Academy of Management, Massachusetts, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 4 - 08 Ağustos 2023
Building on diversity research and social identity theory, we investigate whether and how
diversity characteristics influence the decisions of PhD graduates to pursue an academic career.
Using panel data from a cohort of PhD students who graduated in the 2014 academic year in
Germany, we find that, in general, surface-level diversity characteristics, such as gender, only
influence the academic career choice when deep-level diversity characteristics, such as
personality, preferences, values, and social class, remain unconsidered. Among surface-level
characteristics, we only find consistent evidence for foreign-born PhD graduates to be more
likely to stay in academia than the native-born. Among deep-level characteristics, the life goals
and values of PhD graduates play a crucial role in their decisions. Those seeking to generate new
ideas and work independently aspire to academic careers more than those whose intentions are
spread around materiality, freedom, and sociality. In addition, individuals who have gained
diverse experiences through research visits and research collaborations and those from a higher
social class have a higher probability of pursuing an academic career. These findings emphasize
the complexity of the academic career choice and the need to pay more attention to the effects of
deep-level diversity characteristics in academia.
KEYWORDS:
Academic career; career choice; deep-level diversity; surface-level diversity; social identity
theory; self-categorization; similarity-attraction