Professors Co-Author Chapter on Linguistic Profiling

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Claretha Hughes, left, and Ketevan Mamiseishvili

Professors Claretha Hughes and Ketevan Mamiseishvili are the authors of a chapter in a new textbook they plan to adopt for an undergraduate workforce diversity course at the University of Arkansas.

Hughes, associate professor of human resource and workforce development, and Mamiseishvili, associate professor of higher education, co-wrote “Linguistic Profiling in the Workforce” in Diversity in the Workforce: Current Issues and Emerging Trends published by Routledge.

Linguistic profiling occurs when people make inferences about other people based on their speech, the authors explained. These could be inferences about race, gender, national origin and intelligence. Linguistic profiling can range from a subtle form of bias that appears during phone interviews of job candidates to negative perceptions of instructors’ teaching credibility found in student evaluations. It can lead to isolation, diminished productivity, reduced global economic activity and job insecurity.

Hughes is the author of Valuing People and Technology in the Workplace published last year by Information Science Reference. It won the R. Wayne Pace Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Human Resource Development.

Mamiseishvili’s research examines the work roles and productivity of foreign-born faculty in the United States.