EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION IN ALGARVE’S COMPANIES

Authors

  • Maria Manuela Neto
  • Ileana Pardal Monteiro

Keywords:

Social Discrimination, Prejudice, Employment, Managers’ Attitudes.

Abstract

The problem of social differentiation has been studied for long by Social Psychology, at a subjective level as well as at clearly discriminatory or even hostile behaviours among social groups. Nowadays, our society seems to value more tolerant and flexible behaviours, for it is not "politically correct" to manifest attitudes of prejudice towards minority groups, however, at a latent level it remains the same. Besides precariousness of work, we know there are people who find it more difficult to be recruited, for instance, persons with disabilities, ex-drug addicts, ex-convicted, long-term unemployed and also young people searching for their first job. The Portuguese Government, through “Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional” (Public Institute for Employment), has helped these groups to access training and employment. We can understand that managers focus themselves on performance and do not want to take risks by employing “problematic” persons. On the other hand, this reality may cover discrimination and prejudice towards some social groups. This paper reflects this problem and studies managers’ attitudes towards recruiting to their own small enterprise. We shall show that belonging to certain groups determines the access to a job.

Published

12.04.2013

How to Cite

EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION IN ALGARVE’S COMPANIES. (2013). Tourism & Management Studies, 564-574. https://www.tmstudies.net/index.php/ectms/article/view/446