Ethnic Minority Women in the Scottish Labour Market: Employers' Perceptions

Published date01 September 2013
AuthorGina Netto,Nicolina Kamenou,Anne Fearfull
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00811.x
Date01 September 2013
Ethnic Minority Women in the Scottish
Labour Market: Employers’ Perceptions
Nicolina Kamenou, Gina Netto1and Anne Fearfull2
School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK, 1School of Built
Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK, and 2School of Business (Accountancy
and Finance), University of Dundee, 1 Perth Road, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK
Corresponding author email: N.Kamenou@hw.ac.uk
This paper contributes to an under-researched area through investigating employers’
perceptions of ethnic minority women in the Scottish labour market. Adopting a social
constructionist approach which acknowledges agency and structure and incorporates
insights relating to organizational and social group culture, the study highlights the
influence of individual (micro), organizational (meso) and contextual (macro) factors on
ethnic minority women’s participation in the labour market. The paper is based on
qualitative research involving Scottish employers in the public and private sectors to
examine perceptions and practices related to the employment of ethnic minority women.
Institutional commitment to equality issues is questioned, although individual instances
of engagement with key equality issues were sometimes evident. Proactive recruitment
strategies and career support for ethnic minority women and men were not in evidence,
and there was low awareness of the unique position of ethnic minority women in employ-
ment and society. We argue that these findings call for a multi-level approach to
advancing human resources management policy, practice and research within a wider
socio-political environment in which the responsibilities and duties of public sector
organizations are clarified and more support is provided for organizational promotion of
equal opportunities.
Introduction
This paper contributes to an under-researched
area through investigating employers’ perceptions
of ethnic minority women in the Scottish labour
market. Employers’ views play an important role
in determining ethnic minority people’s recruit-
ment, progression and experiences within the
labour market. With some exceptions (e.g.
Creegan et al., 2003; Liff and Dale, 1994;
Oikelome and Healy, 2007), studies of race equal-
ity policy and practice across the private, public
and voluntary sectors are limited. This shortcom-
ing is further compounded among ethnic minority
women, who have to contend with little recogni-
tion among employers that ‘factors such as race,
gender, age and class have a mediating influence,
cutting across each other to produce both similar
and different experiences between black and white
women’ (Equal Opportunities Commission, 1994,
p. 5).1
A social constructionist theoretical framework
was adopted through which we examined our
empirical data, generated through 16 semi-
We acknowledge with thanks the Equal Opportunities
Commission for commissioning us to conduct the inves-
tigation on Scottish employers’ attitudes and perceptions
of black and minority ethnic women in the workplace
and labour market from which this paper is drawn. In
October 2007, the UK’s Equal Opportunities Commis-
sion, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Dis-
ability Rights Commission were combined to become the
Equality and Human Rights Commission.
1A multiplicity of terms is in general usage denoting vis-
ibility and, reflective of that, the following are used inter-
changeably in this paper: visible minority women, ethnic
minority women, minority ethnic women and black and
minority ethnic women.
bs_bs_banner
British Journal of Management, Vol. 24, 398–413 (2013)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00811.x
© 2012 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management © 2012 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
structured, in-depth interviews in two public
organizations and one private organization.
Agency and structure are key strands of this
framework, with the additional dimension of
culture. Connections are made to other relevant
concepts, such as intersectionality and institution-
alism, and our discussions are placed within a
context which acknowledges the importance of a
multi-level approach, recognizing the impact of
the interlinked dimensions of micro-individual,
meso-organizational and macro-context on
theory and practice (Tatli and Ozbilgin, 2009).
The paper begins with an overview of the theo-
retical framework adopted for this study and
which was used in examining our interview data.
Connections are then made to key research within
the diversity management arena, focusing on
ethnic minority women in employment. An over-
view of the Scottish labour market environment in
relation to its ethnic minority population is then
presented, before discussing the empirical study.
The results are considered in relation to our con-
ceptual framework and existing research. We high-
light our main contribution to theory and practice,
as well as implications for further research.
Theoretical framework
Recent work (e.g. Al Ariss and Syed, 2011; Tatli,
2011; Tatli and Ozbilgin, 2009) contends that a
relational, multi-level approach to the diversity
management field is appropriate as it takes into
account structural and institutional influences and
the agency of key actors. The social constructionist
framework adopted for our study acknowledges
the interdependence of structure and human
agency (Mead, 1934; Wright Mills, 1953), and we
extend this framework further by incorporating
social and organizational culture (Fearfull and
Kamenou, 2006) and concepts such as intersec-
tionality and institutionalism. Within this frame-
work, it is also important to place the study within
its relevant economic and cultural settings and to
recognize micro-individual, meso-organizational
and macro-social level dynamics (Ozbilgin and
Tatli, 2008). Meso-level structural factors (e.g.
organizational policies and initiatives; family
structures) are central to the experiences of ethnic
minority women and their employers’ perceptions.
The cultural dimension also encompasses two
meso-level dynamics: organizational and social
group culture. The latter relates to those aspects
that are connected with ethnicity or religion. It
would therefore be important to examine the inter-
action of organizational and social group struc-
tures and cultures and expectations placed on
ethnic minority women from both dimensions. At
a micro-level, understanding employers’ percep-
tions of ethnic minority women and their commit-
ment to both their organizational and own culture
is central to this study. Employers’ agency may be
seen as positive if employers are determined to
operate within a fair system which promotes equal-
ity for all. It may be negative, however, if employ-
ers do not engage with, or resist, diversity and
equality policies and initiatives. Meso- and micro-
level factors are placed within a macro-context
which acknowledges social, political and economic
trends, such as legislation and demographic
trends.
The paper draws on a number of relevant con-
cepts in formulating a multi-faceted framework.
The concept of intersectionality is useful in ana-
lysing the many different intersections of group/
organizational/societal membership (Crenshaw,
1989) and in acknowledging that discrimination
and oppression do not occur in discrete categories
as identities are interconnected (Acker, 2006:
Plantenga, 2004). In relation to equality, a
number of diversity strands are present, including
race, ethnicity, gender and religion.
Ethnic minority women in employment
The majority of diversity and equality studies
have focused on gender, but culture, religion, eth-
nicity, disability and other areas of inequality are
gaining more attention within the management
arena (e.g. Bradley and Healy, 2008; Danieli
and Wheeler, 2006; Syed and Kramar, 2010).
Research has strongly indicated that ‘equal
opportunity’ organizations still expect women
and ethnic minority groups to ‘fit in’ with the
prevailing organizational culture (e.g. Kamenou
and Fearfull, 2006; Liff and Cameron, 1997).
Organizational commitment is often judged on
subjective standards, which indirectly favour the
male, white western, linear career model. Ethnic
or religious minority groups, for example, may be
seen as very different from the ‘norm’ if they wish
to practise their religious beliefs at work or
present themselves in an ‘ethnic manner’ through
Ethnic Minority Women in the Scottish Labour Market 399
© 2012 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management © 2012 British Academy of Management.

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