A Theory of Time-Based Discrimination In Evaluation

Authors:

Abstract: Career inequality across demographic groups remains pervasive in professional and managerial roles. Given the importance of long work hours to professional and managerial culture, we posit that biased evaluations of individuals’ time spent working may importantly shape these inequalities. Synthesizing scholarship on inequality with theory on subjective time, we theorize a process of time-based discrimination in evaluation. We suggest that demographic tokens—numerical minorities in a given context—may experience discriminatory evaluation of their work time. We posit that key aspects of the temporal context in professional and managerial jobs amplify evaluators’ emphasis on work time in evaluations. When assessing tokens, evaluators’ time-based stereotypes about the token group’s characteristics may be activated. Some tokens may be stereotyped as “shirkers,” experience scrutiny of their work hours, and get interpreted as being misfits with the dominant culture on the basis of low hours worked. Other tokens may be stereotyped as “overworkers,” experience scrutiny of their natural ability, and get interpreted as being misfits on the basis of low talent. Together, these processes may negatively affect performance assessments and evaluations of leadership potential for tokens. We delineate contributions and new lines of research for scholarship on career inequality and subjective time.

Track: DEI

Keywords: Diversity, Discrimination, Time