Collaborative Proposal: Time Allocation: Gender Differences in Propensity to Receive and Agree to Work-Related Requests

尽管妇女受教育程度显著提高，但劳动力市场结果的性别差异仍然存在。横向和纵向的工作隔离非常严重，导致男性和女性在劳动力市场的经历非常不同。对这些差异的常见解释是歧视，以及男性和女性在能力和工作偏好上的差异。该项目旨在确定工作中任务分配的差异是否有助于解释为什么女性在工作场所的进步速度比男性慢。在大多数专业职业中，员工在时间分配上有一定的自主权。员工可以将自己的时间分配给可能提高其绩效评估的任务（“晋升任务”），也可以分配给那些虽然对组织有利，但不太可能影响其评估和职业发展的任务（“非晋升任务”）。当被要求完成不可能升职的任务时，员工必须正确评估自己是否有权说“不”，以及这样做是否符合自己的利益。那些难以拒绝执行不可能升职的任务的人可能会阻碍他们的职业发展和工作满意度，这可能会导致他们减少对组织的承诺和投资。该项目将使用调查、实验和二手数据来检验，相对于男性，女性是否更有可能同意和接受与工作相关的任务请求，而这些任务不太可能导致她们的晋升。前者被称为非晋升性工作相关任务的供给，后者被称为需求。在检查供应时，首先进行一项调查，以确定个人如何看待他们宁愿拒绝的任务请求。初步结果显示，女性发现说“不”更加困难，而且她们更担心这样做的负面影响。然后通过实验室实验来检验这些担忧是否会转化为行为差异。一个实验的目的是捕捉当一个小组的成员被要求派一个志愿者去完成一项他们更喜欢由另一个小组成员承担的任务（比如写一份报告，在一个委员会任职，组织一个活动等）时，他们面对的动机。试点数据表明，女性自愿承担这类任务的可能性几乎是男性的两倍，而且在反复的互动中，她们继续以更高的比例自愿承担这类任务。在混合性别和单一性别群体中进行的实验表明，承担任务的意愿（无论男性还是女性）随着群体中女性人数的增加而减少。因此，团队构成起着核心作用，这表明在男性主导的环境中，女性更有可能同意非晋升任务的要求。拟议的工作将研究是什么导致了这些差异。特别令人感兴趣的是，记录的差异在多大程度上可以用偏好（例如，利他主义）的差异或个人对他人行为的信念的差异来解释。审查对请求的反应也将扩大到明确提出请求和在实际工作环境中决定志愿人员的情况（例如，特设终身制审查委员会）。最后，将进行额外的调查，以探讨男性和女性在决定是否拒绝非晋升任务的请求时所使用的决策过程。对非晋升工作相关任务的需求差异将通过首先将实验室研究扩展到一组中的一个成员可以选择要求另一个小组成员自愿的设置来检查。试点数据表明，当在要求男性和女性候选人之间做出选择时，男性更有可能要求女性这样做。其次，将对教职员工进行日记研究，以评估他们收到无助于其职业发展的任务请求的频率。最后，将进行几项实验室和调查研究，以确定被要求在个人之间分配任务的个人是否倾向于将不太理想的任务分配给女性而不是男性。通过学术和大众媒体记录和关注任务分配中的性别差异，拟议的研究将使分配任务的管理人员以及决定如何分配时间的男女之间认识到这些差异。这种认识可能有助于缩小职业晋升方面的性别差距，并有助于确保充分发挥妇女、男子和整个社会的潜力。

Despite significant advancement in women's educational attainment, gender differences in labor market outcomes persist. Horizontal as well as vertical job segregation is substantial, causing men and women to have very different labor market experiences. Common explanations for these differences are discrimination and that men and women differ in their abilities and preferences over jobs. This project aims to determine if differences in task allocation at work may help explain why women advance at a slower rate than men in the work place. In most professional occupations, workers have some discretion over the allocation of their time. A worker can allocate her time to tasks that are likely to improve her performance evaluation ("promotable tasks") or to tasks that, while benefitting the organization, are unlikely to affect her evaluation and advance her career ("non-promotable tasks"). When presented with requests for non-promotable tasks it is essential that the individual properly assess whether she has the discretion to say "no" and whether it is in her interest to do so. Individuals who find it difficult to decline requests to perform non-promotable tasks may hamper their career advancement and job satisfaction, and this could cause them to reduce their commitment and investment in the organization.This project will use surveys, experiments and secondary data to examine if, relative to men, women are more likely to agree to and receive requests for work-related tasks that are unlikely to lead to their promotion. The former is referred to as the supply of non-promotable work-related tasks and the latter as the demand.In examining the supply, a survey is first conducted to determine how individuals perceive requests for tasks that they would prefer to decline. Preliminary results reveal that women find it more difficult to say "no", and that they are more concerned about the negative ramifications of doing so. A laboratory experiment is then used to examine if such concerns translate into behavioral differences. An experiment is designed to capture the incentives members of a group face when asked to deliver a volunteer for a task that they prefer another member of the group undertakes (such as writing a report, serving on a committee, organizing an event etc.). Pilot data suggest that women are almost twice as likely to volunteer for such tasks, and that they, in repeated interaction, continue to volunteer at a higher rate. Conducting the experiment with both mixed- and single-sex groups reveals that the willingness to undertake the task (for both men and women) decreases with the number of women in the group. Thus group composition plays a central role, suggesting that women are more likely to agree to requests for non-promotable tasks in male-dominated environments. The proposed work will examine what gives rise to these differences. Of particular interest is the extent to which the documented differences can be explained by differences in preferences (e.g., altruism) or in the beliefs individuals hold about the actions of others. The examination of the response to requests will also be extended to settings where requests are made explicit and where the decision to volunteer is made in actual work environments (e.g., ad hoc tenure review committees). Finally, additional surveys will be conducted to explore the decision-making processes men and women use when deciding whether to decline requests for non-promotable tasks.Differences in the demand for non-promotable work-related tasks will be examined by first extending the laboratory study to a setting where one member of a group is given the option of asking another group member to volunteer. Pilot data suggest that when given the choice between asking a male and a female candidate to volunteer, men are more likely to ask the female to do so. Second, a diary study of faculty members will be conducted to assess the frequency with which they receive requests for tasks that do not advance their career. Finally, several laboratory and survey studies will be done to determine if individuals who are asked to distribute tasks across individuals tend to assign the less desirable tasks to women rather than men.By documenting and bringing attention to gender differences in task allocation through the academic and popular press, the proposed studies will create awareness of these differences among managers who assign tasks and among women and men who decide how to allocate their time. Such awareness may help decrease the gender gap in career advancement, and help secure that the full potential is reached for women, men and society as a whole.