Abstract

In the social sciences, analyses of labor force diversity in organisations mostly examine the effect of diversity on productivity. They neglect to consider, however, how diversity comes about and why firms vary in the diversity of their workforce. The project argues that this is caused by the different extents of social closure in firms’ hiring processes, assuming that the higher the degree of diversity in a given dimension, the lower the degree of social closure in the same dimension during hiring. Max Weber's notion of social closure and its implications serve as the theoretical backdrop. Until now, there is no quantitative study of the effect that diversity has on recruitment processes. The project's main goal is to present exactly that, using data from the German Job Vacancy Survey of the Institute for Employment Research and administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency. It applies not only quantitative, but also qualitative methods: Two of the project's steps analyse the effect of age diversity and gender diversity, respectively. The third step presents results from standardized, open-ended interviews with human resource employees, managers and business owners about diversity management. and social closure.