The Effects of Non-Native Accents on Hiring Success.

The process of globalization and an increase in migration have led to a multicultural workforce. Multinational companies often opt for English as their corporate language, which in turn leads to an increasing number of interactions between non-native English speakers and thus the prevalence of non-standard accents in business contexts. The current study investigated the effects of nonnative accents on hiring success. In an experiment, 116 Dutch participants evaluated either a standard American job candidate, a Spanish accented candidate or a German-accented candidate in terms of perceived status, solidarity, dynamism and hiring success. Findings showed, that overall, the non-standard accents were downgraded in comparison to the American accent. For Dutch multinationals with English as their corporate language, this could mean that non-native job applicants face discrimination issues. Countermeasures could include creating awareness of such tendencies and therefore increasing social acceptance of non-standard accents in English. The effects of non-native accents on hiring success A single “Hello” is sufficient to recognise a speaker’s ethical or cultural background (Wang, Arndt, Singh, Biernat & Liu, 2013). Accents give listeners a range of information about the identity of speakers and how to categorise them by only hearing fractions of their voice and their pronunciation patterns in languages in which a speaker might not feel as comfortable in as in their native language. Migration and immigration increase the prevalence of non-native accents in a globalised world (Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010), especially in employment settings. International connections and cooperation in business contexts but also global consumption patterns and ideologies are examples of today’s globalised society. The redefinition of place and space through connectivity and international relations as well as through the process of digitalisation has shaped the business landscape around the world and has increased the contact between native and non-native speakers (Amin, 2002). Within this process of globalisation, English has become the lingua franca, a global language for international communication. It is the official corporate language of numerous multinational companies, where it serves as a medium of communication between people from different language backgrounds. A major percentage of cases where English is used to communicate thus involves non-native English speakers (Seidlhofer, 2005). Considering this scale THE EFFECTS OF NON-NATIVE ACCENTS ON HIRING SUCCESS 3 of global communication and the prevalence of accented English, it becomes crucial to investigate the influence of accents on the perception and categorisation of speakers. Accents serve as cues for ethnic, cultural or linguistic membership and may thus lead to stereotypes and discrimination (Levi, Winters & Pisoni, 2007). This salience of accentedness can have important implications for businesses and has been researched in different settings, such as in service (van Varenbergh & Holmqvist, 2013) and callservice encounters (Wang, Arndt, Singh & Biernat, 2009) as well as in the domain of lectures (Hendriks, van Meurs & Reimer, 2018) and for marketing purposes where researchers measured purchase intentions (DeShields, Kara & Kaynak, 1996). All these studies have revealed a consistent pattern of results. They found more negative ratings for higher degrees of accent strength and for non-native accents compared to native accents. The influence of accented English on hiring success, however, has received little attention in current research. In order to prevent discrimination in the hiring process and to raise awareness for the salience and impact of accents on evaluations, it is crucial to investigate which role accents play in the perception of job candidates. Several studies have already found significant effects of accent on speaker evaluations in employment settings (e.g. Carlson & McHenry, 2006; Deprez-Sims & Morris, 2010; Hosoda, Nguyen & Stone-Romero, 2012; Hosoda & Stone-Romero, 2010). Non-standard accents are generally downgraded in comparison to standard accents (Fuertes, Gottdiener, Martin, Gilbert, & Giles, 2012). The current study focuses on the non-standard accents German and Spanish in English in comparison to the standard American accent and how job candidates of these three accents are perceived by listeners. The evaluation of Spanish-accented English has already received significant attention in scientific research (e.g. Deprez-Sims & Morris, 2010; Hosoda, Nguyen & Stone-Romero, 2012). German-accented English, however, has received only little attention in existing research. The standard Midwestern American accent is included in the current study because of its prevalence in media and its increased popularity in comparison to other standard English accents such as the RP (Giles & Billings, 2004). Furthermore, a variety of factors could influence how listeners perceive accented speakers. Possible impacts on the evaluation of speakers could be the listener’s familiarity with an accent or the perceived comprehensibility of the speaker. THE EFFECTS OF NON-NATIVE ACCENTS ON HIRING SUCCESS 4 A majority of studies has focused on accent evaluations by native English speakers (e.g. Deprez-Sims & Morris, 2010). However, investigating how non-native English speakers perceive accented English could yield different insights and perspectives, especially because English plays an important role in the corporate context in the Netherlands. Dutch business people are regularly required to communicate in English as the use of Dutch is challenged by the emergence as English as the lingua franca (Nickerson, 1998). This study thus investigates how non-native English accents are perceived by Dutch listeners. The results of this study could be of special interest by Dutch multinational firms that employ people from diverse language backgrounds. Theoretical Framework