Melbourne Business School - Theses
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ItemEvaluation bias and backlash: how unconscious gender bias hurts women's career progress and two interventions to improve outcomes( 2019)In this thesis I investigate the impacts of unconscious gender bias on women in the workplace from the pespective of two types of bias: evaluation bias and backlash. I define evaluation bias as cases in which women are evaluated less favourably than men due to their gender. Similar to this, backlash is when women who behave in counter-stereotypical ways are evaluated less favourably, especially in terms of how likeable they are and how likely they are to be hired (Rudman & Phelan, 2008). In order to best understand the current state of the literature and calculate an estimate for the overall effect of bias, a meta-analysis was conducted for these two biases. This meta-analysis sampled a total of 151 papers which contributed a total of 203 studies or 822 independent effect sizes and an overall sample size of 86,661. Across all studies a small but robust effect of bias was found (g =-.10 [95%CI -.15, -.04]). A multilevel meta-regression was conducted in order to identify moderators that contributed to larger effects of bias. Larger effects of bias were found when the evaluator was male; when the work context was male or gender neutral; if the counter-stereotypical behaviour of the target was dominant or aggressive; and if the target was being evaluated on dimensions of likeability, their likelihood of future career success, or how hireable they were. Notably the year of publication had no effect on the measure of bias, which shows that across all papers sampled in this analysis from 1970 to 2014, bias has not varied. Results from the meta-analysis were used to inform two subsequent intervention studies, which focused on a method to ameliorate the impact of bias that could be enacted from either the supply-side (the job candidate) or the demand-side (the evaluator). These interventions were designed to focus the evaluator’s attention on the match between the job candidate and the role that they were interviewing for. When manipulated from the supply-side this match was made salient by the candidate using exact terms and phrasing taken from the key criteria in the job advertisement; from the demand-side a structured note-taking based around the key criteria was used. Results shows that the supply-side manipulation was successful in increasing the likability and leader desirability of the female candidate compared to the male candidate. Conditional process modelling showed that the manipulation increased perceived communality of the female target, which lead to better outcomes in terms of likeability, leader desirability, hireability, and future career success. The intervention for the demand-side was not successful, however it contributed insights into why demand-side intervention takeup rates in organisations is low.
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ItemFeeling misidentified: the consequences of internal identity asymmetries for individuals at work( 2015)People have an enduring interest and concern with how they are perceived by others, particularly when these others can influence key outcomes. For example, at work, factors like promotions, performance reviews, pay raises and coveted assignments are often tied to the perceptions and evaluations of one’s colleagues. Given this, individuals are likely to discern and monitor how their colleagues see them in the workplace. What happens, then, when individuals believe that their colleagues have an incorrect understanding of their identity? In this thesis, I define, unpack and examine this experience, internal identity asymmetry, the belief that one is misidentified by important others at work. I explore internal identity asymmetry through three papers, which together employ multiple methodologies and analysis techniques to develop insight into this important identity process in the workplace. My first paper (Chapter 2) links the identity, self-verification, and impression management literatures to conceptually introduce the concept of internal identity asymmetry. Drawing on the stress and coping literature, I suggest that cognitive appraisal processes moderate asymmetry’s positive or negative outcomes. Through field studies of over 300 working individuals, in my second paper (Chapter 3), I demonstrate the importance of internal identity asymmetry and its appraisal by examining its impacts on individuals’ attitudes and performance. Importantly, I show that while asymmetry may drive negative attitudes, at the same time it can positively impact an individual’s performance. Finally, incorporating the gender and leadership literatures, I explore the subjective experience of internal identity asymmetry through qualitative interviews of women leaders. I explore the types of asymmetry experienced by women, delve into the strategies they use to cope with and manage the experience, and uncover when they are most likely to experience it throughout their careers. Together these studies provide us with a greater understanding of an important intra-individual phenomenon - internal identity asymmetry - that has significant implications for individuals at work.
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ItemBe:Longing - enacting Indigenous arts leadership( 2012)This thesis explores the experiences of Australian Indigenous artists, arts managers and leaders to reveal the distinctive territories or contexts across which they work and the practices they use to provide leadership to their communities, other artists and the wider Australian community. On the basis of in-depth interviews with 29 diverse Indigenous Australian artists and arts leaders, the research identifies four territories and ten practices used to provide leadership, often in the face of ongoing institutionalised racism and a legacy of still widely felt oppression and dispossession from processes of colonisation. This thesis explores the experiences of Australian Indigenous artists, arts managers and leaders to reveal the distinctive territories or contexts across which they work and the practices they use to provide leadership to their communities, other artists and the wider Australian community. On the basis of in-depth interviews with 29 diverse Indigenous Australian artists and arts leaders, the research identifies four territories and ten practices used to provide leadership, often in the face of ongoing institutionalised racism and a legacy of still widely felt oppression and dispossession from processes of colonisation. The thesis argues that this group of artistic leaders has the potential to teach us some new things about leadership. Their particular challenges and experiences enable us to see in richer ways generic tensions in leadership, for example between the importance of negotiating authorisation from a group to act alongside the requirement to sometimes simply authorise ourselves and not wait for a ‘tap on the shoulder’ or vote of support. The research also suggests that the notion of territories as a way of conceptualising the context or space from which leaders act, is widely applicable and captures the embodied and physically anchored dimensions of leadership that are often neglected in leadership research.