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

尽管妇女的教育程度有了显著提高，但劳动力市场结果的性别差异依然存在。横向和纵向的职业隔离是实质性的，导致男子和妇女有非常不同的劳动力市场经验。对这些差异的常见解释是歧视，以及男子和妇女在能力和对工作的偏好方面存在差异。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妇女在工作场所的晋升速度比男子慢。在大多数专业职业中，工人对自己的时间分配有一定的自由裁量权。员工可以将时间分配给可能改善其绩效评估的任务（“可提升任务”），或者分配给虽然对组织有益但不太可能影响其评估和促进其职业发展的任务（“不可提升任务”）。当被要求从事不可晋升的任务时，个人必须适当评估她是否有说“不”的酌处权，以及这样做是否符合她的利益。很难拒绝从事不能晋升的任务的人可能会妨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，本项目将利用调查、实验和二手数据来研究妇女是否比男子更有可能同意和接受与工作有关的任务的要求，而这些任务不太可能导致她们晋升。前者被称为不可提升的工作相关任务的供给，后者被称为需求。在研究供给时，首先进行调查，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，妇女发现说“不”更困难，她们更担心这样做的负面影响。然后，实验室实验被用来检查这种担忧是否转化为行为差异。一个实验的目的是捕捉一个组的成员面临的激励，当要求提供一个志愿者的任务，他们更喜欢另一个组的成员承担（如写报告，在一个委员会服务，组织一个事件等）。试点数据表明，妇女自愿参加这些任务的可能性几乎是妇女的两倍，而且在反复的互动中，妇女自愿参加的比例继续较高。对男女混合组和单一性别组进行的实验表明，（男女）承担任务的意愿随着组中妇女人数的增加而减少。因此，群体组成发挥着核心作用，这表明在男性主导的环境中，女性更有可能同意不可晋升的任务请求。拟议中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的差异来解释（例如，利他主义）或个人对他人行为的信念。对请求答复的审查还将扩大到明确提出请求和在实际工作环境中作出志愿者决定的环境（例如，特设任期审查委员会）。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，首先将实验室研究扩展到一个设置，其中一个组的一名成员可以选择要求另一个组的成员志愿者，以检查对非晋升工作相关任务的需求的差异。试点数据表明，当让男性和女性候选人选择志愿者时，男性更有可能要求女性这样做。其次，将对教师进行日记研究，以评估他们收到任务要求的频率，这些任务不会促进他们的职业生涯。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提请注意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和决定如何分配时间的妇女和男子认识到这些差异。这种认识可能有助于缩小职业晋升方面的性别差距，并有助于确保妇女、男子和整个社会的全部潜力得到发挥。

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.