Understanding the impact of impression management, stereotyping and person-job/person-organisation fit on the selection of autistic job applicants

Unemployment among autistic people, including graduates, is the highest of all disability groups. Previous research has found that a major barrier to employment is the conventional job interview, which relies on a high level of social skills, since impairment in social functioning is a central feature of autism. Earlier studies have focused primarily on how autistic people might adapt their behaviour in order to succeed. This research used a critical realist approach to examine the influences of impression management, stereotyping and person-job/person-organisation fit on outcomes for autistic job applicants and considered whether alternatives to conventional assessments might be more appropriate. Interviews were conducted with 69 individuals, comprising autistic participants, employers and professional stakeholders.
The thesis provides important contributions to knowledge. The findings challenge Goffman’s theory of presenting an “idealised” version of oneself in order to create a good impression at interviews. Instead, autistic applicants were required to adopt a different identity - that of the neurotypical candidate - to meet employers’ expectations. The findings also question Goffman’s dramaturgical concept of ‘frontstage’ and ‘backstage’ for autistic people, whose sense of identity and presentation of self were often immutable. The analysis of the recruitment experiences of autistic applicants also contributes toward an advanced understanding of the interaction between the 'social relational model’ and Goffman’s theory of impression management. Further, participants were exposed to a variety of forms of stereotyping. The generative mechanisms that can affect disabled people more generally, such as labour market demands, reliance on AI for candidate selection and austerity measures, negatively impacted on autistic participants. Recommendations for changes to policy and practice include re-evaluation of the algorithm-based tests used to assess person-job and person-organisation fit; the use of work trials, and further employment legislation to prevent discrimination.