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Analysis of institutional authors

Blanco, Maria RitaCorresponding Author

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January 24, 2023
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Homophily: functional bias to the talent identification process?

Publicated to:Personnel Review. 51 (2): 620-643 - 2022-01-01 51(2), DOI: 10.1108/PR-05-2019-0230

Authors: Golik, Mariela; Blanco, Maria Rita

Affiliations

Univ Nacl San Martin, Buenos Aires, DF, Argentina - Author

Abstract

Purpose - This empirical study aims to analyse the talent spotters' perception of their tendency to be homophilic in the talent identification process and their stance on it. Besides, this article examines the type of homophily and the homophily attributes involved.Design/methodology/approach - Based on a qualitative design, 37 middle and senior line managers, working for two Argentine conglomerates in six Latin American countries, participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews.Findings - Homophily was perceived by most of talent spotters, who judged it as natural, while it was not perceived by a small group of the interviewees. In addition, among those who recognized its presence, another group advocated the homophilic advantages, while a final one admitted the presence of homophily and its negative implications. In addition, a variety of homophily attributes were identified; most of them within the value category. We posit that if homophily attributes are, at the same time, components of high potential models, homophily will constitute a functional bias to the talent identification process.Originality/value - This is the first study that explores the talent spotters' perception of their homophily bias as well as the diversity of homophily attributes present in the talent identification process. This research highlights the relevance of the homophily attributes' analysis, taking into account its alignment to the potential model in order to improve the talent identification process.

Keywords

DiversityGenderHomophilyHypothesisInterpersonal similarityLine managersManagementNetworksQualitativeRaceSex similaritySimilarity-attractionSocial identityTalent identification

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Personnel Review due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 5/30, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Industrial Relations & Labor.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.44. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 2.99 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-17, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 6

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-17:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 39.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 39 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Argentina.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (Blanco Dopazo, María Rita del Carmen).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Blanco Dopazo, María Rita del Carmen.