Why are Women Less Likely to Negotiate? The Influence of Expectancy Considerations and Contextual Framing on Gender Differences in the Initiation of Negotiation

Abstract

According to social role theory, women are less likely to initiate negotiations and have lower expectancies about negotiation success because the feminine gender role is inconsistent with the negotiator role. However, gender differences should be amplified in masculine contexts (with even more inconsistency between the negotiator role and the feminine gender role) and reduced in feminine contexts (with more consistency between the negotiator role and the feminine gender role). We showed in Study 1 (N = 1,306 students) that negotiators' expectancies about being successful in negotiations mediated the effect of gender on real retrospective negotiation behavior. In Study 2, an online scenario experiment (N = 167 students and employees), we found that the framing of the negotiation context (feminine vs. masculine) moderated the mediation effect. We provide implications for theory, practice, and research methods by unearthing mechanisms and moderators of gender differences in the area of negotiations.

Initiating salary negotiations: a mixed-methods study into the effects of gender, shame and pay-raise justifications

“…In line with the above, Kugler et al (2018) meta-analyzed gender and negotiation initiation studies and concluded that women were somewhat less inclined to initiate negotiation, although this difference was subject to moderators (publication year and situational ambiguity). Reif and colleagues replicated this gender difference and showed that women initiated negotiation less than men in specific negotiation contexts; prominent among those were salary negotiations (Reif et al, 2019(Reif et al, , 2020. Following previous studies, we hypothesized: H1.…”

“…ambitious, assertive, competitive) (Eagly, 1987;Eagly and Wood, 2012). In negotiation situations, a self-advocating male negotiator is therefore within his gender role, while a self-advocating female negotiator violates her gender role (Bowles et al, 2019;Kugler et al, 2018;Nelson et al, 2015;Reif et al, 2019Reif et al, , 2020Williams and Tiedens, 2016). Accordingly, female, but not male, negotiators, face social backlash.…”

“…For example, women described feeling shame when "speaking out" (Brown, 2006). Similarly, it is plausible that women would feel more shame than men when they consider initiating a self-advocating negotiation, because such behavior violates a deeply internalized female gender role (Reif et al, 2020):…”

Studi Literatur: Perbedaan Kepribadian Gender Dalam Mempengaruhi Penerapan Strategi Negosiasi

“…Sedangkan negosiator pria berdasarkan kepribadiannya yang kompetitif akan lebih tinggi tingkat inisiasinya dalam kontek negosiasi perusahaan publik, kompensasi, sewa, pekerjaan, dan sebagainya. Reif et al, (2020) melanjutkan penelitian mereka tentang perbedaan negosiator berdasarkan perbedaan gender, dan penjelasan yang sama bahwa negosiator pria memiliki tingkat inisiasi yang tinggi dalam bernegosiasi dibandingkan negosiator wanita. Tambahan penjelasannya ialah bahwa perbedaan inisiasi dalam negosiasi tersebut juga dipengaruhi oleh faktor perbedaan harapan.…”

Are Strategies for Women in Compensation Negotiations More Appealing When It Is Explained How They Are Meant to Impact Negotiation Outcomes?

“…Vroom’s (1964) VIE theory has three main constructs: valence, instrumentality, and expectancy (for a helpful illustration, see Karau & Williams, 1993). 1 The theory can explain people's intentions and has already been used in research on negotiation and gender (e.g., Reif et al, 2020; Reif et al, 2019). In VIE theory (Vroom, 1964), the technical term expectancy denotes the perceived likelihood with which an effort, or “e,” would lead to a performance, or “p”—thus, expectancy captures the perceived relationship of “e → p” (Van Eerde & Thierry, 1996).…”