation in
prefer a leader that matches their expectation of a prototypical leader.
their job advertisements. In these cases, recruiters might be more will-
Accordingly, recruiters could be concerned that customers expect and
ing to invite ethnic minorities for job interviews, because they could
prefer to deal with a prototypical leader. There is mixed evidence
believe that ethnic minority leaders will increase creativity and inno-
regarding the influence of customer contact on hiring discrimination
vation, inspiring organizational change (Dorfman & House, 2004;
(Andriessen et al., 2012; Booth et al., 2012; Baert et al., 2015;
Olsen et al., 2022; Richard et al., 2013).2
Derous et al., 2017; Nunley et al., 2015). One reason for the inconsis-
tent results and non‐significant findings might be that previous studies
2
focused on non‐leadership positions. We expect that the influence of Relatedly, research on cultural diversity suggests that a culturally diverse workforce
can increase creativity and innovation, because culturally diverse employees are more
customer contact would be more important for leadership positions likely to have different ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives that can lead to information
because a leader represents the organization (Eisenberger et al., and knowledge exchanges (Cox, 1993; Earley & Gibson, 2002; Joshi & Roh, 2009;
2010). In contrast to non‐leadership positions, recruiters may, there- Ramarajan & Thomas, 2010).

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M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

Hypothesis 4. Ethnic discrimination decreases in the recruitment of We asked the survey respondents to evaluate the ethnic origins of
leadership jobs, when job advertisements emphasize learning, creativ- the selected names (Table 1). The correct responses were very high
ity, and innovation. for English (97% correct), Greek (94%), Chinese (92%), and Arabic
names (88%). The correct responses were still high for Indian names
(71%) but somewhat lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Experimental design names (59%). As we predicted this issue for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander names, we included a membership to an Aboriginal
Experimental procedures and Torres Strait Islander organization under the section Social
Activities/Hobbies/Volunteering. We also included similar social
After having received ethics approval from the first author’s univer- activities and hobbies in the other resumes.
sity, a field experiment was conducted to study discrimination in the The survey respondents were also instructed to evaluate the gender
recruitment of leadership positions. In this experiment, conducted of the first names. The correct responses were very high for Arabic and
2018–19, we varied names on resumes and submitted 12,274 job English names (>93%), high for Greek, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
applications for 4,140 job advertisements in Melbourne, Sydney, and Islander, and Indian names (>80%), and low for Chinese names
Brisbane in Australia. We applied for non‐leadership positions as well (49%). As we predicted this issue, we wrote the gender in brackets
as leadership positions. To identify leadership roles, trained research in the personal statement of the resumes for all Chinese names and
assistants scrutinized job advertisements on online job search web- for a few Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Greek, and Indian
sites. Similar to Baert et al. (2016), the job advertisement needed to names. Our preparations and consultations of online resume databases
include the management of employees, teams, or departments; team indicated that it is common for job applicants with foreign names
leader responsibilities; frontline leader responsibilities; or the supervi- (which do not allow most Australians to identify the gender) to do so.
sion of employees. This way, we identified 359 leader job advertise- To measure the SES of the names, we first used the question “imag-
ments and submitted 1,071 applications for leadership positions. ine a person with that name and what education you think that per-
This means we had 9% of leadership positions in our sample, reflecting son’s mother had” (response options: no high‐school, high‐school
the common ratio of leadership versus non‐leadership positions in degree, technical certificate, undergraduate degree, master’s degree,
most OECD countries (OECD, 2018). We submitted the applications PhD/doctor, don’t know). The SES scores were similar for the names.
to different organizations. For example, the SES scores were the same for female and male names
Following previous research (e.g., Baert & Verhaest, 2019; Carlsson (mean score: 3.26 for both). Second, based on recent research (Gaddis,
& Eriksson, 2019; Carlsson et al., 2018; Jacquemet, & Yannelis, 2012) 2018), we used the question “For each of the following names, select
we sent out three applications in response to each job advertisement. the social class category that you associate with that name” (response
Every time, we included a resume of an applicant with an English options: lower class, working class, middle class, upper class, other,
name and the resumes of two applicants with non‐English names. and don’t know). The SES scores were similar for the names again.
We submitted more than two applications to increase efficiency, but For example, we received similar SES scores for female (mean score:
we did not use more than three resumes for any job to avoid the detec- 2.75) and male names (mean score: 2.70). When we consider the
tion of our field experiment (Carlsson & Eriksson, 2019; Carlsson et al., SES scores for each occupation, we also identify a similarity of SES
2018). Furthermore, we waited several hours between the submissions scores between the different names. Based on these results, we con-
of the different applications to, again, avoid the detection of the field clude that the SES is similar for the names in our study.
experiment. We also varied the order of the submissions between the To generalize our findings across different occupations and skill
different ethnic groups. This means the resume of a job candidate was levels, we consulted the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classi-
either submitted as first, second, or third resume to a job fication of Occupations (ANZSCO, 2009) and applied for twelve differ-
advertisement. ent occupations (accountant: 1,242 job applications, paralegal: 518,
To design suitable resumes and cover letters, we followed best marketing professional: 1,219, human resource management profes-
practices and analyzed existing online resume databases, which pro- sional: 1,083, personal care assistant: 792, electrician: 1,078, clerk/ad-
vided information on required skills and educational degrees ministrative worker: 1,237, sales assistant: 1,275, receptionist: 1,206,
(Adamovic, 2020; Lahey & Beasley, 2018). They were then proofread waitstaff: 941, construction laborer: 954, and cleaner: 761). Before we
and revised. Resumes included contact details, work experience, skills, finalized the choice for the occupations, we also conducted an online
qualifications, and hobbies/social activities. We used slightly different search on a job search website to check how many job advertisements
formatting and layouts throughout the experiment to avoid detection were listed for each occupation. To facilitate a resume study, it is
and controlled for this in our analysis. To have a realistic chance to important that a high number of job advertisements is available
receive a positive response for leadership applications, we included (Adamovic, 2020; Lahey & Beasley, 2018). Additional information
the required qualifications and up to seven years of work experience on the experimental procedures can be found in the Appendix A.
with different employers in the job applicants’ resumes. All candidates
were born in Australia, worked in Australia, and went to an Australian Measurements
school or university.
Six different ethnic groups were investigated by varying resumes Ethnic discrimination in recruitment was measured by comparing
with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Arabic, Chinese, English, the number of positive responses (also called callbacks in some previ-
Greek and Indian names. In line with best practices for resume study ous studies) between the different ethnic groups. This is the common
research, we used different names for every ethnic group to avoid outcome measure in resume studies (Adamovic, 2020; Lahey &
the use of a single stereotypical name that could bias the results Beasley, 2018). After the resumes were sent out, we measured the
(Adamovic, 2020; Butler & Homola, 2017; Gaddis, 2017). Before the number of positive responses for every candidate by recording email
field experiment, we selected six female and male names for each eth- and voicemail responses. If we received a positive response, we
nic group. We further ran three surveys (130 participants per survey). rejected it via email or phone call.
To collect data, we collaborated with a market research company. The Customer contact. Based on the Australian and New Zealand Stan-
surveys allowed us to evaluate if people can identify the ethnicity and dard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO, 2009), we considered the
gender of the names as well as the socio‐economic status (SES) of the following jobs as those that require high customer contact: waitstaff,
names. receptionist, personal carer, electrician, and sales assistant. Based on

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M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

Table 1 terms like autonomous, independent, decisive, and confident were also
Names of job applicants. included as search terms.
Names First Name First Name Last Name Controls. Based on prior research (e.g., Adamovic & Leibbrandt,
(Male) (Female) 2022; Baert et al., 2015; Midtboen, 2016; Bertrand & Duflo, 2017),
we controlled for gender (0 = female name, 1 = male name), order
English Names David Emily Brown
Correct female names: 97% Jack Jennifer Jones of submission, job advertisements, and resume layout.
Correct male names: 97% Joshua Jessica Smith
Correct ethnicity: 97% Matthew Michelle Thompson
SES female names: 2.61 Michael Olivia Williams Experimental findings
SES male names: 2.60 Peter Susan Wilson
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Minjarra Killara Karpeny Descriptive statistics
Islander Names
Correct female names: 88% Jarrah Maali Kropinyeri
Correct male names: 72% Waru Jedda Kulmateri Overall, 14.9% (N = 1,832 out of 12,274) of the job applications
Correct ethnicity: 59% Nullah Kirra Rigney received a positive response (16.5%, N = 177 out of 1,071 for leader-
SES female names: 2.41 Ngarra Kylie Rankin ship job applications). In total, 75.0% of the advertised leadership
SES male names: 2.36 Monaro Lowanna Baalpulare
roles entailed customer contact, 51.5% entailed individualism, and
Chinese Names Qiang Chun Cheung
Correct female names: 49% Yong Fang Chen
20.6% entailed creativity, innovation, and learning (Appendix B).
Correct male names: 49% Dali Huiyan Fan
Correct ethnicity: 92% Jun Meimei Huang
SES female names: 2.72 Zhiqiang Zhihong Li
Ethnic discrimination in the recruitment of leadership positions
SES male names: 2.74 Mingyang Yaling Zhao
Indian Names Ankit Neha Chugh We observe very stark differences in the percentage of positive
Correct female names: 86% Amit Ankita Gupta responses for leadership positions. Specifically, 26.8% of the job appli-
Correct male names: 78% Vikram Shilpa Kulkarni
cants with English names received positive responses, compared to
Correct ethnicity: 71% Deepak Rachna Narang
SES female names: 2.51 Gopal Pallavi Patel only 11.4% of those with non‐English names (14.3% for Greek,
SES male names: 2.55 Neeraj Rohini Singh 11.8% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, 10.3% for Chinese,
Greek Names Vassilis Aphrodite Kostopoulos 10.8% for Indian, and 9.7% for Arabic names) (Fig. 1). That is, appli-
Correct female names: 82% Christos Athina Giannopoulos cants with non‐English names have a positive response rate that is 15.4
Correct male names: 91% Dimitris Anastasia Papadopoulos
Correct ethnicity: 94% Konstantinos Konstantina Nicolaides
percentage points lower than those with English names, which trans-
SES female names: 2,55 Giorgos Dimitra Katsaros lates to a 57.4% lower likelihood of receiving a positive response.
SES male names: 2.57 Yianni Myrto Demopoulos We also observe stark, albeit less pronounced, differences for non‐
Arabic Names Mohammed Nour Abdullah leadership positions. Applicants with English names had a positive
Correct female names: 93% Mustafa Dima Ahmad
response rate of 21.2%, whereas those with non‐English names had
Correct male names: 94% Farid Fatima Al-Hashim
Correct ethnicity: 88% Nasim Nura El-Hashem a positive response rate of 11.6% (13.7% for Greek, 12.4% for Aborig-
SES female names: 2.39 Ibrahim Rana Hussain inal and Torres Strait Islander, 12.3% for Chinese, 9.8% for Indian, and
SES male names: 2.40 Mahmoud Samira Hakim 10.0% for Arabic names) (Fig. 1). This means the positive response
rate difference is 9.6% for non‐leadership jobs, representing a 45.3%
lower likelihood for applicants with non‐English names receiving a
positive response.
the same classification, we considered the following jobs as those with To test the hypotheses, we estimated linear probability models. Lin-
low customer contact: construction laborer, cleaner, and administra- ear probability models (LPM) are commonly used for binary outcomes
tive roles. In some cases, the advertised roles did not fit the allocated and have the advantage that they are easier to be interpreted, not sub-
classification of high/low customer contact and so, after discussing ject to convergence failures, and computationally easier to generate.
these cases with the first author, the research assistants changed the We estimated a multi‐level model in which we controlled for the (ran-
classifications. However, this only happened in <1% of the job adver- dom) effects of job advertisement. Put differently, we conducted a
tisements. For the remaining occupations, the research assistants random‐effects regression with job advertisement as grouping vari-
coded the job advertisements for customer contact according to the able. We used robust standard errors in our regressions to take care
job description, resulting in the following proportions: accounting of heteroscedasticity and violations of normality are very unlikely to
(37% low customer contact, 63% high customer contact), human be a concern given our large sample size. All models also control for
resource management (15.1% low, 84.9% high), paralegal (29% low, gender, skill level of occupation, organizational size, organizational
71% high), marketing (81.5% low, 18.5% high). This was due to the revenue, layout, and order of submission.
advertisements for these occupations differing significantly in terms In Table 2, we estimate the extent of ethnic discrimination using
of their required customer contact. All research assistants received linear probability models with job advertisement random effects and
individual training and were unaware of the hypotheses. control for the layout of the application,3 potential order effects when
Creativity, innovation, and learning. Adopting the approach by sending multiple applications, and the gender of the applicant.4 In
Ozen, Hut, Levin, and Boudet (2020), trained research assistants coded model 1, we observe that for leadership jobs, applicants with non‐
the job advertisements for creativity innovation, and learning. More English names are 14.0 percentage points less likely to receive a positive
precisely, the research assistants searched the job advertisements for response (p <.001). In model 2, we distinguish between the different
the following terms: creativity, innovation, and learning. Related non‐English names. We observe that the negative impact of having a
terms like creative and innovative were also included in the search.
Individualism. Again, following Ozen and colleagues (2020), 3
We also estimated probit models to replicate our main findings and observe that the
trained research assistants coded the job advertisements for the cul- predicted p‐values are generally smaller in the probit models. For example, our main
tural value dimension individualism, based on Hofstede’s definition finding, the interaction effect in Table 2 (leadership * minority) is significant in the probit
model (p = .004). In addition, we used fixed‐effects instead of random‐effects which lead
(2001). To make the coding as objective as possible, the research assis-
to very similar findings.
tants searched for the following terms in the job advertisements: 4
There is a small number of missing values in our regression analysis in Table 4 for
autonomy, independence, freedom, individual skills, personal develop- ethnicity (models 1 and 2), ethnicity category (models 3 and 4), and customer contact
ment, individual work methods, decisiveness, and confidence. Related (models 5 and 6).

5
M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

Fig. 1. Percentage of positive responses for all leadership and non-leadership job applications.

Table 2
The influence of names and leadership on responses for job applications.

Model (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Sample Leadership position Leadership position All positions All positions All positions
Outcome Positive response Positive response Positive response Positive response Positive response

Ethnic minority −0.1404*** −0.0887*** −0.0841***

(0.0188) (0.0056) (0.0091)
Female 0.0561*** 0.0631*** 0.0383*** 0.0389*** 0.0424***
(0.0176) (0.0195) (0.0052) (0.0052) (0.0112)
Greek −0.1377*** −0.0781***
(0.0245) (0.0084)
Aboriginal/T.S.I. −0.1687*** −0.1107***
(0.0291) (0.0083)
Chinese −0.1404*** −0.0770***
(0.0306) (0.0081)
Indian −0.1434*** −0.0682***
(0.0283) (0.0081)
Arabic −0.1115*** −0.1089***
(0.0251) (0.0081)
Leadership 0.0552** 0.0558** 0.0541*
(0.0245) (0.0245) (0.0285)
Leadership × ethnic minority −0.0568*** −0.0678***
(0.0194) (0.0263)
Leadership × Greek −0.0683***
(0.0256)
Leadership × Aboriginal/T.S.I. −0.0599**
(0.0283)
Leadership × Chinese −0.0711**
(0.0306)
Leadership × Indian −0.0677**
(0.0285)
Leadership × Arabic −0.0190
(0.0258)
Leadership × female 0.0059
(0.0429)
Ethnic minority × female −0.0086
(0.0130)
Leadership × minority × female 0.0184
(0.0480)
Constant 0.2163*** 0.2152*** 0.1721*** 0.1721*** 0.1697***
(0.0311) (0.0314) (0.0092) (0.0092) (0.0108)
N 1039 1039 12,025 12,025 12,025
R2 (within) 0.123 0.129 0.059 0.063 0.059
R2 (overall) 0.049 0.047 0.019 0.020 0.019

Notes. GLS random-effects regression with job advertisement as group variable. Robust standard errors in parentheses. All models control for layout and order (not
shown). ***p <.01, **p <.05, *p <.1. Ethnic minority = 1 if job applicant has a non-English name, 0 otherwise. Female = 1 if job applicant is a female, 0
otherwise. Leadership = 1 if job advertisements is for a leadership position, 0 otherwise.

6
M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

non‐English name applies to all five non‐English names and varies For leadership jobs that did not emphasize creativity, learning, or
between 11.1 and 16.9 percentage points (p <.01 for each ethnic innovation, ethnic minorities received positive responses for 10.8%
group). We also observe that women have a higher positive response of their job applications (Table 3). In contrast, where advertisements
rate than men (p <.001). emphasized creativity, innovation, and learning, minorities received
Furthermore, the extent of ethnic discrimination is more pro- positive responses for 14.5% of the applications. Applicants with Eng-
nounced for leadership positions. In Fig. 1, we can see that the differ- lish names received 16% more positive responses than those with non‐
ence in positive responses between English and non‐English names is English names for job advertisements that did not include creativity,
greater for leadership than non‐leadership positions. Models 3 and 4 learning, or innovation as compared to 11.5% more positive responses
(Table 2) provide additional evidence through linear probability mod- for jobs that did include these traits. We further include creativity/in
els. In model 3, we find that ethnic minorities are 8.9 percentage novation/learning in the linear probability models. In models 3 and
points less likely to receive a positive response for non‐leadership posi- 4 (Table 4), we control for creativity and its interaction with ethnicity.
tions and an additional 5.7 percentage points less likely for leadership Model 3 indicates that minorities receive 3.8 percentage points more
positions (p <.001). This result provides support for Hypothesis 1. positive response rates for leadership jobs that emphasize creativity
Model 4 further shows that the additional impact is present for the dif- than those that do not (p =.348). However, this effect as well as the
ferent non‐English names except for Arabic names (additional 5.9–6.8 interaction between creativity/innovation/learning and ethnic minor-
percentage points). Model 5 shows that there are no differences in the ity status were non‐significant (p =.554). This result does not support
additional impact between men and women with the triple interaction Hypothesis 4.
leadership position * ethnicity * gender being insignificant.
Finding 3: We do not find that the level of discrimination for leadership
Finding 1: Resumes with non‐English names receive fewer positive positions is significantly influenced by individualism as well as by cre-
responses for leadership positions than resumes with English names. ativity, innovation, and learning.
The level of ethnic discrimination is more pronounced for leadership
than non‐leadership positions.
Post-Hoc analysis
The role of customer contact for ethnic discrimination in leadership
To provide further evidence for the robustness of our findings, we
positions
conclude our data analysis by considering several additional organiza-
tional and job characteristics. Table 5 takes these characteristics into
According to our second hypothesis, customer contact may exacer-
account and investigates whether they interact with ethnicity. Model
bate ethnic discrimination for leadership jobs. We find support for this
1 distinguishes job advertisements according to whether they con-
hypothesis. According to our findings, applicants with English names
tained a diversity and inclusion statement (e.g., this workplace values
receive 19.5% more positive responses for leadership jobs that require
cultural diversity). The interaction between diversity and inclusion
customer contact than those with non‐English names, as compared to
statement and ethnicity is positive (7.2 percentage points), but the
8.1% more positive responses for jobs where it is not required
interaction does not reach significance (p =.102), which may be due
(Table 3).
to the small sample size of advertisements containing such a statement
We included customer contact in the linear probability models. In
(6.4%). Models 2 and 3 look at the organizational size. More precisely,
Table 4 (model 1), which uses the same control variables as in Table 2,
Model 2 looks at the role of financial revenue and Model 3 at the role
we first observe a non‐significant effect of customer contact for the
of organizational size measured by the number of employees.5 We
positive response rate of ethnic minority applicants. This means, the
observe a significant interaction with financial revenue (p =.006) but
response rate itself does not differ for ethnic minority applicants in
not with the number of employees (p =.773), providing mixed evidence
dependence on customer contact. However, in Table 4 (model 2), we
that organizational size plays a role for hiring discrimination against eth-
observe a significant interaction effect between ethnicity and customer
nic minorities applying for leadership positions and requiring future
contact for leadership positions. This means ethnic discrimination
research about this topic. Finally, Model 4 looks at the occupational skill
increases for leadership positions that require customer contact. More
level. Based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification
precisely, the interaction between customer contact and ethnicity
of Occupations (ANZSCO, 2009), we coded the twelve occupations into
shows an additional significant negative impact of 13.2 percentage
three categories (1 = low skill level required, 2 = medium skill level
points for ethnic minorities (p <.001) (model 2, Table 4). This result
required, and 3 = high skill level required). In Category 1, we included
provides support for Hypothesis 2.
sales assistant, receptionist, waitstaff, construction laborer, and cleaner.
In Category 2, we included personal care assistant, electrician, and
Finding 2: The level of hiring discrimination against ethnic minorities is
clerk/administrative worker. In Category 3, we included accountant,
more pronounced for leadership positions that involve customer contact.
paralegal, marketing professional, and human resource management
professional. We find no differences in the interactions with minority
The role of creativity and individualism for ethnic discrimination in
for low, mid, and high skill levels of occupations (p = 0.228 and
leadership positions
p = 0.458, respectively).
To test the role of individualism (Hypothesis 3) and creativity
(Hypothesis 4), we first compare the positive responses for leadership Discussion and conclusion
jobs that emphasized individualism (creativity) to those that did not
(Table 3). For leadership jobs that did not emphasize individualism, Drawing on implicit leadership theory (House et al., 1999; Lord
ethnic minorities received positive responses for 13.8% of their job et al., 1984; Lord & Maher, 1991), we conducted a field experiment
applications (Table 3). In contrast, if the advertisement emphasized to analyze ethnic discrimination in recruitment. Our findings show
individualism, ethnic minorities received positive responses for only that job applicants with non‐English names receive fewer positive
9.3% of the job applications. In model 5 of Table 4, individualism responses. Further, ethnic discrimination is more pronounced for lead-
has a negative coefficient of 4.5 percentage points, but this effect
was non‐significant (p =.134). In model 6 of Table 4, the interaction 5
To include the revenue and number of employees, we consulted Company360; a
between individualism and ethnicity was non‐significant (p =.559). database of Australian organizations. This reduced our sample size by over half as the data
The linear probability model results do not support Hypothesis 3. was available for less than half of the sampled organizations.

7
M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

Table 3
Responses for leadership positions depending on customer contact, individualism, and creativity/innovation/learning.

English names Non-English names

No positive response Positive response No positive response Positive response

no customer contact 75 (84.3%) 14 (15.7%) 156 (87.6%) 22 (12.4%)

Customer contact 186 (69.4%) 82 (30.6%) 474 (88.9%) 59 (11.1%)
Total 261 (73.1%) 93 (26.9%) 630 (88.6%) 81 (11.4%)
No individualism 116 (67.8%) 55 (32.2%) 294 (86.2%) 47 (13.8%)
Individualism 143 (78.6%) 39 (21.4%) 328 (90.6%) 34 (9.4%)
Total 259 (73.4%) 94 (26.6%) 622 (88.5%) 81 (11.5%)
No creativity/innovation/learning 205 (73.2%) 75 (26.8%) 498 (89.2%) 60 (10.8%)
Creativity/innovation/learning 54 (74.0%) 19 (26.0%) 124 (85.5%) 21 (14.5%)
Total 259 (73.4%) 94 (26.6%) 622 (88.5%) 81 (11.5%)

Note. The numbers represent absolute numbers and percentage within each moderator.

Table 4
Moderators of ethnic discrimination in leadership positions.

Model (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Sample Ethnic minorities All Ethnic minorities All Ethnic minorities All
Outcome Positive response Positive response Positive response Positive response Positive response Positive response

Customer contact −0.0175 0.1151**

(0.0378) (0.0487)
Female 0.0665*** 0.0486*** 0.0668*** 0.0552*** 0.0660*** 0.0529***
(0.0201) (0.0174) (0.0202) (0.0178) (0.0201) (0.0176)
Ethnic minority −0.0464 −0.1429*** −0.1496***
(0.0288) (0.0210) (0.0274)
Customer contact × ethnic minority −0.1320***
(0.0367)
Creativity 0.0378 0.0141
(0.0403) (0.0580)
Creativity × ethnic minority 0.0256
(0.0433)
Individualism −0.0454 −0.0699
(0.0303) (0.0481)
Individualism × ethnic minority 0.0222
(0.0380)
Constant 0.0614 0.1283*** 0.0422 0.2165*** 0.0719** 0.2581***
(0.0399) (0.0466) (0.0286) (0.0334) (0.0303) (0.0401)
N 700 1036 692 1024 692 1024
R2 (within) 0.042 0.137 0.042 0.119 0.042 0.119
R2 (overall) 0.018 0.056 0.019 0.049 0.021 0.052

Notes. GLS random-effects regression with job advertisement as group variable. Robust standard errors in parentheses. All models control for layout and order (not
shown). ***p <.01, **p <.05, *p <.1. Models 1, 3, and 5 entail a sample of ethnic minority job applicants only. Ethnic minority = 1 if job applicant has a non-
English name, 0 otherwise. Female = 1 if job applicant is a female, 0 otherwise. Leadership = 1 if job advertisements is for a leadership position, 0 otherwise.
Customer contact = 1 if job entails customer contact, 0 otherwise. Creativity (individualism) = 1 if job emphasizes creativity (individualism), 0 otherwise.
Individualism = 1 if job emphasizes individualism, 0 otherwise.

ership than non‐leadership positions and when leadership positions ers is related to negative stereotypes and a lack of social network or
require customer contact. Through our findings, we make several mentoring opportunities and not by hiring discrimination (Johnson
contributions. et al., 2017; Kilian et al., 2005; Schoen & Rost, 2021; Thomas,
1995). For example, Giscombe and Mattis (2002:103) stated regarding
Theoretical contributions the career and promotion prospects of people of color in the USA that
“the major barriers to upward career mobility are no longer at recruit-
We expand our understanding of why there is a lack of ethnic ment and job entry stages of the employment process but at the
minority leaders (Flores & Matkin, 2014; Hyun, 2005; Lu et al., advancement stages.” Baekgaard and George (2018) further concluded
2020) by conducting the first resume study on ethnic discrimination based on their vignette study that ethnic minority applicants “are gen-
for leadership positions. Previous resume studies have mostly focused erally considered more qualified for the job.” In addition, in a survey
on entry‐level and/or low‐skilled jobs (Adamovic, 2022a; Bertrand & study, only seven percent of White participants observed fewer hiring
Duflo, 2017). Not much is therefore known about ethnic discrimina- options for female leaders of color (Hite, 2004). We challenge this con-
tion in the recruitment of leadership positions. Our results suggest that clusion of previous non‐resume study research by providing strong evi-
ethnic discrimination in recruitment is higher for leadership positions dence that hiring discrimination can be a driver for the lack of ethnic
than non‐leadership positions. Our findings therefore indicate that eth- minority leaders.
nic discrimination in leadership positions is an important factor for the Our study also expands the applicability of implicit leadership the-
lack of ethnic minority leaders. ory (House et al., 1999; Lord et al., 1984; Lord & Maher, 1991) to the
Previous research, which conducted interview, vignette, labora- recruitment context. Specifically, ethnic discrimination for leadership
tory, and survey studies, suggests that the lack of ethnic minority lead- positions increases when customer contact is required. It is possible

8
M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

Table 5
Further moderators of ethnic discrimination in leadership positions.

Model (1) (2) (3) (4)

Sample Leadership positions Leadership positions Leadership positions Leadership positions

Diversity statement −0.1335**

(0.0627)
Ethnic minority −0.1474*** −0.1551*** −0.1239*** −0.1057***
(0.0201) (0.0302) (0.0233) (0.0389)
Diversity statement × ethnic minority 0.0717
(0.0438)
Female 0.0544*** 0.0683** 0.0686** 0.0564***
(0.0176) (0.0280) (0.0317) (0.0188)
Revenue −0.0302***
(0.0074)
Revenue × ethnic minority 0.0170***
(0.0061)
Number of employees 0.0002
(0.0005)
Number of employees × ethnic minority −0.0001
(0.0004)
Medium skill level 0.1155
(0.0724)
High skill level 0.0636
(0.0575)
Medium skill level × ethnic minority −0.0714
(0.0592)
High skill level × ethnic minority −0.0370
(0.0499)
Constant 0.2323*** 0.2191*** 0.1908** 0.1589***
(0.0328) (0.0485) (0.0840) (0.0512)
N 1039 431 380 1036
R2 (within) 0.125 0.133 0.146 0.126
R2 (overall) 0.055 0.071 0.067 0.054

Notes. GLS random-effects regression with job advertisement as group variable. Robust standard errors in parentheses. All models control for layout and order (not
shown). ***p <.01, **p <.05, *p <.1. All models entail sample leadership position only. Ethnic minority = 1 if job applicant has a non-English name, 0
otherwise. Female = 1 if job applicant is a female, 0 otherwise. Skill level has three levels: low, medium, and high.

that recruiters in Australia think that leaders who deal with customers, (1) recognition‐based processing versus (2) inference‐based process-
need to match their country’s leadership prototype. Our findings are in ing. Recognition‐based processing in the context of ethnic discrimina-
line with few previous studies that reported non‐leadership positions, tion in leadership means that peoples’ evaluation of leaders is related
requiring customer contact, increase hiring discrimination (Andriessen to their negative stereotypes against ethnic minorities (Carton &
et al., 2012; Derous et al., 2017; Nunley et al., 2015). Rosette, 2011; Junker & Van Dick, 2014; Knight et al., 2003; Rosette
Further, we adapted Dorfman and House’s cultural difference and & Livingston, 2012). Independently of their achievements, skills, and
cultural congruence propositions (2004) to resume study research, performance, they evaluate ethnic minorities as non‐typical leaders.
which had mostly focused on measuring hiring discrimination In contrast, inference‐based processing would involve an evaluation
(Bertrand & Duflo, 2017; Quillian et al., 2017; Zschirnt & Ruedin, of ethnic minority leaders based on their achievements, skills, and per-
2016). While most resume studies have reported ethnic discrimination formance and not based on their cultural background (Carton &
in recruitment, there are differences in discrimination findings Rosette, 2011; Meindl & Ehrlich, 1987; Rosette & Livingston, 2012).
(Adamovic, 2022a; Quillian et al., 2019). While many studies found Our findings provide support for the existence of a recognition‐based
a high degree of discrimination (e.g., Drydakis & Vlassis, 2010; process in the context of the recruitment of leadership positions.
McGinnity & Lunn, 2011), few studies did not report any discrimina- Despite using the same resumes for ethnic minority applicants and
tion (Bendick et al., 1991; Decker et al., 2015) or only a small degree applicants with English names, ethnic minority applicants received sig-
(e.g., Kaas & Manger, 2012). To expand this research, we went beyond nificantly fewer responses for their leadership job applications. This
the measurement of discrimination to show when ethnic minorities are shows that recruiters in Australia sometimes do not only evaluate
likely to receive a positive response for leadership positions. However, the work experience, educational credentials, skills, and achievements
it is important to mention, that while the descriptive statistics show of ethnic minority leaders. Their decision‐making could be also influ-
differences in the positive response rates for individualism and enced by their stereotypes and general leadership prototypes, so that
creativity/innovation/learning, the effects of individualism and they would prefer applicants with English names for leadership posi-
creativity/innovation/learning were non‐significant in the linear prob- tions. We show the applicability of recognition‐based processing in
ability models (Table 3), requiring future empirical research to clarify the recruitment context, which represents a new context for this
the role of both variables and to investigate other variables. research stream as prior research has been mostly conducted in the
Finally, we contribute to research on leadership categorization the- context of performance evaluations and promotions (Carton &
ory (Lord & Maher, 1990, 1991). This research stream differentiates Rosette, 2011; Cook & Glass, 2010; Knight et al., 2003).
between two processes to explain ethnic discrimination in leadership:

9
M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

Practical contributions discrimination at the next recruitment stages like job interviews and
job offer outcomes (Quillian et al., 2020). Future research can there-
Our study shows that a job applicant’s name influences the likeli- fore examine the next recruitment stages by conducting an in‐person
hood of receiving a positive response from recruiters in Australia. To audit study (Wells, 2013).
reduce ethnic discrimination in recruitment, organizations could use An interesting avenue for future research is to test if the use of
anonymous job applications, in which the applicants’ names are hid- video resumes (Frasca & Edwards, 2017) reduces ethnic discrimination
den in the initial recruitment phase. This would take ethnicity out of in recruitment. Video resumes would give applicants the possibility to
the equation and would make the initial recruitment phase fairer present their communication and language skills, potentially reducing
(see for non‐leadership jobs: Aslund & Skans, 2012). prejudices that recruiters could have about ethnic minorities. Future
Further, it might be important to improve the training of recruiters to research could also integrate online social networks (Acquisti &
reduce ethnic discrimination in the recruitment of leadership positions. Fong, 2020) and analyze if an applicant’s physical appearance (Rich,
This could help recruiters become aware of culturally endorsed leader- 2018) influences hiring discrimination for leadership positions.
ship prototypes. Relatedly, while many organizations have successfully Finally, our study was conducted in Australia, which has different eth-
implemented diversity practices that support the recruitment and pro- nic groups than other countries. Therefore, it would be important to
motion of female employees and leaders, some organizations neglect generalize our findings to other countries in which we also observe
diversity practices for underrepresented groups such as ethnic minority a lack of ethnic minority leaders.
employees and leaders (Schoen & Rost, 2021). Organizations could
therefore think about adapting their diversity practices to increase the
number of underrepresented groups in leadership positions. Acknowledgements

Limitations and avenues for future research We thank the following research assistants for their excellent work
with collecting the data: Diarmuid Cooney-O'Donoghue, Samuel
A limitation of resume studies is the focus on external applicants. Eyamu, Peter Ghin, Vrushali Gulhane, Edward Hyatt, Yasi Saninejad,
However, some positions are only advertised internally. Future and Deborah Towns. We also thank Peter Gahan for his helpful com-
research could try to conduct experiments within organizations to ana- ments regarding the study design. Finally, we thank Olga Epitropaki
lyze ethnic discrimination in the context of internal promotions. A and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and
potential limitation in our study is the lower number of leadership suggestions during the review process.
job applications as compared to non‐leadership applications. Specifi-
cally, we had 9% of leadership positions in our sample. This ratio
reflects the common ratio of leadership versus non‐leadership posi- Appendix A. Experimental procedures
tions in most OECD countries (OECD, 2018). In addition, leadership
positions are not often advertised through job search websites, making Six common names were selected for the different ethnic groups
it difficult to submit the same number of job applications for leader- based on the internet websites forebears.io and behindthename.com,
ship positions. Nevertheless, we managed to submit 1,071 applications prior research, and feedback from ethnic group members. Examples
for leadership positions. This sample size allowed us to detect signifi- of names are Waru Kulmateri and Lowanna Karpeny (Aboriginal and
cant effects. Torres Strait Islander names), Mahmoud Al‐Hashim and Fatima
Resume studies have many advantages such as providing an accu- Ahmad (Arabic names), Mingyang Sun and Zhihong Huang (Chinese
rate measurement of hiring discrimination (Adamovic, 2020; Riach names), Jennifer Brown and Peter Smith (English names), Giorgos
& Rich, 2002; Wulff & Villadsen, 2020; Zschirnt & Ruedin, 2016), Papadopoulos and Athina Demopoulos (Greek names), or Ankit Singh
excluding the problem of social desirability and subjective perceptions and Rachna Patel (Indian names) (Table 1). We used six names for
(King et al., 2013), investigating discrimination in a real‐work envi- each occupation and varied the names between occupations.
ronment (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004), and keeping other vari- We created 72 resumes, 54 cover letters (our preparations indi-
ables constant (e.g., work experience, educational level, skills, cated that cover letters are less common for waitstaff, construction
competence, etc.) except the variable of interest like ethnicity or gen- laborers, and cleaning jobs in Australia), 72 email accounts, and 72
der by just varying the names across resumes. Nevertheless, resume voicemails for all 72 fictious job applicants. For the voicemail message,
study research also has a few limitations. One limitation is that resume we used the automated message provided by the voice messaging ser-
study research is mostly descriptive. Our study provides one theoreti- vice. For every occupation, the resumes of the six fictitious job candi-
cal explanation by showing that recruiters in Australia are less likely to dates were very similar in terms of education level, years of work
consider ethnic minorities as leaders, because ethnic minorities expe- experience, and skills. We used addresses of suburbs with a similar rep-
rience more hiring discrimination for leadership than non‐leadership utation close to the city center. Nevertheless, we also switched the
positions in our study. Future research can build on this finding and names on the resumes and cover letters after 100 job applications to
conduct laboratory experiments to better understand the processes control for the layout and content of the resumes. While switching
and mechanisms of ethnic discrimination. Further, resume studies the resumes, we also changed the addresses and employer names
focus on the first recruitment phase. This means we cannot measure depending on the city in which the job was advertised.

10
M. Adamovic, A. Leibbrandt The Leadership Quarterly 34 (2023) 101655

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