Amir Grinstein is a lecturer and researcher of marketing and entrepreneurship at Northeastern University in Boston and VU in Amsterdam. writes on Twitter about behavioral research @AmirGrinstein.
Jana Schechterman is an organizational consultant, executive coach and teacher at Northeastern University in Boston. yanashechterman.com
Am; Lek: The abstract of the study in 4 sentences
The research question: Is there a difference in the chances of getting a job between overqualified men and women?
The research process: Two experiments examined how men are evaluated compared to women, their likelihood of being accepted, and the applicants’ perception of commitment
Conclusions: Female job candidates need to be overqualified to achieve the same results as male candidates
Some provisions: The study presents another scientific support for the inequality between women and men in hiring, which stems from biases regarding the degree of commitment to the organization
A well-known and common assumption is that candidates for the position who are overqualified (overqualified), meaning higher qualifications than required for the job, have a lower chance of being accepted for the position. Overqualification is a situation in which a candidate for a certain job has education, professional training and experience that far exceeds what is required for the job. So if they are so good, why don’t they get the coveted job?
It is common to think that hiring managers will fear that the overqualified will lose interest, quickly get bored with the position, use it as a springboard for another position – and at the first opportunity they have, will leave the organization in favor of a better offer. Therefore, the common perception among employers is that overqualified candidates have a low commitment to the organization over time.
However, past studies have found a significant difference between female candidates and male candidates: while women have to prove that they are committed to their career as opposed to a commitment to the family, men do not have to prove this, as employers assume this in advance. This creates a situation in which employers tend to have an unfair bias in judging the skills of women and make negative assumptions about their commitment to a career. As a result, female job candidates have to be overqualified to achieve the same results as male candidates.
gender stereotypes
A new study published earlier this year in the journal Organizational Science found qualitative data that provides converging evidence to support this assertion. The data show that the gender differences in the impact of overqualifications on recruitment results stem from the perception of the type of commitment – company or career – that is most prominent during evaluations. Overqualified men are seen as less committed to society, and therefore have less chance of being hired than men with appropriate qualifications. In contrast, overqualified women are seen as more committed to their careers compared to women with suitable qualifications, because their overqualified skills help overcome the negative biases and assumptions regarding their career commitment.
The evidence reveals that managers rely on gender stereotypes: unlike men, women who are over qualified are not seen as having a lower perception of commitment to the organization and the position and therefore have a higher chance than men to be accepted for the position.
The article is based on two experiments conducted by researchers from the University of California and Carnegie Mellon. In the first experiment they recruited about 300 male and female managers, and through an online questionnaire they were asked to play the role of recruiters in an investment company looking for an analyst. The managers received information about the qualifications required to perform the position and were asked to evaluate 4 candidates for the position: 2 with suitable qualifications and 2 with overqualified qualifications.
The skills were assessed according to the current job definition and experience in the industry, with the resumes of those with the appropriate skills adjusted to the job requirements; Whereas those with overqualifications were described as having double experience in previous positions so that it would appear as if the proposed position would represent a decrease in the scope of responsibility and influence. When the researchers analyzed the results, they also compared, among other things, the differences between the gender of the candidates. The analysis found that the chance of women with overqualified qualifications to receive a job offer was higher than the chance of men with appropriate qualifications (6.3 vs. 6, on a scale of 1-7).
Family at the expense of career
In the second experiment, the researchers examined how the perception of career commitment affected the differences found between male and female candidates regarding the chance of receiving a job offer. Similar to the first experiment, this time the participants were asked to evaluate the commitment of the candidates for the position using questions such as “To what extent will Sarah/Thomas be committed to the organization?” or “What is the probability that Sarah/Thomas will agree to work overtime without additional compensation?”.
Here, too, the researchers found that overqualified women were evaluated by the participants as having the highest commitment to their careers and the organization, compared to women with adequate skills, men with overqualified skills and men with appropriate skills. Hence, overqualifications have a negative effect on candidates’ chances of being accepted for the position – but have a positive effect on the chances of candidacy.
The researchers also found that the chance of overqualified women receiving a job offer was significantly higher than the chance of women with suitable qualifications, findings that indicate the negative bias towards women in recruitment.
The various studies indicate that female candidates should demonstrate commitment to the organization and career commitment, while male candidates should demonstrate commitment to the organizational dimension only. The differences in the effect of over-skills are evidence of gender inequality in hiring processes, which operate through gender cognitive biases regarding candidates’ commitment and candidacy to their careers.