My Fair Lady? Inferring Organizational Trust From the Mere Presence of Women in Leadership Roles

Joshi, Mansi; Diekman, Amanda B.

doi:10.1177/01461672211035957

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…The perception of communal opportunity may especially align with beliefs that others in the organization have positive intent and will treat others fairly. This pattern would be consistent with evidence that perceptions of organizational trust in STEM labs and companies were predicted by anticipated communal affordances but not agentic affordances (Joshi & Diekman, 2021). Similarly, the current studies examine whether facial structure cues expectations of fairness in STEM through perceived communal affordances.…”

Section: Studies 3a and 3b: Faces Signal Fairness Through Communal Op...supporting

confidence: 85%

“…To avoid identity repetition, we created two counterbalancing blocks, each of which showed only the trustworthy or dominant version of a given face identity. Target stimuli included both male and female individuals; prior work found female leaders cued greater opportunities in a role and greater trust (Joshi & Diekman, 2021), but the effects of facial structure documented in the current article appear to operate independently of the target gender.…”

Section: Experimental Taskmentioning

confidence: 64%

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In the Face of Opportunities: Facial Structures of Scientists Shape Expectations of STEM Environments

Joshi

Lloyd

Diekman

et al. 2022

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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Impressions of role leaders provide information about anticipated opportunities in a role, and these perceptions can influence attitudes about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways. Specifically, the facial structures of role leaders influenced perceived affordances of working with that person, such as the availability of communal and agentic opportunities (e.g., mentorship; achievement). STEM faculty with trustworthy (relative to dominant) faces were seen as valuing communal goals (Studies 1–3), and in turn, perceived as affording both communal and agentic opportunities in their research groups (Studies 2–3b). These heightened goal opportunities aligned with perceptions that trustworthy-faced advisors would enact more group-supportive behaviors (Study 2). Consequently, students anticipated fairer treatment and reported greater interest in labs directed by trustworthy- than dominant-faced leaders (Studies 3a–4a), even when images were accompanied by explicit information about leaders’ collaborative behavior (Study 4b). The faces of leaders can thus function as the “face” of that role and the surrounding culture.

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Section: Studies 3a and 3b: Faces Signal Fairness Through Communal Op...supporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Experimental Taskmentioning

confidence: 64%

In the Face of Opportunities: Facial Structures of Scientists Shape Expectations of STEM Environments

Joshi

Lloyd

Diekman

et al. 2022

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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“…Although some of these findings may rely on observational data, raising the possibility of reverse causality, they converge with experimental studies that suggest a causal relationship. To illustrate, in a series of experiments, the mere presence of a female leader relative to a male leader caused people to anticipate fairer treatment within an organization and better personal outcomes because they associated stronger communal values in the organization when women occupied leadership roles ( Joshi and Diekman, 2021 ). Similarly, when a hypothetical organization was in crisis, participants in two experiments were more likely to trust the organization (e.g., be willing to invest in it) when it was led by women than by men because they expected women to be more skilled at interpersonal emotion management ( Post et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: The Downstream Consequences Of Women’s Prosocial Use Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Heavier Lies Her Crown: Gendered Patterns of Leader Emotional Labor and Their Downstream Effects

Vial

Cowgill

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Women use power in more prosocial ways than men and they also engage in more emotional labor (i.e., self-regulate their emotions to respond and attend to the needs and emotions of other people in a way that advances organizational goals). However, these two constructs have not been previously connected. We propose that gendered emotional labor practices and pressures result in gender differences in the prosocial use of power. We integrate the literature on emotional labor with research on the psychology of power to articulate three routes through which this happens. First, women may be more adept than men at the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes entailed in emotional labor practices—a skill that they can apply at all hierarchical levels. Second, given women’s stronger internal motivation to perform emotional labor, they construe power in a more interdependent manner than men, which promotes a more prosocial use of power. As a result, female powerholders tend to behave in more prosocial ways. Third, when they have power, women encounter stronger external motivation to engage in emotional labor, which effectively constrains powerful women’s behaviors in a way that fosters a more prosocial use of power. We discuss how, by promoting prosocial behavior among powerholders, emotional labor can be beneficial for subordinates and organizations (e.g., increase employee well-being and organizational trust), while simultaneously creating costs for individual powerholders, which may reduce women’s likelihood of actually attaining and retaining power by (a) making high-power roles less appealing, (b) guiding women toward less prestigious and (c) more precarious leadership roles, (d) draining powerful women’s time and resources without equitable rewards, and (e) making it difficult for women to legitimize their power in the eyes of subordinates (especially men). Thus, emotional labor practices can help explain the underrepresentation of women in top leadership positions.

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“…The current work suggests that structural and signaling practices may be a point of intervention: For instance, institutions can include greater depictions of collaborative science activity and provide assignments that allow greater collaboration and connection with peers. Embedding communal opportunities within structures and practices may be a route to increasing women’s sense of belonging in their STEM majors (Belanger et al, 2020), fairness in STEM environments (Joshi & Diekman, 2021), and commitment to STEM (Thoman et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women represent a larger proportion of undergraduate and doctoral degrees in life sciences than engineering/physical sciences (Cheryan et al, 2017; National Science Board, 2019; NCES, 2016). Who is present and leading the field can shape beliefs about goal opportunities; in hypothetical organizations, female leaders were perceived as leading in contexts that offered more communal opportunity, relative to male leaders (Joshi & Diekman, 2021). Further, engineering and physics are more strongly characterized by competition and dominance culture (i.e., masculinity-contest culture), relative to life science fields such as biology and chemistry (Vial et al, 2022).…”

Section: Defining Motivational Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking motivational culture: Diverging emphasis on communality and agency across STEM domains.

Joshi¹,

Benson‐Greenwald²,

Diekman³

2022

Motivation Science

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The current research examined whether life sciences vs. engineering/physical sciences vary in the visibility and value of communality and agency. Overall, we find an emphasis on agency in engineering/physical sciences and a greater balance between communality and agency in the life sciences. We examine motivational culture as represented in environmental structures (Study 1), in signals sent and received in academic displays (Studies 2A-B), and in individual-level motives and cognitions (Studies 3-4). Study 1 analyzed archival course data to find that courses (N = 11,222) in engineering/physical sciences included fewer collaborative assignments than courses in life sciences. Study 2A's content analysis documented that bulletin boards (N = 68) in engineering/ physical sciences academic buildings conveyed less communal purpose, and Study 2B found that participants (N = 44) perceived greater communal purpose when viewing novel bulletin boards experimentally manipulated to include the cues identified in Study 2A. In Studies 3 (N = 326) and 4 (N = 110), engineering/physical science majors reported a strong agentic focus, compared to life science majors' more balanced focus. Further, the strong agentic focus of engineering/physical science students waned over time. This investigation of motivational cultures highlights the daily practices and institutional contexts that can shape individual-level motives and cognition related to engagement in STEM, both within and across different STEM pathways.

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My Fair Lady? Inferring Organizational Trust From the Mere Presence of Women in Leadership Roles

Cited by 9 publications

References 50 publications

In the Face of Opportunities: Facial Structures of Scientists Shape Expectations of STEM Environments

In the Face of Opportunities: Facial Structures of Scientists Shape Expectations of STEM Environments

Heavier Lies Her Crown: Gendered Patterns of Leader Emotional Labor and Their Downstream Effects

Unpacking motivational culture: Diverging emphasis on communality and agency across STEM domains.

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