Christopher L. Pitzak and Professor Lynn England, Sociology

Introduction

The purpose of my research was essentially to evaluate the effects that race and gender have in the hiring practices of elite management consulting firms. I chose this industry because of the effect it has in today’s business world. Given the fact that management consuting is predominantly white male, I thought that an analysis of their hiring practices would offer an explanation as to its composition. Having studied race and gender related issues in the classroom, I was anxious to evaluate a real world industry and see how what I had learned in the classroom related to the real world.

Data and Results

I originally set out to outline two different facets of the hiring process-exconsultants and the human resource departments of the individual firms. As I began the analysis, I quickly noticed that many of the firms I was evaluating were scheduled to visit campus. This actually really helped me to gain a first-hand experience of how the firms recruit, which proved to add value to the qualitative interviews that I performed.

The qualitative interviews allowed me to get face to face with exconsultants and ask them direct questions. This method coupled with the fact that they had no ties to their previous employers ( being students at Harvard Business School), allowed me to elicit answers that were less biased and therefore, more valuable to my efforts. They revealed that they felt there was somewhat of a bias in the hiring process. The general feeling was that it was at a subconcious level. One consultant simply said, “People generally like others who are like them.” I feel that this was more revealing of the human race than the industry, but still very important.

I originally hypothesized that the relationship between the demographics of the campus recruiters and the demographics of those who were hired would be statistically significant. This element of the study proved to be true. I also hypothesized that not only will the relationship be statistically significant but also it would permeate the ideological patterns of the organization. This appearred to also be true.

In summary, the results of my analysis were congruent with the original hypothesis. Initially, I set out to collect data and analyze it in a more quantitative manner. After conducting the research, it became evident that the research lended itself more to my personal development as a sociologist more than anything else. In other words, I was able to amplify my scholastic experience by seeing and feeling how the variables of race and gender functioned in real life hiring practices.

Personal

The opportunity to conduct individual qualitative research has been one which proved invaluable. It amplified my educational experience at BYU in a manner that no classroom module could. The experience was both positive and enlightening.