Hiring for Fit, Training for Skills: Cultural Gatekeeping and Pathways to Middle-Class Careers in Advanced Manufacturing

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 15: Workers' Skills and Earnings

Abstract

Recent U.S. legislation has spurred growth in advanced manufacturing jobs that offer well-paying careers for workers without bachelor’s degrees and challenge traditional blue-collar and white-collar categorizations. These “new-collar” jobs require technical skills and alignment with workplace culture. Based on in-depth interviews with 26 executives across a large region, this study investigates how advanced manufacturing hiring processes prioritize cultural fit within local sub-baccalaureate labor markets. Employers define cultural fit as a holistic understanding of the workplace and industry that allows workers to recognize how their immediate tasks fit into broader production processes and organizational outcomes—concepts that parallel the sociological imagination. Firms use active and passive recruiting strategies and informal or behavioral interviewing to conduct exhaustive searches for candidates with personal and social skills aligned with their organizational culture. This “hire-for-fit, train-for-skills” approach mitigates technical skills gaps, enabling firms to hire and train promising local workers, including high school and community college students. This study extends sociological theories of cultural capital to non-elite labor markets, demonstrating how cultural fit shapes pathways to middle-class careers. This study also underscores how K-12 and higher education sociology courses can teach young workers how to connect their job roles to broader organizational and industry needs.

Author

• Will Tyson, University of South Florida