Barbara A. Gutek

Distinguishing between service relationships and encounters

In 3 separate studies, the authors developed measures of different social mechanisms used in the interaction between a customer and a service provider and examined their effects. Service relationships occur when a customer has repeated contact with the same provider. Service encounters occur when the customer interacts with a different provider each time. Service pseudorelationships are a particular kind of encounter in which a customer interacts with a different provider each time, but within a single company. The 3 studies showed consistently that customers having a service relationship with a specific provider had more service interactions and were more satisfied than those who did not have one. These results held across 7 different service areas, 3 diverse samples, and 2 different ways of measuring a service relationship.

Demographic differences in organizations : current research and future directions

is truly catastrophic. Similarly, Jackson generalizes from a set of consultant superstars. The three gurus he studies all utilize highly effective and very similar rhetorics. The problem is that hundreds of other consultants are also highly skilled at tickling the insecurities of potential clients, but only a few come to rival rock stars and televangelists in their ability to electrify. Jackson succumbs to the cognitive bias that traps journalists and popular commentators who assume that superstars must really be special. Yet, for every Britney Spears or Robert Schuller there are hundreds of garage bands and stump preachers out there who could just as easily occupy the spotlight. The power law of celebrity does not reflect the skewed distribution of talent any more than the power law of organizational size reflects the skewed distribution of the ability to grow. Stardom is not just about the star, it is also about the emergent properties of a self-organizing firmament whose interdependent elements influence and affirm one anothers beliefs and decisions (often indirectly, inadvertently, and unconsciously) in response to the influence they receive. Michael Macy Department of Sociology 372 Uris Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853Chapter 1 Defining the Problem Chapter 2 Three Approaches to Demographic Analysis in Organizations Chapter 3 Research on Demographic Diversity Chapter 4 The Multiple Meaning of Demography Chapter 5 Understanding Vertical and Horizontal Pairs from a Demographic Point of View Chapter 6 Understanding Demographic Diversity in Groups Chapter 7 Understanding Demographic Diversity in Organizations Chapter 8 Demographic Diversity in the International Arena: The Chinese Case Chapter 9 An Integrative Framework of Demographic Diversity in Organizations Chapter 10 Managing Demographic Diversity Chapter 11 Directions for Future Research Chapter 12 Conclusion

Interpreting Social-Sexual Behavior in a Work Setting.

Abstract The influx of women into the work force, especially into nontraditional jobs, has facilitated interest in the topic of sexual harassment and, more generally, sexuality at work. Survey research data show disagreement about the interpretation of interactions between the sexes at work. This study was designed to learn more about the way people interpret ambiguous, but potentially sexual, interactions between the sexes in a work setting. Respondents were asked to evaluate a vignette depicting such an interaction. The vignettes were composed so that three dimensions were manipulated: the sex of the initiator of the behavior, the status of the initiator relative to the target, and the type of behavior. These manipulated dimensions, along with the sex of the respondent, were used as variables to examine the respondents interpretation of the vignettes. Four-way ANOVAs showed that the independent variables were related to the evaluation of the relationship between the initiator and the target, the evaluation of the behavior, the appropriateness of the behavior, and the likelihood of the behavior. Men interpreted the vignettes more positively than did women. Incidents initiated by women were viewed more positively. Those initiated by persons with higher status than the target were seen less positively. Respondents, especially women, considered incidents that included touching to be negative. This was especially so when the touching was combined with a comment on work, and this effect was exacerbated when the behavior was initiated by a male and/or higher status person.

Employment Discrimination in Organizations: Antecedents and Consequences

This article reviews the research on employment discrimination in organizations. It focuses on discrimination perceptions, charges, and lawsuits and discusses the consequences of discrimination. Among the conclusions are the following: (a) The proportion of claimants filing under different antidiscrimination statutes differs by race; (b) the area needs theories that can explain wide variance in perceptions of events; (c) the consequences of discrimination are best viewed from individual, group, and organizational levels; and (d) if the results of instruments are used in legal settings, social scientists should pay careful attention to reliability and validity, as well as standards of legally admissible evidence.

Reactions to Perceived Sex Discrimination

Building on research on collective relative deprivation, we used independent samples of psychologists and managers to assess the relationship of perceived discrimination to an individuals reactions to the job and to the organization. While workers perceived relatively little sex discrimination, women perceived more discrimination against women than did men, and both sexes perceived more discrimination against women than discrimination against men. For women, perceptions of discrimination against women were associated with lower feelings of power and prestige on the job, more work conflict, more hours spent on paid work activities, and a lessened willingness to make the same career choice. Among men, perceptions of discrimination were related to few outcome measures. Implications for organizations are discussed.

How much do you value your family and does it matter? The joint effects of family identity salience, family-interference-with-work, and gender

Using identity theory and the gender role framework, this study examined the interactive effects of family identity salience, family-interference-with-work (FIW), and gender on two outcome variables: job satisfaction and job distress. Results from a sample of 163 employees support the proposed buffering hypothesis for job distress and job satisfaction, such that individuals who experienced a high level of FIW reported more job distress and less job satisfaction only when they were low in family identity salience. Additionally, we found support for a three-way interaction, such that the two-way interactive effects of family identity salience and FIW on job satisfaction were stronger for women than for men. Theoretical and practical implications of the results, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.

Women and paid work.

A productive workforce is a prime goal of the Decade of Behavior initiative. Thanks to the womens movement that started in the 1960s, the majority of adult women today are a part of that productive workforce, demonstrating their knowledge, skills and abilities, and earning a livelihood through paid employment. Nevertheless, real equal opportunity in paid work remains an elusive goal. In this paper, two major reviews of the literature on women and paid work written 20 years apart (Cleveland, Stockdale, & Murphy, 2000; Nieva & Gutek, 1981) serve to structure a discussion of what we know about womens experiences in paid work. Selective areas of research are reviewed under four kinds of topics: (1) topics that have disappeared over the past 20 years, (2) important topics that were not studied or could not be studied 20 years ago but are now (women as leaders), (3) previously neglected topics (stereotyping), and (4) rapidly emerging topics (mentoring, effects of preferential selection, sexual harassment). It is largely from feminist scholarship on women and paid work that we have been able to separate myth from reality through the accumulation of a sizable research-based literature. Unfortunately the body of research on women and paid work is still insufficiently integrated into the body of research on the psychology of work.

Differential Experiences of Men and Women in Computerized Offices.

This study presents data from a multiple-instrument, multisite, two-wave study of the implementation of computerized procedures in offices in order to examine whether this technological innovation differentially affects men and women employees. It explores the possibility that men in offices are benefiting more in terms of career enhancement than are women. Preliminary analyses provide some support for the hypothesis: Men in computerized offices bring more relevant skills to the workplace, are in more influential positions there, and make more computer-related decisions. However, analyses that control for job category show that women are generally satisfied with the training they received and report fewer problems of access to needed computer equipment, software, applications, and help. Women are also somewhat more optimistic than men about the benefits of computer technology for white-collar workers.

A Review and Critique of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ)

This paper reviews and critiques the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ), “...a self-report inventory representing the first attempt to assess the prevalence of sexual harassment in a manner that met traditional psychometric standards” (Fitzgerald, Gelfand, & Drasgow, 1995, p. 427). Widely used by its developers and others as a measure of sexual harassment, the SEQ is not a finished product, has a number of problems, and has weak psychometric properties. Because of inconsistencies (e.g., in time frame, number of items, wording of items), the SEQ lacks the advantages of standardized measures, such as the ability to assess changes over time. It defines sexual harassment very broadly, having the effect of distorting findings about sexual harassment. Most importantly, it is not clear what or whose definition of sexual harassment the SEQ assesses.

Dimensions of perceptions of social-sexual behavior in a work setting

Although sexual harassment has become an important and controversial topic in social science research in recent years, little research has been done regarding the factors involved in the perception of a single ambiguous social-sexual incident. Furthering the analysis of Gutek, Morasch, and Cohen (1983), factor analytic, cluster analytic, and multidimensional scaling techniques were supplied to a set of 19 questions which were used to evaluate some ambiguous vignettes that could have been considered instances of sexual harassment. These analyses yielded four major clusters: (1) variables relating to the interpersonal relationship between the individuals in the vignette, (2) personal aspects of the incident, (3) questions relating specifically to sexual harassment, and (4) questions regarding the likelihood of the incident. Questions about “sexual” and “harassing” aspects of the incident were less central to its evaluation by college students than were those about the incidents personal qualities and about the relationship between the two people.