In the Name of Globalization: Meritocracy, Productivity and the Hidden Language of Caste

-Surinder S. Jodhka, Katherine S. Newman

This working paper “In the Name of Globalization: Meritocracy, Productivity and Hidden language of Caste” draws on interview data to analyse the attitudes of 25 employers/hiring managers in India’s organised private sector towards the caste and community attributes of their potential employees. It focuses on the role ascribed rather than achieved qualities play in employer perception of job candidates and there is antagonism toward reservation, as a mechanism for promoting employment for scheduled castes, is articulated as a principled commitment to the modern virtues of competition and productivity.

The paper concludes as to how merit is produced in the first place since distribution of credentials, particularly in the form of education is hardly a function of individual talent alone. It reflects differential investment in public schools, healthcare, nutrition and the like. And since institutional discrimination of this kind sets up millions of low caste Indians for a life time of poverty and disadvantage, there can be no real meaning to meritocracy conceived of as a fair tournament.

Introduction

·        Joleen Kirshenman and Kathryn Neckerman interviewed-Chicago employers to understand role they played in the production of unequal employment outcomes by gender and race i.e black men.

·        Sociologists raise the question to understand how hiring managers viewed the landscape of job applicants, how the stereotypes they employed affected their judgments about the qualifications of those who sought work.

·        In their oft-cited paper, “we’d love to hire them, but….” Discovered that employers believed black men were unreliable, unruly, poorly educated and low skilled – prejudice remains a problem in the distribution of jobs.

·        Looking the study of U.S on employment in the social attitudes of employers and hiring managers; India also designs to study employers in the formal sector.

Background

·         India has huge unemployment problem-like many other third world countries – informal sector- low skilled, rural migrants to large cities

·         Even though high growth of formal sector in mega cities of India, it has made discrimination in the domain of labour market.

·         There is little true on part of research in understanding pattern of employment which varies with regards to caste, religion and origin of region.

·         And this paper devotes attention toward the formal sector in employment practice in which caste is in practice.

·         The pattern of unemployment or underemployment must under discriminatory actors it is both conscious and unconscious on stereotype expectations to overlook or eliminate qualified workers. – “merit is the only thing that matters”

·         There is discrimination under controlled conditions. Example U.S- Minorites, India- Religious and Caste

·         On site interview were conducted in 2005-2006 with the help of human relation or managers who hold the post of hiring and employment policy in each firm.

·         The purpose of the study was exploring perceptions of the Indian labour force and challenges involved in hiring policy.

·         Informants were first asked to describe

Ø  The firm’s history

Ø  Size of the work force

Ø  Categories of employees

Ø  Labour search practices

Ø  Why member of the SC population display high levels of unemployment

Ø  Opinion on “reservation policy”

·         To know their views on whether to extend to the private sector “the reservation policy”

Modernism and Merit

·         In finding of interview- workers should be recruited according to merit.

·         But Indian industry were having the recruitment process based on – in a nepotistic fashion

Ø  Personal ties

Ø  Family ties/village ties

Ø  Caste affinity

·         It was traditional practices which served India for centuries.

·         The east and west has different in job opportunities in job market

Ø  In east the level of competition is more due to less job opportunities and more labourers

Ø  In western industrial countries, same practices obtained, and whatever inequalities emerged as a result was simply accepted as the norm. it was not regarded as unfair or unfortunate; it was simply the way things worked.

·         Qualification and competition built up at the gateway to the institutions that certified the most desirable. Example- businessmen, lawyers, doctors and teachers etc.

·         To be sure- nepotism and other forms of preferential selection also play role in the admission to potential institutions.

·         The concept of merit look hold as a public declaration in opposition to the old tradition of inherited privilege – I scratch –your- back cronyism.

·         The fact that written exams often functioned to exclude minorities unfairly remained and still operates in many domains.

·         The concept of merit as the sole legitimate basis for employment was western modern concept.

·         Indian employers speak past that dominated by localism and favouritism

Examples

Ø  A major media company- publishing headquarters in Delhi and bureau in sixteen Indian states – eighty year old- workforce of 3,000 core employees and 800 contract sources employees. They recruit employees on national way for main news staff and for local for bureau. – When question asked for – any particular workforce; managers responded “our workforce is quite diversified. No concentration on caste, creed and colour… talent and merit does not go with one particular caste or creed”. Prejudice plays no role on caste and religion and he explained “this was the perspective of the 1980s, today when you are casting your own future in an unknown market, the internal flexibility is very important.” We focus on merit, our goal is standardization and exposed candidates- we believe power of imagination comes with exposure. The company project cosmopolitan image as part of its market- there is a bottom line value to recruiting people who are worldly, sophisticated and well educated (cultural capital). In interview they found consistent pronouncements about talent and merit without any caste, creed and colour. But the production of merit is itself a highly unequal; the linkage of modernism with merit and merit with cultural capital eliminates Dalit from competition.

Ø  Manufacturing firm – 20 years old company- sells processed agricultural products- a family owned firm; it has total workforce of 150 people. Some work at headquarter and other in industrial town. They follow management practice and believe in modern techniques. In these firm human resources director look at no relationship between quality of one’s work and background characteristics such as caste, religion or creed or color- for him it is the calibre, attitude and commitment. But he acknowledges the enlightened perspective and practice an affirmative form of caste discrimination. It was only small organisation who prefers to have caste influence on set up of company but this fading away dude to globalisation that creates competition.

Family Matters

·         American language of meritocracy subtracts institutional inequality as well as finds no difference in race and class and concentrated on individual capacity only. Their notion of ‘American dream’ is rest on one’s birth and one’s family origin rest only in notion of merit.

·         But in India “family background” play important role in recruitment process.

Example

Ø  India Shoe Company:- 10,000 core workers and 2,000 casual workers; varieties of applicant – they look with family background – a) good background b) educated parents c) brother and sister working d) preference for those from urban areas

Ø  The ABC firm:- 20,000 worker over sixty location in India- selling agricultural manufactures, clothing, and paper goods and other diversified product; HR manager is Brahmin – they ask them about family background, they believe in “ depending upon the position applied for and the kind of task allotted with the position”.  Example- housekeeping- slum; insist on caste of upper that work in front office and back those of lower.

Ø  Mr. Soames, hiring manager in manufacturing firm over 2800 people believe in his recruitment process- ‘if parents have good education, then children also have good education.”

Ø  The HRM of Cool Air Corporation, family manufacturing firm believe “a good culture from a good family, good parenting and person is stable”.

Ø  Another manager looks at “soft skills that are an asset for the firm”.

·         Erving Goffman’s terms, the employment or educational status of family members is a source of discrediting or corroborating information that either undermines or reinforces a job applicant’s impression management.

·         One’s status as a member of a family was an integral part of personal identity and in many respects is only fully understood within the social coordinates of local society as a respective of the family, the village or the caste. A firm is therefore, not hiring an individual but, in some sense, is employing a respective of a larger social body: the family, the village, the tribe, the caste.

·         The very purpose of family background of screening applicants eliminates Dalit, OBCs and other forms of discrimination.

Ø  Security Services Inc (SSI):- 100,000 employees, began 1989, provide services like security guards, training and protection of private firms and ATM machines- operates in all India level and 500 client firms- their employees “mostly from inferior places where the state doesn’t provide them job”- HR explain “no availability of jobs and poverty is more.. They generally come out and join us”.

Ø  Car manufacturing firm: - what do they look for in a new employee? first is the qualification and relevant background- HR explains “if the person frequently changes jobs, he is not preferred.” One must be willing to work hard and that is quality. They judge and prefer only humble, not aggressive and open to all, they also look family background and high profile family are not preferred because they have an inner pride and arrogant.

Regional Stereotypes

·         Americans are stereotypical about Indian cultures and the workers who come from them- American’s southern states are often deemed languid and slow and North-eastern are best.

Ø  Californians are characterised as laid back and informal, friendly and obsessed with physique.

Ø  Midwesterners are sober and plain

·         India known for its hierarchical caste system – HR managers has stereotypical recruitment process- based on caste, tribe and village membership

Example

Ø  The Kilim Chemical Company

Ø  National Airlines

Ø  Securities Services 

Ø  Indian Motors

Ø  Fitness Health Corporation

Reservation

·         Constitution of India 1947- religious and ethnic composition of the country- Dalit and untouchables

·         They are granted quotas in public sector like higher education, employment and parliament

·         These opportunities are vital to the upward mobility of the Dalit population

·         Legislators and advocates concerned about continuing discrimination against lower castes to suggest reservation policy be extended to the private sector

·         They argue if the private sector commits to affirmative action quotas will be the rights guaranteed in the constitution be protected

·          But reservation is opposed by Human Resource Manager as we are in relationship between modernity and meritocracy

·         In the line of HRM, reservation policy inserts ascriptive criteria into the hiring process and short circuits the competitive processes essential to the market

Examples

Ø  Waste Management Corporation – I haven’t come across anywhere where a SC has been denied a job because he is a SC – director explained

Ø  Retail Firm- if a person is capable enough, he or she doesn’t need reservation. There are enough jobs in the market; one can easily achieve what he wants.

·         What matters- talent, not caste and creed; we look only merit

·         Managers are aware of inequality is persistent, that low caste individuals have less opportunity than others in the labor market.

·         Global production hiring manager insisted on unequal education is the root of the problem- reservation de-motivate and affect hard work

·         Manager of Security Services – Elementary education has to be strengthened

·         Indian Shoe Company – don’t support reservation- they should be educated and complete with their own

·         Corporates don’t entertain reservation policy; there were 25 interviews in which no one support for reservation- they feel no more reservation are required

·         They feel in the international market the India’s success will be only through competition, meritocracy and investment in the best

In the Name of Globalisation

·         The language of meritocracy has spread around the globe with the competitive capitalism and notion of patrimonial ties, reciprocal obligations and birth right should guarantee access to critical resources like jobs.

·         They believe that modernism is the future of their firms and the future of the country- merit is the first place

Question – what are the consequences of this cultural shift, of the spread of a common language that resonates with moral precepts of fairness, level playing fields? Can one argue against meritocracy in the modern world?

                                i.            The belief in merit is only sometimes accompanied by truly, “caste blind” orientation

                              ii.            Question of how merit is produced in the first place