Organizational gatekeepers rely on tacit proxy signals of quality to evaluate creative work: status and status characteristics, elite networks, cultural capital, and a set of signals we refer to as symbolic dexterity. We argue that this reliance is due to the “push” of uncertainty and the “pull” of the culturally dominant person-centered view of creativity. Evaluators are “pushed” toward these proxy signals because the quality of creative work is fundamentally uncertain. Evaluators are “pulled” toward these proxy signals because the person-centered view of creativity makes these signals legitimate and easily available decision heuristics. Since members of privileged social groups are advantaged in producing and understanding the importance of such signals, we argue that access to creative work and success within it are largely a privilege. Given that privilege-based selection in creative work is both entrenched and ethically problematic, we explore its implications for organizational performance and organizational reputation and propose strategies that may help organizations reduce its discriminatory impact. We conclude by presenting questions for future research arising at the intersection of the literatures on evaluation in creative work and on social inequality.

组织把关人依靠隐性的质量代理信号来评估创造性工作：地位和地位特征、精英网络、文化资本以及我们称之为象征灵活性的一组信号。我们认为，这种依赖是由于不确定性的“推动”和文化主导的以人为中心的创造力观的“拉动”。评估者被“推向”这些代理信号，因为创造性工作的质量从根本上来说是不确定的。评估者被“拉”向这些代理信号，因为以人为中心的创造力观使这些信号合法且易于获得决策启发。由于特权社会群体的成员在产生和理解此类信号的重要性方面具有优势，因此我们认为获得创造性工作并在其中取得成功在很大程度上是一种特权。鉴于创造性工作中基于特权的选择既根深蒂固，又存在道德问题，我们探讨了它对组织绩效和组织声誉的影响，并提出了可能帮助组织减少其歧视性影响的策略。最后，我们提出了有关创造性工作评估和社会不平等文献交叉点的未来研究问题。