Page 18 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg

16 CHAPTER 1
“remains a missing link in understanding the persistence of gender inequalities in academic careers” (p. 1112). In chapters 4 and 5, I will fill this void by showing which gender practices characterize the recruitment and selection of tenure-track assistant professors and by looking into the practicing of gender in hiring committees4. In the next section I will elaborate on the concepts of recruitment and selection.
Recruitment and selection
Recruitment and selection of new staff are essential elements of human resource management and talent management in universities (Thunnissen, 2015). Recruitment is the process concerned with attracting suitable candidates (Newell, 2005) and selection is the process of choosing one candidate out of the pool of candidates based on certain criteria (Rees & Rumbles, 2010) and based on the ‘fit’ between the individual and the job (Newell, 2005). Interestingly, the role of HR professionals in recruitment and selection in universities is relatively small, as members of the academic elite play a critical part in both the recruitment and selection of candidates (Farndale & Hope-Hailey, 2009).
I perceive recruitment and selection as social practices, performed in interaction by multiple hiring committee members. In academia, hiring committees and their members are gatekeepers to the professoriate as they decide who will be included and excluded from vacant positions (Husu, 2004; Rivera, 2017). In all hiring procedures, there is something at stake for both the party that hires and the party that applies for the position. Hiring decisions made by committees affect not only individuals’ careers but also the demographic composition of departments, disciplines, and universities (Rivera, 2017). As Evans (1995) stated: “Departmental groups are not large; any new colleague will have a personal impact on the existing members and on their relationships” (p. 253). Yet, recruitment and selection are not only vital for departments and universities at large, but also for candidates who are looking for a position. Recruitment and selection processes can decide whether or not they can continue their academic career and receive an income in order to sustain their livelihood. This might be particularly so for early-career researchers who are competing for a limited number of academic positions where only a small minority among a pool of candidates is retained.
Committee members make hiring decisions collectively. Studies have shown that hiring involves micro political power processes because multiple individuals have to negotiate outcomes (Bozionelos, 2005; Van den Brink, 2010). Committee politics
4 Throughout this dissertation I use the terms “hiring committees / hiring committee members” and “selection committees / selection committee members” interchangeably.