Line Manager Support

Interviewees from both groups discussed the significant role their line managers played in career success. However, minority- and majority-ethnic interviewees reported positive and negative experiences with line managers’ level of sponsorship, career interest and career impeding behaviour, suggesting that employees’ experiences may depend on the individual relationship between line manager and subordinate. An important difference between the groups was that minority-ethnic, but not majority-ethnic interviewees reported receiving low quality feedback from their line managers.

Sponsorship

In this study, sponsorship was identified as an important positive influence on career success by both minority- and majority-ethnic interviewees. Common examples described by managers included line managers acting as advocates for their employees to other hiring managers, and introducing them to senior decision makers

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through informal networks. However, minority-ethnic interviewees reported incidents where their line managers, although acting as a sponsor for their direct team, did not afford them the same opportunity. Yet, minority-ethnic interviewees also reported line managers who offered far more support than others:

“[my line manager] was actively looking for opportunities for me, putting my name forward if something came up that she thought I would be good at, it felt like she was looking out for me”

[Participant 31, Majority-Ethnic, Female]

Career Interest

The second aspect of line manager support was the degree to which line managers expressed interest in interviewees’ careers. Similar to the sponsorship role, useful line managers were reported as those who highlighted career opportunities, although this did not necessarily include notifying others in the organisation about the employees’ suitability. However, several majority-ethnic interviewees reported that although they enjoyed such support they preferred to rely on informal network contacts and developmental relationships for career guidance, as well as, or instead of their line manager. Several minority-ethnic interviewees suggested that they were not supported by their line managers, yet others felt they had highly supportive line managers, who very much nurtured their career development:

“people saw me with [line manager] and she has kind of been my sponsor, and I tended to turn to for advice, in fact I ha ve three people I turn to for advice. She was the sponsor, I was mentored by one of the very young successful people as a result of that and I go to the pub with another one of those and they are the people I go to when I need advice about jobs or when I need a job.”

[Participant 21, Majority-Ethnic, Male] “She was very supportive, in the discussions she very tactfully and subtly started me thinking about ‘what do you really want to do’, ‘where do you see your career going....’ “if so these are the avenues that are open to you”, “you should be applying for these posts”, “if not, just think wider”. And she didn’t actually say where to go for the posts; it was just that support that she gave me that I thought was a definite step change”

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Performance Evaluation

Performance evaluation was originally a higher order, a priori code in the template. However, although two minority-ethnic interviewees raised concerns about potential bias in performance evaluations, it did not feature in interviews with sufficient emphasis to warrant a separate level-one code in the template so was placed under the more general ‘line manager support’ code. Performance evaluation is one of the key areas of ethnicity research in organisational psychology (e.g. Dewberry, 2001; Stauffer & Buckley, 2005). However, if such bias does occur it may be that the respondents themselves would be less aware of it.

Several minority-ethnic interviewees did comment that the feedback they received from line managers typically focused on positive points of their work rather than any negative aspects. Importantly, this was not discussed by majority-ethnic interviewees. A lack of detailed feedback about areas where they were performing less well meant minority-ethnic interviewees reported having little chance to change or improve any poorer areas:

“There is nothing worse than saying ‘well we think you are wonderful’, because that doesn’t help me - it doesn’t tell me what more I need to do. I just got very fluffy feedback”

[Participant 10, Minority-Ethnic, Female]

Some of these minority-ethnic interviewees reported that they had experienced end of year appraisals that were surprising and suddenly unforgiving after receiving positive feedback throughout the year. They believed that line managers were apprehensive about providing negative verbal feedback, for fear of appearing discriminatory, but were more candid when providing feedback in written appraisal forms.

Career Impeding Behaviour

Many minority- and majority-ethnic interviewees reported that they had experienced line managers who blocked their requests for training, development and career moves. Whilst minority-ethnic interviewees described these behaviours as

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deliberately exclusionary, majority-ethnic managers were more likely to attribute these instances to sources such as lack of budget.

“He has stopped them all, but I mean it has not stopped me from developing, because obviously if you do know how to, there are other ways of doing it, but yes, he has categorically said I can’t attend the [development course], even though I was accepted on it,”

[Participant 18, Minority-Ethnic, Female]

The variation in the types of line management experiences reported by minority- and majority-ethnic interviewees suggest that outcomes may vary depending on the individual line manager and the relationship he or she has with each employee.