The glass cliff: When and why women are selected as leaders in crisis contexts

Abstract

The glass cliff refers to women being more likely to rise to positions of organizational leadership in times of crisis than in times of success, and men being more likely to achieve those positions in prosperous times. We examine the role that (a) a gendered history of leadership and (b) stereotypes about gender and leadership play in creating the glass cliff. In Expt 1, participants who read about a company with a male history of leadership selected a male future leader for a successful organization, but chose a female future leader in times of crisis. This interaction--between company performance and gender of the preferred future leader--was eliminated for a counter-stereotypic history of female leadership. In Expt 2, stereotypically male attributes were most predictive of leader selection in a successful organization, while stereotypically female attributes were most predictive in times of crisis. Differences in the endorsement of these stereotypes, in particular with regard to the ascription of lower stereotypically female attributes to the male candidate mediated the glass cliff effect. Overall, results suggest that stereotypes about male leadership may be more important for the glass cliff effect than stereotypes about women and leadership.

Signaling change during a crisis: Refining conditions for the glass cliff

“…Moreover, this was due to the fact that the female candidate was viewed as a signal of change, and not to perceptions of her greater suitability to deal with the crisis. Thus, if previous male leadership has proven unsuccessful (Bruckmüller & Branscombe, 2010), preference for a woman publicizes the company's intention to implement a change, but this change is not viewed as being enacted by this woman's leadership capacities. Overall, these findings suggest A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T…”

“…One exception comes from Bruckmüller and Branscombe (2010). Here, the authors gave information about the history of a company's past leadership by informing participants about the gender of the previous leader.…”

“It’s a Man Who Runs the Show”: How Women Middle-Managers Experience Their Professional Position, Opportunities, and Barriers

“…Cracks have now begun to appear in the glass ceiling and women are making it into top positions, although as yet only in small numbers (Eagly & Carli, 2007). Furthermore, the women who have broken through the cracks are more likely than men to be appointed to positions of leadership in companies facing hard times (Bruckmüller & Branscombe, 2010;Haslam & Ryan, 2008;Ryan, Haslam, Hersby, & Bongiorno, 2011). This precarious situation has been termed the glass cliff, as it entails higher risk, stress levels, and rates of failure than taking charge of a successful enterprise.…”

...hvað segið þið strákar? Upplifun kvenmillistjórnenda af stöðu sinni, möguleikum og hindrunum í starfi

“…Myndlíkingin glerbrúnin (e. glass cliff) var sett fram þegar rannsakendur veittu því athygli að konur virtust eiga betri möguleika á að hljóta forystustöðu í fyrirtaekjum þar sem hallar undan faeti (Haslam og Ryan, 2008;Ryan, Haslam, Hersby og Bongiorno, 2011;Bruckmüller og Branscombe, 2010). Í slíkri stöðu er haettan á því að mistakast meiri en þegar tekið er við fyrirtaeki sem gengur vel, auk þess sem meira álag fylgir því.…”