More Than a Match: “Fit” as a Tool in Hiring Decisions

Abstract

The concept of “fit” has become important for understanding hiring decisions and labor market outcomes. While social scientists have explored how fit functions as a legitimized evaluative criterion to match candidates to jobs in the hiring process, less is known about how fit functions as a hiring tool to aid in decision-making when hiring decisions cannot—or should not—be justified. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 53 hiring professionals, we develop a theoretical argument that hiring professionals can use fit as a tool to circumvent legitimized hiring criteria and justify their hiring goals. Specifically, we show how hiring professionals use fit as a tool to explain their hiring decisions when these decisions cannot or should not be justified and we outline two mechanisms through which this process occurs: (1) fit as a tool for circumventing human capital concerns, and (2) fit as a tool to circumvent hiring policies based upon social characteristics. We argue that fit is more than an evaluative criterion for matching individuals to jobs. Hiring professionals deploy fit as a tool to justify their decisions amid uncertainty and constraint. Fit, then, becomes a placeholder when these hiring decisions are not able to be justified through legitimized means. Our findings reveal some of the potential negative consequences of using fit during the hiring process and contribute important theoretical insights about the role of fit in scholarship on inequality and labor markets.