King's College London

King’s Business School researchers Dr Mladen Adamovic and Professor Ko de Ruyter were highly commended in the Financial Times Responsible Business Education awards this week. The awards showcase and encourage innovative approaches to challenges, such as tackling climate change, increasing sustainability, and bringing about greater diversity and inclusion.

Dr Mladen Adamovic’s highly commended research ‘Is There a Glass Ceiling for Ethnic Minorities to Enter Leadership Positions?,’ conducted with Dr Andreas Leibbrandt, focused on discrimination within the recruitment process based on candidates’ names and presumed ethnic background.

He and his team conducted the largest international discrimination study of its kind, submitting more than 12,000 applications for real jobs in Australia from candidates with identical qualifications and experience but different names.

The study found that for leadership roles,11.3 per cent of applications submitted with non-English names received a positive response, compared to 26.8 per cent of applications submitted with English names. For non-leadership roles, 21.2 per cent of applications submitted under English names received positive responses compared to 11.6 per cent for applications submitted under non-English names.

Following extensive media focus on his research, the Career Development Association of Australia invited Dr Adamovic to develop recommendations about how ethnic minority jobseekers can prevent hiring discrimination. His work also caught the attention of leading Australian politicians, including the Minister for Public Service, who urged the Australian Public Service Commission to develop a culturally and linguistically diverse strategy.

In the UK, Dr Adamovic has started a collaboration with Talent Beyond Boundaries and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to improve the employment prospects of Ukrainian refugees. He also collaborated with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre to improve the employment prospects of people seeking asylum. Additionally, he has developed a workshop series for the Graduate Student Association to improve the employability prospects of international students.

Professor Ko De Ruyter’s work, ‘Consumer (Dis)engagement Coping Profiles Using Online Services in Managing Health-Related Stressors’ conducted as part of a team with colleagues at the University of Sussex and Lancaster University focussed on patients’ experience of online health services.

The paper is part of a programme of research aimed at developing a patient-centred focus on the provision, use and evaluation of online health services. The research has built an in-depth understanding of virtual health communities, the digital voice in health consultations, power and negotiations in health condition specific forums and engagement or lack of engagement with online health services in vulnerable communities.

Professor De Ruyter’s work has been recognised as informing the development of the University of Sussex-led NHS Digital Inclusion Framework. This framework will help in addressing exclusion in digital health and care service provision to all populations.