Groups - race, gender, s.o., religion, etc. Flashcards
What is evidence of formal discrimination in selection settings, based on race?
Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004
Found a 50% gap in callback rates between perceived white and black applicants (based on names) and this was significant.
Applicants with “white names” need to send about 10 resumes to get one callback, where applicants with “black names” need to send about 15.
High quality applications helped white applicants, but not black applicants.
What is evidence that black workers are rated more poorly than white workers?
Stauffer & Buckley, 2005
Both black and white supervisors rated the performance of white workers higher than black workers
Black workers rated white workers higher than white supervisors did.
Can’t say conclusively if they were rated lower than they deserve. more research needed.
What are descriptive and prescriptive gender roles and what are the outcomes of them?
Descriptive gender stereotypes: Beliefs about what men and women are like. (These create a “lack of fit” b/w “female” attributes and ones thought necessary for success in traditionally male positions.)
Prescriptive gender stereotypes – Beliefs about what men and women should be like. They establish normative expectations for men’s and women’s behavior, resulting in devaluation and degradation of women who directly or indirectly violate gender norms (Heilman, 2001).
Both create expectations and can compromise women’s career progress (lower hiring rates, starting salary, raises, promotion opps, particularly in gender-typed positions and roles (i.e., leadership).
What is ambivalent sexism theory?
Holds that attitudes toward women are not exclusively negative.
Hostile sexism: negative expressions of incompetence reflected by other theories (lack of fit, role congruity)
Benevolent sexism: positive expressions of paternalism (protectiveness). This ambivalence was created through men’s historical domination over women and also dependency on women for survival.
Glicke and Fiske, 1996
What is role congruity theory?
Extension of social role theory. Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders Proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman.
Consequences: 1) attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders. 2) it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles.
Eagly and Karau, 2002
What is tokenism theory?
That being under-represented creates heightened visibility, social isolation, and stereotypical role constraint.
Women who work in contexts dominated by men will experience difficulty gaining access to high-status positions.
Kanter, 1977
What is the lack of fit model?
Holds that when a workplace role is inconsistent with the stereotypes of employees, they suffer from a perceived lack of fit to the role.
This lack of fit results in decreased expectations of success by others, increased expectations of failure, and decreases in the performance itself.
Very congruent with social role theory (Eagly, 1987), it is based on the argument that jobs at the highest level (TMT/exec) are more often categorized as masculine.
Heilman, 1983, 1987
What is social role theory?
Explains origin of sex stereotypes; evolutionary divisions of labor led to differential distributions into society/work positions (male leaders, women nurturers)
People came to associate different sets of personality traits/abilities with men being more agentic and women more communal.
Self-fulfilling prophesies occur; they become more different in their abilities; their gendered roles also require these different skills
This theory got extended to role congruity theory
What are some ways that gender bias interventions can go wrong?
Many orgs have tried to make good faith efforts, but it often doesn’t have its intended impact and can even result in backlash.
They could backfire because:
They are not sufficient and should be paired with another intervention.
They provoke anger and a sense of injustice, raise questions about org fairness
They promote gender stereotyping – i.e., antibias training can make them more salient.
They normalize stereotypes/bias because they’re “natural”, making it harder for people to motivate to change. - Averts responsibility because it’s “unconscious”
Flexible work arrangements for mothers can make men feel they are getting special preference
Caleo and Heilman, 2019
What are 3 theories that can help explain the negative outcomes/discrimin as a working mother?
Stigma theory: controllable, visible, follows a course (Jones, 1984). Less capable as pregnancy goes on
SCM: As working women transition to motherhood, trade perceived competence for warmth
Social role theory: Women viewed as being naturally good at domestic duties, men at financial. Men thus encouraged to enter high-status positions (esp those with kids), but women discouraged (esp those with kids).
Sabat et al., 2016
What have been some findings regarding STEREOTYPES/PERCEPTIONs of younger vs older workers?
Truxillo et al., 2012
Younger workers are perceived to be more proactive and fluid intelligence.
Older workers are perceived as more conscientious (some facets), higher in crystallized intelligence, and as exhibiting more OCBs (contextual performance).
Older and younger respondents had similar perceptions.
What are 6 common stereotypes and which have truth behind them?
Less motivated Less willing to participate in training/dev More resistant to change, less trusting Less healthy More work-family imbalance
Meta-analysis found that the only one that was significant was less willing to participate in training/dev. That could be a self-fulfilling prophecy though, in that employers likely offer them less. Also, older workers may have less incentive to invest their human capital into more training, or shifting priorities.
Ng and Feldman, 2012
What is selection, optimization, compensation (SOC) theory?
A lifespan theory used in aging research to study how individuals reduce age-related losses while capitalizing on age-related gains (Baltes and Baltes, 1990).
Selection, optimization, compensation (SOC) theory: how indiv reduce age-related losses while capitalizing on age-related gains (Baltes and Baltes, 1990).
3 strategic actions are used throughout life to adapt and match current personal resources to environmental demands.
Selection: people select and prioritize goals that maintain rather than divide their resources.
Optimization: individual focuses efforts and resources to achieve goals.
Compensation: searching for and implementing strategies to offset age-related declines to maintain a certain level of performance.
Using these strategies positive related to work ability, satisfaction, performance maintenance, and goal attainment
Truxillo et al., 2015
Is disclosure good for gay/lesbian employees? What are the outcomes? What does it depend on?
Yes, but depends on coworker reactions.
Disclosure leads to higher job satisfaction, lower job anxiety
Positive reactions of coworkers mediate these beneficial effects.
Griffith and Hebl, 2002
What are antecedents of coming out at work (for gay/lesbian employees)?
Employees’ identity centrality (how central to their ID being gay is)
How “out” the person is to family and friends
Employer policies
Perceived gay supportive environment
Griffith and Hebl, 2002
