Economic Sociology Seminars

Vanessa Conzon, Assistant Professor of Management and Organization, Carroll School of Management, Boston College

Advantaging White Men:  How Play Sustains Gender and Racial Inequality in Organizations

While we know much about the mechanisms through which women and racial minorities come to be disadvantaged in organizations, less is known about the unique mechanisms through which white men are advantaged. Drawing on data from a 15-month ethnography of a pharmaceutical company, I examine how play can (re)produce inequality through advantaging white men. I identify how acts of play might establish white men’s competence and authority, while not doing the same for AAPI individuals or white women. This takes place through subtle day-to-day speech play acts (e.g., jokes) through which white men’s competence and authority are positively built up, disproportionate to other groups. Perceptions of white men’s relative authority and competence, in turn, supports their accumulation of greater organizational resources. This process of resource distribution becomes uncoupled from objective markers of quality, however, resulting in the shutdown of the pharmaceutical research unit. Through identifying this mechanism—which I label the “constructive mechanism”—this study contributes to scholarship on how white men come to experience advantages in organizations, as well as literature on the “dark side” of play in organizations.

Julia Melin, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

Does Remote Work Help or Harm Early-Career Women’s Psychological Safety and Professional Confidence? Insights from a Field Experiment

Despite early-career women’s greater preference for remote work, it is unclear whether working remotely is more harmful or beneficial for their psychological safety—a feeling that is critical for building professional confidence, with implications for retention. I argue that in male-dominated fields, remote work limits early-career women’s access to instrumental and expressive resources, causing disproportionate harm to their psychological safety and professional confidence compared to men and more professionally advanced women. I test my prediction and a potential intervention by leveraging unique longitudinal data collected from biotechnology employees immediately before and after a forced shift to remote work. Upon going remote, early-career women in the company underwent a 6-month intervention consisting of virtual peer groups and career coaching. I find women in the intervention maintained pre-remote levels of psychological safety while also experiencing a significant boost in professional confidence, whereas women in a matched control group showed meaningful declines on both outcomes. Men and more professionally advanced women were unaffected by the remote transition. For all employees, professional confidence strongly predicted organizational retention one-year post-intervention, with psychological safety fully mediating this effect. Supplementary qualitative insights offer support for the intervention’s impact while providing more granularity into the factors underlying its effects. Results identify how in male-dominated fields, the impact of remote work on psychological safety and professional confidence varies based on gender and career stage. Findings also demonstrate a novel way organizations can leverage digital technologies to prevent these negative effects while granting all employees the flexibility of remote work.

Kwelina Thompson, MIT Sloan School of Management 

“Exalted Expectations:” Organizing in the Publishing Industry Across a Century of Change

This presentation will explore the labor organizing efforts in four major publishing firms in Boston and New York from 1970 through 1995. These efforts were primarily led by women who found both promise and pitfalls in traditional unions. I focus on the organizing campaigns led by the newly formed labor group, 9to5. 9to5 was a women’s group with aspirations to become a nationally recognized union of women office workers. Because of the larger number of women in the publishing field, 9to5 targeted the publishing industry early in their formation. Drawing on archival research, I trace how organizers engaged with both workers and firms to transform an industry increasingly dominated by women but also marked by quick mergers and the specter of failure. In doing so, I will explore both the nature and meaning of work in creative and cultural institutions at a critical moment of both social and industrial change with implications for the current wave of organizing in the book publishing field.

Jonathan Mijs, Assistant Professor, Boston University

“Why unequal countries stay that way: Lessons learned about the social life of inequity”

Why have historically high levels of inequality been met with limited public consternation? Understanding why more economically unequal societies are less worried about inequality requires studying the “social life of inequality.” I argue that decades of growing inequality have increased the distance between the affluent and disadvantaged, who increasingly live their lives in separate neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces, and befriend, date, and marry people from within their own socio-economic circles. This disconnect means that neither rich nor poor can see the full extent of inequality in their everyday life or appreciate the non-meritocratic causes of economic “success” and “failure.” In this talk, I will lay out my theoretical framework and research agenda for studying socially-situated belief formation and belief change, present empirical findings, and discuss methodological strategies.

Summer Jackson, Harvard Business School

"Act the Part: Racialized Class Enactment and Promotion Prospects in the Modern Workplace" 

How and when are Black workers promoted in white-collar jobs? In this article, I study race-based differences in promotion-seeking behaviors and explain how taking an intersectional approach to workplace inequality is important for understanding differences in workplace mobility within the same occupation. Despite having similar middle-class backgrounds and working as customer service agents at the same company, there were differences in how Black and White middle-class customer service agents pursued promotions. Both groups were entrepreneurial in their approaches, but Black agents were entrepreneurial within their role, while White agents were entrepreneurial outside their role. This difference in approach to entrepreneurialism and promotion-seeking behaviors was influenced by what I term racialized class enactment—a cultural toolkit that workers draw on, shaped by the opportunities and constraints associated with both their social class and race. While both approaches aligned with the company's values, only entrepreneurial activities outside the role led to higher promotion rates as racialized class enactment shaped both the networks CX agents formed and the managerial perception of the CX agent. For White middle-class CX agents, they formed broad networks and were viewed by managers as “potential leaders.” By contrast, Black middle-class CX agents formed deep networks within the CX department and were viewed by managers as “high performers.” This article sheds light on how even college-educated racial minorities can face stigma and challenges in the workplace and contributes to understanding the social class position of Black Americans by examining how race and social class intersect to influence employee outcomes.