E. Holly Buttner

Bank loan officers' perceptions of the characteristics of men, women, and successful entrepreneurs

Much anecdotal evidence suggests that women, compared to similarly situated men, have great difficulty securing financing for entrepreneurial endeavors. In addition, a mounting body of evidence illustrates how women in managerial roles are perceived in terms of sex stereotypes rather than in terms of their accomplishments. The present study extends this line of research to investigate whether female entrepreneurs are also viewed in terms of sex stereotypes. One hundred and six bank loan officers evaluated either men, women, or successful entrepreneurs on scales assessing nine attributes of successful entrepreneurs. The nine entrepreneurial qualities were leadership, autonomy, propensity to take risks, readiness for change, endurance, lack of emotionalism, low need for support, low conformity, and persuasiveness. It was hypothesized that sex stereotypes influenced perceptions that women, compared to men, did not possess the characteristics necessary for successful entrepreneurship. Results confirmed the hypothesis that characteristics attributed to successful entrepreneurs were more commonly ascribed to men than to women. On the dimensions of leadership, autonomy, risk taking, readiness for change, endurance, lack of emotionalism and low need for support, bank loan officers rated women as significantly less like successful entrepreneurs compared to men. While gender differences on the remaining three dimensions failed to reach statistical significance, women were never rated as closer to successful entrepreneurs than were men. These results are consistent with anecdotal evidence of the difficulties female entrepreneurs encounter in securing working capital. The results are also consistent with past research examining commonly held sex stereotypes of male and female managers and executives. These findings raise questions regarding the degree to which loan officers are influenced by sex stereotypes in considering loan applications from male and female aspiring entrepreneurs. From a banks perspective, it may be important to train loan officers to avoid falling back on sex stereotypes in evaluating proposals for new businesses. Similarly, it may be important to alert female entrepreneurs to the need to dispel traditional sex stereotypes in the context of loan application interviews.

Funding new business ventures: Are decision makers biased against women entrepreneurs?

Women have been leaving large corporations in increasing numbers in recent years to start their own businesses. However, they have not been succeeding at the same rate as their male counterparts. One potential barrier to a successful new venture is access to startup capital. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women starting their own businesses may have more difficulty obtaining financial support than men. In a loan decision simulation, this study systematically tested the allegations of female entrepreneurs that bank loan officers are more likely to grant loans, to make a counteroffer, and to make larger counteroffers to male entrepreneurs compared to female entrepreneurs under identical circumstances. Loan officers usually make funding decisions on the basis of information gathered from an interview and a business plan, while venture capitalists often screen proposals on the basis of a business plan alone. A second purpose of this study was to determine whether the mode of presentation— business plan versus business plan with interview—increased the male or female entrepreneurs probability of successfully obtaining a loan. A third purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the decision makers previous experience on funding decisions. The recommendations of (experienced) loan officers versus (inexperienced) undergraduate students were compared in order to determine how experience and accountability influence loan decisions. The study consisted of a 2 x 2 x 2 research design with three independent variables. Loan officers and undergraduate students either read a business plan, or read a business plan and watched a videotape of an interview between a loan officer and a male or female entrepreneur who was seeking a loan to start a business. Participants then indicated the likelihood that they would recommend approval of the loan, make a counteroffer of a smaller amount, and the magnitude of the counteroffer. There was no evidence that sex stereotypes influenced business funding decisions. With respect to the amount of counteroffer, a significant three-way interaction was obtained between entrepreneurial gender, presentation format, and participant status. Loan officers made larger counteroffers to the female compared to the male when they read the business plan and watched the interview. Students made larger counteroffers to the male compared to the female when they read the business plan and observed the interview. Loan officers were significantly more cautious and conservative than students in their funding decisions. Failure to support allegations of bias against women entrepreneurs is discussed in terms of possible unrealistic expectations regarding the ease of obtaining startup capital. Further research is needed to examine this explanation. One implication of these findings is that female entrepreneurs should seek opportunities to meet with loan officers to present their business proposals. In the interview, the female has the opportunity to address questions of motivation and competence. On the other hand, bankers may make more impartial decisions when relying on information in the business plan alone, where financial considerations would have greater weight. Finally, the results suggest that studies using students as proxies for bank loan officers have very limited generalizability.

The interactive effect of influence tactic, applicant gender, and type of job on hiring recommendations

The effects of influence tactic, applicant gender, and job type were examined in the selection context. A male or female applicant used either an assertive, rational, or exchange influence tactic in a simulated job interview script for either a sales representative or cost accounting position. Three hundred four managers, (271 male and 26 female, predominantly white) evaluated the applicant and indicated the likelihood that they would recommend hiring the applicant. Results indicated that tactics were differentially effective in generating favorable hiring recommendations and ratings of the applicant, depending on whether the tactic was used by a male or female applicant and on the job type sought.

Diversity climate impact on employee of color outcomes: does justice matter?

Purpose – The purposes of this paper are three-fold: first, to examine the effect of diversity climate on professional employee of color outcomes, organizational commitment and turnover intentions; second, to investigate the moderating and mediating roles of interactional and procedural justice on the relationships between diversity climate and the outcomes; and third, to explore the interactive effect of racial awareness and diversity climate on reported psychological contract violation. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a survey of 182 professionals of color. Correlation, factor analysis, and regression were employed to test the hypotheses. Findings – Results indicate that diversity climate affects organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Interactional and procedural justice played mediating roles between diversity climate and employee outcomes. Moderated mediation analysis indicated that for turnover intentions, there was moderated mediation under both low and high procedural justice conditions. When a diversity climate was perceived to be fair, racially aware respondents reported lower levels of psychological contract violation. Research limitations/implications – Professionals of color from one US industry completed the survey, so conclusions about generalizability should be drawn with caution. Data were cross-sectional and single-source. However, the findings were consistent with past research, lending credibility to the results. Originality/value – Recent research on workforce diversity has highlighted the importance of effectively managing all organizational members. The paper shows that the diversity climate and organizational justice impact employee of color outcomes. Thus, for managers, creating and maintaining a positive, fair diversity climate will be important for attracting and retaining high-quality professionals of color in US organizations.

How Do We “Dis” Students?: A Model of (Dis)Respectful Business Instructor Behavior:

This study summarizes undergraduate business students’ reports of respectful and disrespectful instructor behaviors. Consistent with the theory of interactional justice, respectful behavior was exemplified by recognition of students’ perspectives and by the treatment of students, including showing concern and sensitivity to students’ situations. Disrespectful instructor behavior was noted in terms of poor treatment of students and unwillingness to provide class-related help. Male students commented on being recognized, on instructor responsiveness to their concerns, and on classroom integrity issues more often than their female counterparts. Female students were more sensitive to treatment issues and affirmative instructor behaviors. Implications are discussed.

The Relationship between Styles of Creativity and Managerial Skills Assessment

A practice of growing popularity is the use ofmulti-rater, 360-degree feedback to enhance man-agerial development. Multi-rater feedback use isbased on the assumption that performance in-formation from superiors, peers and subordinateswill lead to improved performance and enhancedleader effectiveness (London and Smither, 1995;Tornow, 1993a). Along with the increased use of360-degree, or multi-rater, feedback instrumentsamong practitioners, a considerable body ofknowledge is emerging. Research has investi-gated the effectiveness of 360-degree instrument s,including their reliability and validity, self-otherrating relationships, and their appropriate uses(for example, Carless, 1997; Furnham and String-field, 1994; Hazucha, Hezlett and Schneider, 1993;Tornow, 1993a; Van Velsor and Leslie, 1992). One strand of this research concerns theindividual’s characteristics and rating tendencies.There is evidence that gender, rac e, ag, self-esteem, introversion, sensitivity and dominanceinfluence self-ratings (Brutus, Fleenor andMcCauley, 1996). In related studies, character-istics of managers such as race, ag, gender andpersonality have also been found to affect howothers evaluate them (for example Eagley, Karauand Makhijami, 1995; Lawrence, 1988; Londonand Wohlers, 1991). Other research has focusedon personal factors influencing the degree ofcongruence between self and others’ ratings. Forexampl e, intelligenc , achievement statu , internallocus of control and introversion were all found tobe related to self-other congruence in managerialratings (Roush and Atwater, 1992). Tornow (1993b) calls on managers to payattention to discrepancies between self andothers’ ratings. Discrepancies are noteworthy,because one of the characteristics associated withderailment is an inflated perception of one ’s skillsrelative to others’ perceptions (Lombardo andBritish Journal of Management, Vol.10, 228–238 (1999)

Changing more than the Plumbing: Integrating Women and Gender Differences into Management and Organizational Behavior Courses

Although women will compose almost half of the U.S. work force by the year 2000, universities have made few changes in management and organizational behavior (OB) courses to reflect this increasing influence of female work force participants. This article addresses the integration of women and gender differences into management and OB courses in two ways: modification of course content and adaptation of the classroom process. Unconscious instructor behaviors that may result in differences in treatment of male and female students are explained. Strategies for assuring equality in the classroom and for enhancing student awareness of gender issues in the workplace are discussed.

Testing the robustness of the progressive phase burnout model for a sample of entrepreneurs

The robustness of the 8-phase model of burnout was tested by using the Revised Maslach Burnout Instrument (MBI) on a sample of entrepreneurs. The results are consistent with the models proposition that mean scores on the subdomains of (a) depersonalization, (b) (lack of) personal accomplishment, and (c) emotional exhaustion, increase regularly and predictably as the-experienced level of burnout reported by respondents increases.

The challenge of increasing minority-group professional representation in the United States: intriguing findings

Census statistics highlight the increasing diversity of the populace in the United States. However, minority-group Americans continue to be under-represented in professional occupations. Six propositions for low minority-group professional presence in US organizations are that under-representation is due to leader racial insensitivity, discrimination, the (small) pipeline of minority-group professional employees, (un)equal opportunity theory, rational person economic theory, and low organizational diversity strategic priority. We describe and explore these six arguments with related empirical tests. Results indicated that leader-rated importance of cultural change, above and beyond leader racial awareness, influenced representation. The more specific strategies of diversity recruitment and provision of performance feedback also predicted minority-group representation, while diversity as an organizational strategic priority did not. We discuss the implications of these findings and present directions for future research.

High-Performance Classrooms for Women? Applying a Relational Frame to Management/Organizational Behavior Courses

Recent empirical research has identified characteristics of high-performing organizations. In particular, these organizations pay close attention to the human resources practices and interpersonal dimensions of their cultures. Relational theory, developed based on women’s development, embraces dimensions associated with high-performing organizations. Attributes of relational practice include preventive connecting, mutual empowering, achieving, and creating team. The present article discusses the extent to which relational practice has applications in the management/