What's in a name? Possibly the key to landing your next leadership role

Ethnic minorities receive half as many calls back when applying for jobs than those with English-sounding names, according to the results of a two-year study.

Researchers found ethnic minorities receive half as many calls back than applicants with English names for leadership positions despite identical resumes. Source: Getty / Bobbi Lockyer/Refinery29 Australia

Key Points

• Job applicants with non-English names receive half as many calls back as those with English names, a study shows.
• It found discrimination against six ethnic groups.
• All candidates were born in Australia, worked in Australia and went to an Australian school or university.

Jobseekers with non-English names face "pervasive hiring discrimination" when it comes to applying for leadership roles, according to a new study.

Researchers found ethnic minorities receive half as many calls back than applicants with English names for leadership positions despite identical resumes.

Throughout the two-year study, researchers sent more than 12,000 job applications to over 4,000 job ads across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Three applications were sent in response to job advertisements in 12 different occupations.

Each included a resume of an applicant with an English name and the resumes of two applicants with non-English names.

Six different ethnic groups were investigated by varying resumes with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Arabic, Chinese, English, Greek and Indian names.

All candidates were born in Australia, worked in Australia and went to an Australian school or university.

The research, printed in ScienceDirect, was carried out by Mladen Adamovic from King's College London and Andreas Liebbrandt of Monash Business School.

Liebbrandt said it is the first study to examine the issue among leadership.

"Our findings provide support for the existence of pronounced discrimination in the recruitment of leadership positions," he said.

Despite identical resumes, the study found applications from an ethnic minority received 57.4 per cent fewer calls back for jobs than those with English names.

For non-leadership positions, ethnic minorities received 45.3 per cent fewer calls back.

Ethnic discrimination for leadership positions was more pronounced when the advertised job required customer contact but improved if the job emphasised the need for individualism, or learning, creativity and innovation.

Liebbrandt said hiring decision-making may be influenced by stereotypes and general leadership prototypes.

The study recommended anonymous job applications in which the applicants' names could be hidden in the initial recruitment phase to remove any bias