Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Risky Business: A Theoretical Model Applied to the Advancement of Executive Women

尽管妇女现在占美国劳动力的近一半，占大学毕业生的大多数，占中层管理人员和新MBA的三分之一以上，但她们在商业世界领导职位上的代表性仍然相对较低。这项研究使用风险评估模型来确定执行推进的过程，并考虑这些过程如何运作，为男性和女性创造非常不同的结果。该风险评估模型的几个关键命题将通过两个实验室研究进行测试。第一项研究是一项实验，旨在确定：（1）决策者是否认为雇用或晋升被认为能力、一致性、忠诚度和可信度较低的个人风险较高;（2）是否认为妇女在这些方面的资格低于客观上资格相同的男子，因此被认为在雇用和晋升决定中比男子承担更高的风险。 第二项研究是一系列的四个相同的实验，参与者不同（本科生、MBA、高管MBA和高管）旨在测试是否更大的感知风险归因于雇用女性比男性，以及这种更高的感知风险是否转化为女性被雇用和晋升的频率较低。因为这一现象可能是由多个进程同时运作造成的，这些进程使妇女处于不利地位。与以往大多数工作不同，该项目采取了系统的方法，同时考虑的能力，一致性，承诺和信誉的看法对风险的看法和雇用决定的影响，适当的问题。因此，这项研究不仅将澄清女性是否被认为比男性更危险，还将澄清为什么。 此外，通过整合性别研究和风险与决策领域的研究，这项研究采取了一种新的方法，可能会使旨在减少性别不平等的政策的制定更容易处理。 大多数商业组织都擅长在许多情况下进行风险/回报权衡和决策。该项目使各组织能够通过它们熟悉的透镜来看待两性不平等问题，从而有助于它们在努力实现两性平等的过程中制定和颁布更有效的政策。

Despite the fact that women now represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce, a majority of college graduates and more than a third of mid-level managers and new MBAs, their representation in positions of leadership within the business world remains relatively low. This research uses a risk assessment model to identify the processes underlying executive advancement and consider how these processes operate to create very different outcomes for men and women. Several key propositions of this risk assessment model will be tested through two experimental lab studies. The first study is an experiment aimed at determining 1) whether decision makers attribute higher risk to hiring or promoting individuals that are perceived as less competent, congruent, committed and credible; and 2) whether women are perceived as less qualified on each of these dimensions than men with objectively identical qualifications, and as a result are seen as carrying higher risk in hire and promotion decisions than men. The second study is a series of four identical experiments with varying participants (undergraduates, MBAs, executive MBAs and executives) aimed at testing whether greater perceived risk is attributed to hiring women than men and whether this higher perceived risk translates to women being hired and promoted less frequently.The research question being addressed in this project is a complex one, as the phenomenon is likely driven by multiple processes operating simultaneously to disadvantage women. Unlike most previous work, this project takes a systemic approach appropriate to the problem by simultaneously considering the impact of perceptions of competence, congruence, commitment and credibility upon risk perceptions and hiring decisions. As a result, the research will clarify not just whether women are perceived as riskier than men, but also why. Further, by integrating research from the fields of both gender studies and risk and decision-making, this research takes a novel approach that may make the development of policies aimed at reducing gender inequality more tractable. Most business organizations are adept at making risk/reward tradeoffs and decisions across many contexts. By enabling organizations to see gender inequality through a lens with which they are familiar, this project may help them to develop and enact more effective policies in their efforts to create gender equality.