Bruckmüller - The Glass Cliff: Examining Why Women Occupy Leadership Positions in Precarious Circumstances.” Flashcards
How do men and women occupy different high-ranking positions?
women tend to occupy positions that involve less authority, have fewer tangible rewards, and award less opportunity for career mobility
- Also less pay
How are women viewed in high ranking positions?
their performance in leadership positions is placed
under higher scrutiny than that of men
What happens when women break through the glass celing?
they are more likely than their male colleagues to find themselves in positions that are associated with a state of crisis and thus contain an element of risk
What is an example of the glass cliff?
in a period of a general financial downturn, companies that appointed a woman to their board had experienced a pattern of consistently poor stock market performance in the months before the appointment
AND companies with consistent performance appointed men
Why are glass cliff jobs precarious?
High risk of failure
And company leaders who fail are usually not appointed to other leadership positions
Women’s appointment to glass cliff jobs depend on?
How the company determines success (PERCEPTION)
Ex. see lot’s of glass cliff when company is doing bad in stock market (and see less when looking at math based determinants of success)
How does the glass cliff appear in UK elections?
When women try earn seats, they are often put against opponents the party thinks they have no chance in winning
Leading to less women represented
What does the role of gender stereotypes have on glass cliff?
For example, women’s ostensibly higher ability to ‘smooth things over’ or their supposedly higher competence
How has perceptions around managers changed? (what you associate with the job)
Use to be more “male” “leadership”
TO:
change in recent years and stereotypically female qualities such as cooperation, communications skills, and an orientation towards teamwork are increasingly seen as important.
What are the contexts in which the traditional model of the Powerful Great Man, no longer holds?
When in times of crisis
although leaders in general are still perceived as stereotypically male, women seem to be perceived as better suited to lead in times of crisis.
According to participants in a study, what traits belong to an ideal manager of a successful company?
Masculine and feminine traits
According to participant what traits belong to an ideal manager in a time of crisis?
Feminine traits
In a study, what characteristics were rated as valuable in times of crisis?
Female characteristics were rated as valuable when:
When leaders were merely expected to endure the
difficult times, manage people, or to take responsibility for the crisis
So what is one big reasons women might be put in glass cliff positions?
one likely reason why women are selected for
glass cliff positions is that they are seen to have what it takes = seen as PEOPLE MANAGERS
A company is in crisis:
With social resources
Or without social resources
Which ones prefer male or female leaders?
With social resources: participants expected the male leader to be more effective than the female leader
Without social resources: female leader was expected to be a more effective than the male leader.
Why are women valued in crisis without social resources?
belief that she possessed more communal traits (e.g. communicative, cooperative, teamworking skills) than the male leader.
Typically female traits were rated highly in successful and unsuccessful companies, were male traits rated the same?
only five of the eight stereotypically male traits that were seen as desirable in times of success were also seen as desirable in a crisis
This leads to: the prediction that both the preference for a male leader for a successful organization and the preference for a female leader for an unsuccessful organization
What happens when companies are desperate in crisis?
“This isn’t working, maybe it is time for change”
‘It’s simply that for most companies a female CEO is something they haven’t tried and so when things look bleak they start thinking what was previously “unthinkable”
Which ideologies supported women under conditions of threat?
ideologies legitimizing the current socio-political system (conservative), but not among participants with more progressive views.
Explain glass cliff appointment patterns?
When participants read about a successful company with a male history of leadership they chose another man as new leader; when the same company was in crisis, participants opted for a change and chose the female candidate
Follow pattern till crisis forces them to switch it up
What is a very straightforward reason on why this happens?
a manifestation of in-group favouritism or sexism in the workplace
But not fully shown (Since men also prefer women in a time of crisis)
How might in group favoritism appear?
women often lack the support networks and resources
that are provided to men both as they ascend the corporate ladder (don’t have connections when they are leaders)
in-group favoritism might still play
an important role for glass cliff appointments in real-life corporate settings
How might blatant sexism be used in the glass cliff?
Appointing women to precarious leadership positions may be one way in which decision-makers are able ‘to block women’s passage up the ranks’
OR
decision-makers may see women as more expandable than men
BUT not proven as sexist men often push men in times of crisis (perhaps more subtle sexist assumptions)
