Julia Bear

The role of gender in team collaboration and performance

Abstract Given that women continue to be underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and that scientific innovations are increasingly produced by team collaborations, we reviewed the existing literature regarding the effects of gender diversity on team processes and performance. Recent evidence strongly suggests that team collaboration is greatly improved by the presence of women in the group, and this effect is primarily explained by benefits to group processes. The evidence concerning the effect of gender diversity on team performance is more equivocal and contingent upon a variety of contextual factors. In light of the importance of collaboration in science, promoting the role of women in the field can have positive practical consequences for science and technology.

Can Conflict Be Energizing? A Study of Task Conflict, Positive Emotions, and Job Satisfaction

Scholars have assumed that the presence of negative emotions during task conflict implies the absence of positive emotions. However, emotions researchers have shown that positive and negative emotions are not 2 ends of a bipolar continuum; rather, they represent 2 separate, orthogonal dimensions. Drawing on affective events theory, we develop and test hypotheses about the effects of task conflict on positive emotions and job satisfaction. To this end, we distinguish among the frequency, intensity, and information gained from task conflict. Using field data from 232 employees in a long-term health care organization, we find that more frequent mild task conflict expression engenders more information acquisition, but more frequent intense task conflict expression hinders it. Because of the information gains from mild task conflict expression, employees feel more active, energized, interested, and excited, and these positive active emotions increase job satisfaction. The information gained during task conflict, however, is not always energizing: It depends on the extent to which the behavioral context involves active learning and whether the conflict is cross-functional. We discuss theoretical implications for conflict, emotions, and job satisfaction in organizations.

Negotiation Topic as a Moderator of Gender Differences in Negotiation

Recent research on gender and negotiations suggests that women are less likely to initiate negotiations than men (Small, Gelfand, Babcock, & Gettman, 2007) and that they negotiate less well than men (Bowles, Babcock, & McGinn, 2005; Stuhlmacher & Walters, 1999). However, little attention has been paid to how the negotiation issue itself affects these gender differences (but see Bear, 2011, for how issues affect gender differences in avoiding negotiation and Miles & LaSalle, 2008, for how issues affect gender differences in self-efficacy in negotiation). Experimental research on negotiations predominantly uses prototypically masculine issues. In a metaanalysis of how gender influences negotiation performance (Stuhlmacher & Walters, 1999), 47.5% of the 21 included studies involved monetary purchases, 24.5% involved compensation, and 28.3% involved legal issues. Might gender differences be eliminated or even reversed if the negotiations were over more prototypically feminine issues? There is reason to believe that this may be the case. Situations that do not match an individual’s gender role involve behaving in a counterstereotypical way, such as when a woman occupies a masculine, agentic role (e.g., a top managerial position) or when a man occupies a feminine, communal role (e.g., staying at home to raise children). These types of gender-incongruent situations lead to anxiety and role conflict (Bosson, Prewitt-Freilino, & Taylor, 2005; Luhaorg & Zivian, 1995; Parry, 1987), and in comparison with gender-congruent situations, gender-incongruent situations are more likely to be avoided (Bem & Lenney, 1976) and tend to elicit more negative evaluations (Davison & Burke, 2000; Eagly & Karau, 2002; Hoyt, 2012). In the current study, we examined whether the masculinity or femininity of the negotiation issue moderates gender differences in performance. We predicted an interaction between the gender of the negotiator and the nature of the negotiation topic: That is, we expected that men would outperform women when negotiating over a masculine issue, and that women would outperform men when negotiating over a feminine issue.

Excited to Disagree? A Study of Conflict and Emotions

Prior research on emotion and team conflict has primarily focused on the experience of negative emotions, especially as they pertain to relationship conflict. We extend prior conceptualizations by considering both the valence of emotion (positive versus negative) and the activation level (passive versus active) across three types of conflict. We report survey results demonstrating that active positive emotions (e.g., attentive, interested, excited) are most prevalent in response to all types of conflict. We also find that while the pattern across the four types of emotions is similar for task and process conflict, it differs for relationship conflict.

Negotiating Femininity: Gender-Relevant Primes Improve Women’s Economic Performance in Gender Role Incongruent Negotiations

According to gender role congruity theory, women, compared to men, underperform in masculine negotiations because these negotiations are incongruent with women’s gender role. Based on this framework, we developed two gender-relevant primes—a masculine-supplement prime and a feminine-complement prime—that address role incongruity and should improve women’s economic performance by either supplementing masculinity or complementing femininity. In Study 1, physicians (N = 78; 50% women) in an executive education program engaged in a masculine-supplement prime, which involved recalling agentic behavior; in Study 2, undergraduate students (N = 112; 50% women) completed a feminine-complement prime, which involved imagining negotiating for a friend. In Study 3, a community sample (N = 996; 46% women) completed an online experiment with the primes. Results from the three studies showed that these primes improved women’s economic performance and eliminated the gender gap in negotiation. Perception of fit partially explained the efficacy of the masculine-supplement prime for women, though not the feminine-complement prime. We build on past research concerning situational moderators by investigating gender role congruity from an intrapsychic perspective. We also make a practical contribution; these primes can be used by women to improve economic performance in gender role incongruent negotiations. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQs website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index.

Gendered Rewards: Breadwinner versus Caregiver Status Affects Workplace Rewards for Men and Women

Do gendered assumptions about breadwinning and caregiving influence workplace rewards? In Study 1, simulated employers recruited a (married, with children) female or male job candidate. Participant...

Reconceptualizing Women's Career Negotiations: Asking, Bending, and Shaping

We propose a reconceptualization of the role of negotiation in women’s career advancement. A search of studies of gender in career negotiations reveals a literature emphasizing women’s disadvantages relative to men in compensation negotiations. We propose a widening of the investigative lens beyond the propensity to bargain for higher pay to include a broader range of negotiation issues and strategies. We present a qualitative study of how women negotiate for career advancement and the attainment of leadership positions in organizations, drawing on data from four diverse samples of male and female managers in government and the private sector. Our inductive analyses suggest that negotiation is a tool for advancement into new roles and leadership positions, for gaining developmental opportunities, and for managing work-family conflicts, as well for improving the terms of job offers. Based on our inductive analyses, we propose a process theory of how women negotiate for career advancement that includes rout...

Breadwinner Bonus and Caregiver Penalty in Workplace Rewards for Men and Women

Two studies examine whether the workplace motherhood penalty and fatherhood bonus are better conceived, respectively, as a caregiver penalty and breadwinner bonus. Participants acting as employers structured offers for married female or male job candidates with children. In Study 1, participants assumed “mother = caregiver” and “father = breadwinner.” These assumptions moderated significantly higher salary offers to fathers and more (explicitly career-dampening) flexible schedules to mothers. Study 2 manipulated family roles (nonparent, parent-unspecified role, parent-breadwinner, and parent-caregiver). Supporting a breadwinner bonus, the female candidate fared best in salary and leadership training offers when labeled a breadwinner (vs. caregiver and unspecified role), equaling a male breadwinner’s offer. A caregiver penalty decreased salary for caregivers of both sexes and leadership training for women (compared to breadwinners) but not men. Thus, the motherhood penalty can become a breadwinner bonus if mothers present themselves as family breadwinners.