Executive Search Consultants’ Biases Against Women (or Men?)

Abstract

Women remain under-represented in leadership positions in many countries. Since executive search consultants (also known as headhunters) act as gatekeepers in the hiring process, headhunters' biases might influence the female under-representation. There is preliminary evidence that suggests headhunters favor men, but direct evidence is missing. Thus, this study directly tested this assumption using implicit and explicit measures (an implicit association test and a gender role attitudes survey), completed by 123 German executive search consultants. Although neither measure showed an anti-women bias (with the explicit measure being compared to a match sample from a representative survey using propensity score matching), the implicit association test showed an in-group bias (i.e., male headhunter had a stronger association of men and competence than of women and competence). The latter is worrisome because the majority of consultants in this business are men. Thus, organizations interested in more female managers need to carefully consider who they hire as their executive search consultants.

Gendered executive headhunting with Chinese characteristics

“…This is comparable with Western studies: clients prefer men for managerial positions, as do some headhunters (Siegel et al., 2020) but rarely express this formally (Doldor et al., 2012; Tienari et al., 2013). In contrast to Chinese participants, the two Taiwanese participants reported that anti‐discrimination laws were well implemented and forbid gender and age discrimination.…”

“…They are not incentivized to address inequality (Brands & Fernandez‐Mateo, 2017). Sometimes explicit biases are found (Siegel et al., 2020). Rejection by search firms can discourage women from applying for further jobs (Brands & Fernandez‐Mateo, 2017).…”

Resilience, Leadership and Female Entrepreneurship within the Context of SMEs: Evidence from Latin America

“…This style of leadership is more conditioned to the lack of security and independence in the fulfillment of work processes. Attempts to devalue or even relativize the positive valuations of female leadership appear as a way of maintaining male privileges [71]. Women, in fact, are sometimes classified by society as a delicate and sensitive gender, when in fact they can assume models or patterns of behavior usually attributable to men that prove to be more than adequate to achieve success in the labor market.…”

Una aproximación a los Headhunters. La desigualdad de género en los sistemas de selección de personal en los cargos de alta dirección

“…In this sense, we believe that headhunters have the power to perpetuate gender inequality in the company, but also the capacity to promote equality as the same way. So, headhunters are an ambivalent figure that, in some occasions, reproduce gender stereotypes and same-gender preferences, perpetuating gender inequality in business domain (Coverdill & Finlay, 1998;Gorman, 2005;Siegel et al, 2020); but in other occasions, acts as a change agent, promoting diversity and gender equality (Doldor et al, 2016;Fernández-Mateo & Fernández, 2016). From a gender perspective, the first question that raises about headhunter's activity it's what follows: if their decision and working process is focused on a subjective criterion based on their relationships with senior management, how does this fact affect professional women?…”

“…Moreover, the majority of consultants in business are men. Thus, organizations interested in more women managers need to carefully consider who they hire as their executive search consultants (Siegel et. al, 2020).…”