Clara Kulich

Investing with Prejudice: The Relationship between Women's Presence on Company Boards and Objective and Subjective Measures of Company Performance

This paper presents a comprehensive archival examination of FTSE 100 companies in the period 2001–2005, focusing on the relationship between the presence of women on company boards and both accountancy-based and stock-based measures of company performance. Consistent with work by Adams, Gupta and Leeth this analysis reveals that there was no relationship between womens presence on boards and ‘objective’ accountancy-based measures of performance (return on assets, return on equity). However, consistent with ‘glass cliff’ research there was a negative relationship between womens presence on boards and ‘subjective’ stock-based measures of performance. Companies with male-only boards enjoyed a valuation premium of 37% relative to firms with a woman on their board. Results support claims that women are found on the boards of companies that are perceived to be performing poorly and that their presence on boards can lead to the devaluation of companies by investors. Yet the findings also indicate that perceptions and investment are not aligned with the underlying realities of company performance.

Politics and the glass cliff: Evidence that women are preferentially selected to contest hard-to-win seats

Recent archival and experimental research has revealed that women are more likely than men to be appointed to leadership positions when an organization is in crisis. As a result, women often confront a “glass cliff” in which their position as leader is precarious. Our first archival study examined the 2005 UK general election and found that, in the Conservative party, women contested harder to win seats than did men. Our second study experimentally investigated the selection of a candidate by 80 undergraduates in a British political science class to contest a by-election in a seat that was either safe (held by own party with a large margin) or risky (held by an opposition party with a large margin). Results indicated that a male candidate was more likely than a woman to be selected to contest a safe seat, but there was a strong preference for a female rather than a male appointment when the seat was described as hard to win. Implications for womens participation in politics are discussed.

Knowledge leadership in global scientific research

Despite burgeoning literature on knowledge transfer, relatively little is known about how strategic knowledge is created and exchanged and, specifically, the influence of leadership in stimulating and marshalling successful innovation. We frame this process as a dynamic capability that is primarily inter-organisational; it is also highly complex, hard to grasp and hard to imitate and calls for knowledge leadership, a qualitatively different kind of leadership from that which characterises more traditional industrial economies. This poses particular challenges for human resource (HR) specialists seeking to promote knowledge leadership across institutional and cultural boundaries. We report on preliminary findings from interviews with scientists working in a global particle physics experiment being conducted in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (an abbreviation of the French version of European Organisation for Nuclear Research), Switzerland. Given that this collaboration (a global set of loosely coupled, non-hierarchical networks) is prototypical of many international knowledge-based enterprises, the findings will help to inform the HR requirements for successful knowledge leadership.

The political glass cliff: understanding how seat selection contributes to the underperformance of ethnic minority candidates

An archival study of U.K. General Election results from 2001, 2005, and 2010 revealed that Conservative black and minority ethnic (BME) candidates were less successful than their white counterparts. However, mediation analyses demonstrate that this lack of success can be explained by the lower winnability of BME candidates’ seats, such that the opposition candidate held a seat with a significantly larger majority compared with white candidates’ opponents. Results and implications are discussed in the framework of the “glass cliff,” previously demonstrated for women, in the sense that the seats minority groups contested were harder to win compared with majority groups.

Be an advocate for others, unless you are a man: backlash against gender-atypical male job candidates

Previous research shows that gender vanguards (individuals who demonstrate gender-atypical skills and behavior) suffer backlash in the form of social and economic penalties (Rudman & Phelan, 2008). This study examined backlash against female and male job applicants who were either gender-atypical or typical. Professionals (N = 149) evaluated female or male managerial applicants for internal promotion described in their performance review as showing either self-advocacy or advocacy on behalf of their team. Atypical, other-advocating men were judged to be low on agency and competence and penalized with job dismissal. Serial mediation analysis demonstrated that, compared with other-advocating women, other-advocating men were perceived to lack agency, which contributed to a perceived loss of competence that ultimately led to greater penalties. The implications of these findings for contemporary leadership theories and men’s and women’s professional success in the workplace are discussed.

Perceptions of supervisor support: Resolving paradoxical patterns across gender and race

This work reconciles previous discrepancies regarding when and how the demographic composition of supervisor–subordinate dyads relates to perceived supervisor support. We draw from social identity theory to argue that building relationships with higher-status group members, while distancing oneself from the lower-status group, is a contextually induced way female and racial minority employees may cope with identity threat in the workplace. Our results supported the hypotheses, indicating that this self-distancing effect via reduced perceived supervisor support only emerges in settings where gender or racial identities may be considered threatened (in organizations with climates of higher perceived gender inequity, Study 1; or climates of higher perceived diversity inequity, Study 2). Such results are particularly important and timely given the recent ample attention in popular media and academic outlets regarding the ‘queen bee’ effect, the ‘crabs in the barrel’ mentality, and diversity-valuing behaviour of leaders. The current research suggests that such behaviours are not generalizable to all female or minority employees; rather, this effect seems to be context-driven. Practitioner points Organizational climates that are higher in gender and/or diversity inequity may bring about negative in-group behaviours between supervisors and subordinates. To increase perceptions of supervisor support, especially among traditionally low-status employees, organizations should improve their diversity climates to be more inclusive for all employees. Building active mentoring programmes for under-represented groups and increasing the number of women and non-White employees in senior positions, while emphasizing equal opportunity for all employees, are some ways organizations can reduce perceptions of gender and diversity inequity. A career-lattice approach to employee career development would allow employees to engage in more lateral transfers – enabling them to gain diverse skills, be exposed to multiple mentors, and to remove themselves from a potentially harmful supervisor–subordinate relationship.

The Gender Pay Gap: Particularities and Challenges in the Management Context

Women receive lower monetary compensation than men in all occupations and across all ranks. For managers, this gender pay gap is substantially higher than in average working populations. The goal of this chapter is to enhance our understanding of the managerial gender pay gap and its particularities. We first outline the problem using archival evidence of the gaps in male and female managers’ pay around the world, considering the role of gender differences in human capital characteristics and the structural forces that lead to pay inequality. Then we present experimental evidence from psychological research in order to shed light on the underlying mechanisms that lead to gender disparities in managers’ pay. Considering the perspective of both pay allocators and receivers, we explore psychological processes such as the impact of gender stereotypes on biased evaluations of women’s performance and gendered moral standards, as well as the impact of stereotypes on gender differences in attitudes and negotiation behavior. Finally, we present suggestions for legislators, organizations, and women to prevent and counteract the gender pay gap in management, and we discuss potential pitfalls of such interventions. We conclude that gender dynamics affecting managerial pay are not straightforward. Therefore, research as well as practical interventions have to go beyond a mere consideration of gender differences in pay and negotiation behavior, and react upon a complex interaction of structural forces, pay allocators, and receivers.

I’ll emulate you…only if you want me to: the impact of ingroup norms and status on the identification-assimilation relationship

High identifiers are generally more willing to affiliate to their group and, as a result, perceive themselves and behave as prototypical members of their group. But is this always the case? The present research investigates the when and the why of the positive relationship between ingroup identification and assimilation by focusing on the role of the content of the injunctive ingroup norm (collectivistic vs. individualistic) and the ingroup status. Two experiments showed a positive identification-assimilation relationship in the low-status group when the ingroup norm was collectivistic, but not when the norm was individualistic. Moreover, the relationship was unreliable in the high-status group, regardless of the content of the norm. In a third study, these findings were extended to a more general measure of group affiliation (i.e., the need to belong). This research suggests that the greater tendency of high identifiers to assimilate to their group–and, more generally, to affiliate to groups–is accounted for by conformity motivations and strategies aimed at coping with an unfavorable social identity.

“I Want, Therefore I Am” – Anticipated Upward Mobility Reduces Ingroup Concern

Empirical findings suggest that members of socially disadvantaged groups who join a better-valued group through individual achievement tend to express low concern for their disadvantaged ingroup (e.g., denial of collective discrimination, low intent to initiate collective action). In the present research, we investigated whether this tendency occurs solely for individuals who have already engaged in social mobility, or also for individuals who psychologically prepare themselves, that is ‘anticipate’, social mobility. Moreover, we examined the role of group identification in this process. In two studies, we looked at the case of ‘frontier workers’, that is people who cross a national border every day to work in another country where the salaries are higher thereby achieving a better socio-economic status than in their home-country. Study 1 (N = 176) examined attitudes of French nationals (both the socially mobile and the non-mobile) and of Swiss nationals toward the non-mobile group. As expected, results showed that the mobile French had more negative attitudes than their non-mobile counterparts, but less negative attitudes than the Swiss. In Study 2 (N = 216), we examined ingroup concern at different stages of the social mobility process by comparing the attitudes of French people who worked in Switzerland (mobile individuals), with those who envisioned (anticipators), or not (non-anticipators), to work in Switzerland. The findings revealed that anticipators’ motivation to get personally involved in collective action for their French ingroup was lower than the non-anticipators’, but higher than the mobile individuals’. Moreover, we found that the decrease in ingroup concern across the different stages of social mobility was accounted for by a lower identification with the inherited ingroup. These findings corroborate the deleterious impact of social mobility on attitudes toward a low-status ingroup, and show that the decrease in ingroup concern already occurs among individuals who anticipate moving up the hierarchy. The discussion focuses on the role of the discounting of inherited identities in both the anticipation and the achievement of a higher-status identity.