OB
DEI
Stav Atir
U. of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Anyi Ma
U. of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Felix Danbold
UCL School of Management, United Kingdom
Margaret Ormiston
George Washington U., United States
Anyi Ma
U. of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Stav Atir
U. of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Krishna Savani
Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic U., Hong Kong
The theme of this year's conference, Innovating for the Future, prompts scholars to address the challenges organizations face, including the persistent issue of inequality. We respond to the call to “unlock innovative insights and evidence-based contributions for a brighter future for workers, managers, organizations, and society at large” by presenting the results of five empirical investigations into stereotyping processes that contribute to inequality within organizations. Together, these studies provide new insights into the ways in which stereotypes affect organizationally relevant outcomes, how organizational leaders attempt to gain credibility to address diversity-related issues, and what evidence-based interventions can increase organizational diversity. In this symposium we present new research on stereotypes, with each project adding insight from a different perspective. First, we show robust stereotyping along a previously unexplored dimension, namely construal level, and its impact on real-world occupational representation and role allocation decisions (Paper 1). Second, we identify a novel consequence of gender stereotypes: journalists ask women CEOs more personal questions, and men CEOs more task-oriented questions, leading to different temporal focus: women are prompted to focus more on the past, and men – on the present and future (Paper 2). We then highlight the complex dynamics of stereotypes, demonstrating that common gender stereotypes can have opposing consequences depending on target characteristics: although dominant female (but not male) leaders are evaluated as less effective at lower levels of perceived competence, these gender differences are eliminated when leaders are perceived as highly competent (Paper 3). Rising awareness of the unique challenges women face in the workplace means that CEOs and other organizational leaders must credibly address women-related issues, from maternity leave to sexual harassment, despite organizational leaders being largely male in many industries. We show that one strategy - referencing their own daughters – enhances male managers' credibility on women-related issues. Yet, the belief that fathers of daughters are more gender egalitarian does not align with the actual gender attitudes of fathers (Paper 4). Finally, we unveil a novel intervention that makes clever use of a common decision-making bias to promote diversity without mentioning gender, race, diversity, or discrimination (Paper 5).
Author: Ashli Carter – Columbia Business School
Author: Felix Danbold – UCL School of Management
Author: Batia Mishan Wiesenfeld – New York U.
Author: Margaret Ormiston – George Washington U.
Author: Elaine M. Wong – U. of California, Riverside
Author: Zhiyu Feng – School of Business, Renmin U. of China
Author: Anyi Ma – U. of Wisconsin-Madison
Author: Fangzhou Liu – Huazhong U. of Science and Technology
Author: Stav Atir – U. of Wisconsin-Madison
Author: Abigail Collins – U. of Wisconsin-Madison
Author: Chia-Jung Tsay – U. of Wisconsin-Madison
Author: Zhiyu Feng – School of Business, Renmin U. of China
Author: Rui Ling Lee – Nanyang Technological U.
Author: Fangzhou Liu – Huazhong U. of Science and Technology
Author: Krishna Savani – Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic U.