Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and other major technology companies are far more inclined to hire Asians as computer programmers than to promote them to become managers or executives, according to a study released yesterday.
The analysis uncovered a glaring imbalance between the number of Asian technology workers in non-management jobs and the number in leadership positions in Silicon Valley.
Ascend, a group focused on Asian business issues, based its conclusions on 2013 data filed with US employment regulators by five Silicon Valley companies — Google, Yahoo, Intel Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and LinkedIn Corp.
“If you step in the cafeteria of any of these five companies, you will see plenty of Asian talent around,” said Denise Peck, a coauthor of the Ascend study and former vice president at computer networking equipment maker Cisco Systems. “It’s only when you walk into the executive suites at these companies that you might see a problem.”
Ascend’s findings might raise more questions about ethnic and gender biases in Silicon Valley at a time when the technology industry is already under attack for its hiring practices. The study came out on the same day that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Push organization held a summit in San Francisco as part of a year-old campaign to pressure tech companies into hiring and promoting more minorities and women.
Most of the criticism has been spurred by the release of employment data showing an abnormally low percentage of women, blacks and Hispanics who have programming and engineering jobs.
There is no shortage of Asians in those technology jobs, according to those numbers and Ascend’s new report.
However, Asians are having trouble climbing up the chain of command, based on Ascend’s analysis of the “professional” jobs at the five studied companies. The classification refers to white-collar positions that typically require technical skills or college degrees.
The report found that Asians held 27 percent of the professional jobs, yet only 14 percent were executives. By comparison, whites held 62 percent of the professional jobs at the studied companies, but filled 80 percent of the executive jobs.
Asian women faced a “double whammy” of racial and sexual discrimination, the report said.
The study said there is only one Asian female executive for every 287 Asian women professional jobs at the five companies.
By comparison, there was one white female executive for every 123 white women in professional jobs, Ascend said. The ratio for white men was one executive for every 87 professional jobs.
The technology industry’s shortage of Asian executives stems in part from a cultural divide, the report said.
Corporate America often embraces confident, outspoken individuals with unconventional ideas.
In contrast, many Asians are taught to be deferential and cling to a belief that doing a good job will automatically be rewarded, said Peck, a Chinese-American.
“There are cultural norms and attitudes that help get Asians to a certain level of success, but then work against them and hold them back from reaching a higher rank,” Peck said.
The challenges are not insurmountable. Microsoft Corp is led by an Asian chief executive officer, Indian-American Satya Nadella, who has received high marks since taking the job 15 months ago.
Another Asian leader, Sundar Pichai, has worked his way up to become one of Google’s top executives since joining the company 11 years ago.
In a blog post on Tuesday that did not directly address Ascend’s report, Google said about half of its 55,000 employees have completed “unconscious bias” workshops as part of its diversity commitment.
“With an organization of our size, meaningful change will take time,” Google vice president of people operations Nancy Lee wrote. “From one year to the next, bit by bit, our progress will inch forward.”
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last