Marc Bendick - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Marc Bendick

To increase employment from desired race or gender groups, employers nearly always first turn to ... more To increase employment from desired race or gender groups, employers nearly always first turn to recruiting from outside their organization. But a few years after such initiatives are undertaken, diversity numbers typically remain low or even decrease, turnover among recruits from the sought-after groups is high, and the efforts are threatened by their recurrent cost. Employers need to break this fruitless cycle by thinking more strategically. Without an inclusive organizational climate that retains and fully utilizes minority employees after hire, simply recruiting more such employees will not lead to sustainable changes in workforce demographics. Drawing on empirical research, this paper describes six "red flags" that identify workplaces not ready to recruit. Only after organizational changes address the deficiencies identified by the red flags will the time for minority recruitment be at hand. But by then special focused recruitment may not be necessary; when employers change their workplace cultures to become truly inclusive, word gets around.

Workplace diversity and inclusion (D & I) practices today are based to a great extent on unevalua... more Workplace diversity and inclusion (D & I) practices today are based to a great extent on unevaluated experience and intuition rather than empirical evidence. Would voluntary professional practice standards in this field help to raise the level of current and future practice? Or would they be premature? If developed under 4 principles we describe, we predict the former. However, this positive outcome will also require industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists to join their D & I colleagues in expanding research on D & I practices, strengthening the skills of D & I practitioners, assisting employers to avoid self-incrimination, and enhancing employer commitment to D & I itself. I-O psychologists should also be aware of other implications of D & I practice standards for their work. Diversity and inclusion (D & I) initiatives are now prominent among the employment practices with which many industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists work. It is rare to attend a workplace-oriented conference without meeting multiple providers offering diversity training; to view an employer's website without encountering a ''diversity'' link; or to complete a consulting assignment without hearing about the client's ''employee resource groups,'' celebrations of diverse cultures, and ''business case for diversity.'' At least half of all U.S. companies with over 100 employees have Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Rosemary Hays-Thomas.

Journal of Aging & Social Policy, Oct 29, 1999

Pairs of testers, one aged 57 and one aged 32, applied for 102 entry-level sales or management jo... more Pairs of testers, one aged 57 and one aged 32, applied for 102 entry-level sales or management jobs in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Although their credentials described them as equally qualified, the older applicants received less favorable responses from employers 41.2% of the time. Three quarters of these differences occurred before older applicants could fully present their qualifications. The negative employer assumptions about older workers implied by these differences in outcome were seldom explicitly stated.

Journal of Social Issues, Jun 1, 2012

Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, disability, gender orienta... more Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, disability, gender orientation, and other characteristics continues to distort employers' hiring decisions and thereby limit employment opportunities for historically excluded groups. Research in psychology, sociology, economics, and management provides insights concerning the mechanisms of bias and interventions to mitigate their effects, but important questions remain. The innovative research technique of matched pair testing offers laboratory-like controlled conditions in quasi-experiments in real-world hiring situations. We propose seven types of testing studies to advance conceptual understanding of hiring bias and improve hiring practices. Employers in America's private sector decide who to hire 60 million times a year-more than 250,000 times each work day (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). For successful job candidates, the hiring process provides employment and determines initial job titles, work assignments, and wages, which, in turn, often influence that employee's career for years thereafter. For successful and unsuccessful job applicants, it also provides job-seeking experience, career information, and encouragement or discouragement. Few human resource management processes rival hiring in impact on the distribution of employment opportunities and rewards.

Employment data for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were analyzed to determine jobs avail... more Employment data for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were analyzed to determine jobs available to people who had not graduated from high school. Three hundred nine occupations offered at least some openings. These occupations encompassed 584,000 jobs and offered 14,000 openings in an average week. These numbers overestimated jobs available to many chronically poor for three reasons: prerequisites may stand betwet,n job seekers and jobs; only a fraction of the job vacancies are widely advertised; and race and sex discrimination limit the number and quality of jobs available to females or members of minority groups. Only one-third of these jobs offered starting wages that exceeded the official federal poverty level for a prototypical family of one adult and two children. At least 50 percent offered no employer-financed health insurance. Sixty percent of the job openings that occurred in a typical week led to a job lasting less than 1 year. Instead of relying on upward mobility within an occupation, workers could increase their qualifications for more attractive occupations. Findings suggested three lessons concerning employment as a strategy for helping people escape chronic poverty: relevance of employment, importance of reducing barriers to employment, and importance of occupational upgrading. (Appendixes include a list of the 309 occupations, list of occupations offering jobs of higher quality, statistical regression analysis, and 97-item bibliography.) (YLB)

Xerox University Microfilms eBooks, 1975

Policy Studies Journal, Dec 1, 1981

Other forms of local economic assistance (such as CETA and the Community Development Block Grant ... more Other forms of local economic assistance (such as CETA and the Community Development Block Grant program) were less obviously targeted at distressed areas or aimed at redevelopment. ... Brenner, H. Mental Illness and the Economy. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ...

International journal of economic development, Apr 1, 2000

Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities contin... more Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities continue to experience substantial discrimination in employment. However, this discrimination is often subtle and unconscious. Because discriminatory practices are so intertwined with apparenth-neutral employment practices, affirmative action remains an important means of combating them. Properly designed, affirmative action can benefit employers and non-protected employees as well as the minorities directly covered.

Social Service Review, Mar 1, 1978

About 75 percent of the US poverty population can offer reading skills at no higher than an eight... more About 75 percent of the US poverty population can offer reading skills at no higher than an eighth-grade level. The procedures and documents of many public welfare agencies require far higher levels of skill; in a sample of eighty-one docu-ments, only 11 percent were ...

Social Science Journal, Apr 2, 2021

PubMed, 1986

Urbanization is on the rise throughout the developing world. The United Nations estimates that by... more Urbanization is on the rise throughout the developing world. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2000 about two-thirds of the world's urban population will live in developing countries.' Even Africa, currently one of the least urbanized areas of the world, with 21 ...

Employee Relations Law Journal, 2009

Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities are unemployed or under-employed, with detrimental... more Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities are unemployed or under-employed, with detrimental consequences for their lives and mental health. Although prior research suggests that stigmatization and discrimination contribute to this outcome, the exact extent of such employer behavior has remained largely undetermined. This article reviews the employment situation of persons with psychiatric disabilities, considers traditional ways to analyze the role of discrimination, and proposes situation testing as a new methodology overcoming many limitations of prior research. By rigorously documenting real world discriminatory practices, situation testing can importantly infl uence public opinion and government policy, as well as change employers' behavior through education or litigation. W ork plays a central role in the lives for most adults. It is therefore not surprising that opportunities for individuals with psychiatric disabilities to join the broader population in "mainstream" employment tend to enhance their quality of life. The benefits accrue not only through increased income but also through personal activity, social contacts, self-esteem, illness self-management, and integration into the community. Conversely, unemployment among persons with psychiatric disabilities tends to promote not only poverty and financial dependency but also alienation, hopelessness, lack of fulfillment, loss of self-esteem, isolation, and despair. Unemployment is a significant risk factor for mental health problems ranging from mild psychosocial stress to serious depression and suicide. 1 Unemployment and mental health problems

International Journal of Public Administration, 1999

Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities contin... more Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities continue to experience substantial discrimination in employment. However, this discrimination is often subtle and unconscious. Because discriminatory practices are so intertwined with apparently-neutral employment practices, affirmative action remains an important means of combating them. Properly designed, affirmative action can benefit employers and non-protected employees as well as the minorities directly covered.

Routledge eBooks, Apr 18, 2019

Undertrained workers, not dislocated workers, are the real problem in the American economy. The v... more Undertrained workers, not dislocated workers, are the real problem in the American economy. The vast. majority of the workers affected by.structural change, in the American economy appear to make employment transitions faiily swiftly antsmoothly, with no need'for public intervention. Undertrained workers, mostly ,employed. and scattered in all industries, result from underinvestment in training by both employers and the workers themselves. In addition; worker'-financed training at the beginning of a career and on-the-job training 'in midcaredi will no longer be adequate. Midcareer formal training will become a necessary part of success, but it will be difficult for workers to finance-,, Since 1971, the French have a national system, for financing training that creates an effective public-private partnership to address these problems. The key element is an "obligation to spend" whereby each employer must expend funds to maintain: and expand the skill level of the French labor force. A national system should be set up in the United States that embodies a sustained level of investment in all human resources.-(YLB) .

To increase employment from desired race or gender groups, employers nearly always first turn to ... more To increase employment from desired race or gender groups, employers nearly always first turn to recruiting from outside their organization. But a few years after such initiatives are undertaken, diversity numbers typically remain low or even decrease, turnover among recruits from the sought-after groups is high, and the efforts are threatened by their recurrent cost. Employers need to break this fruitless cycle by thinking more strategically. Without an inclusive organizational climate that retains and fully utilizes minority employees after hire, simply recruiting more such employees will not lead to sustainable changes in workforce demographics. Drawing on empirical research, this paper describes six "red flags" that identify workplaces not ready to recruit. Only after organizational changes address the deficiencies identified by the red flags will the time for minority recruitment be at hand. But by then special focused recruitment may not be necessary; when employers change their workplace cultures to become truly inclusive, word gets around.

Workplace diversity and inclusion (D & I) practices today are based to a great extent on unevalua... more Workplace diversity and inclusion (D & I) practices today are based to a great extent on unevaluated experience and intuition rather than empirical evidence. Would voluntary professional practice standards in this field help to raise the level of current and future practice? Or would they be premature? If developed under 4 principles we describe, we predict the former. However, this positive outcome will also require industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists to join their D & I colleagues in expanding research on D & I practices, strengthening the skills of D & I practitioners, assisting employers to avoid self-incrimination, and enhancing employer commitment to D & I itself. I-O psychologists should also be aware of other implications of D & I practice standards for their work. Diversity and inclusion (D & I) initiatives are now prominent among the employment practices with which many industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists work. It is rare to attend a workplace-oriented conference without meeting multiple providers offering diversity training; to view an employer's website without encountering a ''diversity'' link; or to complete a consulting assignment without hearing about the client's ''employee resource groups,'' celebrations of diverse cultures, and ''business case for diversity.'' At least half of all U.S. companies with over 100 employees have Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Rosemary Hays-Thomas.

Journal of Aging & Social Policy, Oct 29, 1999

Pairs of testers, one aged 57 and one aged 32, applied for 102 entry-level sales or management jo... more Pairs of testers, one aged 57 and one aged 32, applied for 102 entry-level sales or management jobs in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Although their credentials described them as equally qualified, the older applicants received less favorable responses from employers 41.2% of the time. Three quarters of these differences occurred before older applicants could fully present their qualifications. The negative employer assumptions about older workers implied by these differences in outcome were seldom explicitly stated.

Journal of Social Issues, Jun 1, 2012

Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, disability, gender orienta... more Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, disability, gender orientation, and other characteristics continues to distort employers' hiring decisions and thereby limit employment opportunities for historically excluded groups. Research in psychology, sociology, economics, and management provides insights concerning the mechanisms of bias and interventions to mitigate their effects, but important questions remain. The innovative research technique of matched pair testing offers laboratory-like controlled conditions in quasi-experiments in real-world hiring situations. We propose seven types of testing studies to advance conceptual understanding of hiring bias and improve hiring practices. Employers in America's private sector decide who to hire 60 million times a year-more than 250,000 times each work day (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). For successful job candidates, the hiring process provides employment and determines initial job titles, work assignments, and wages, which, in turn, often influence that employee's career for years thereafter. For successful and unsuccessful job applicants, it also provides job-seeking experience, career information, and encouragement or discouragement. Few human resource management processes rival hiring in impact on the distribution of employment opportunities and rewards.

Employment data for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were analyzed to determine jobs avail... more Employment data for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were analyzed to determine jobs available to people who had not graduated from high school. Three hundred nine occupations offered at least some openings. These occupations encompassed 584,000 jobs and offered 14,000 openings in an average week. These numbers overestimated jobs available to many chronically poor for three reasons: prerequisites may stand betwet,n job seekers and jobs; only a fraction of the job vacancies are widely advertised; and race and sex discrimination limit the number and quality of jobs available to females or members of minority groups. Only one-third of these jobs offered starting wages that exceeded the official federal poverty level for a prototypical family of one adult and two children. At least 50 percent offered no employer-financed health insurance. Sixty percent of the job openings that occurred in a typical week led to a job lasting less than 1 year. Instead of relying on upward mobility within an occupation, workers could increase their qualifications for more attractive occupations. Findings suggested three lessons concerning employment as a strategy for helping people escape chronic poverty: relevance of employment, importance of reducing barriers to employment, and importance of occupational upgrading. (Appendixes include a list of the 309 occupations, list of occupations offering jobs of higher quality, statistical regression analysis, and 97-item bibliography.) (YLB)

Xerox University Microfilms eBooks, 1975

Policy Studies Journal, Dec 1, 1981

Other forms of local economic assistance (such as CETA and the Community Development Block Grant ... more Other forms of local economic assistance (such as CETA and the Community Development Block Grant program) were less obviously targeted at distressed areas or aimed at redevelopment. ... Brenner, H. Mental Illness and the Economy. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ...

International journal of economic development, Apr 1, 2000

Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities contin... more Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities continue to experience substantial discrimination in employment. However, this discrimination is often subtle and unconscious. Because discriminatory practices are so intertwined with apparenth-neutral employment practices, affirmative action remains an important means of combating them. Properly designed, affirmative action can benefit employers and non-protected employees as well as the minorities directly covered.

Social Service Review, Mar 1, 1978

About 75 percent of the US poverty population can offer reading skills at no higher than an eight... more About 75 percent of the US poverty population can offer reading skills at no higher than an eighth-grade level. The procedures and documents of many public welfare agencies require far higher levels of skill; in a sample of eighty-one docu-ments, only 11 percent were ...

Social Science Journal, Apr 2, 2021

PubMed, 1986

Urbanization is on the rise throughout the developing world. The United Nations estimates that by... more Urbanization is on the rise throughout the developing world. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2000 about two-thirds of the world's urban population will live in developing countries.' Even Africa, currently one of the least urbanized areas of the world, with 21 ...

Employee Relations Law Journal, 2009

Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities are unemployed or under-employed, with detrimental... more Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities are unemployed or under-employed, with detrimental consequences for their lives and mental health. Although prior research suggests that stigmatization and discrimination contribute to this outcome, the exact extent of such employer behavior has remained largely undetermined. This article reviews the employment situation of persons with psychiatric disabilities, considers traditional ways to analyze the role of discrimination, and proposes situation testing as a new methodology overcoming many limitations of prior research. By rigorously documenting real world discriminatory practices, situation testing can importantly infl uence public opinion and government policy, as well as change employers' behavior through education or litigation. W ork plays a central role in the lives for most adults. It is therefore not surprising that opportunities for individuals with psychiatric disabilities to join the broader population in "mainstream" employment tend to enhance their quality of life. The benefits accrue not only through increased income but also through personal activity, social contacts, self-esteem, illness self-management, and integration into the community. Conversely, unemployment among persons with psychiatric disabilities tends to promote not only poverty and financial dependency but also alienation, hopelessness, lack of fulfillment, loss of self-esteem, isolation, and despair. Unemployment is a significant risk factor for mental health problems ranging from mild psychosocial stress to serious depression and suicide. 1 Unemployment and mental health problems

International Journal of Public Administration, 1999

Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities contin... more Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities continue to experience substantial discrimination in employment. However, this discrimination is often subtle and unconscious. Because discriminatory practices are so intertwined with apparently-neutral employment practices, affirmative action remains an important means of combating them. Properly designed, affirmative action can benefit employers and non-protected employees as well as the minorities directly covered.

Routledge eBooks, Apr 18, 2019

Undertrained workers, not dislocated workers, are the real problem in the American economy. The v... more Undertrained workers, not dislocated workers, are the real problem in the American economy. The vast. majority of the workers affected by.structural change, in the American economy appear to make employment transitions faiily swiftly antsmoothly, with no need'for public intervention. Undertrained workers, mostly ,employed. and scattered in all industries, result from underinvestment in training by both employers and the workers themselves. In addition; worker'-financed training at the beginning of a career and on-the-job training 'in midcaredi will no longer be adequate. Midcareer formal training will become a necessary part of success, but it will be difficult for workers to finance-,, Since 1971, the French have a national system, for financing training that creates an effective public-private partnership to address these problems. The key element is an "obligation to spend" whereby each employer must expend funds to maintain: and expand the skill level of the French labor force. A national system should be set up in the United States that embodies a sustained level of investment in all human resources.-(YLB) .