Gender discrimination and perceived fairness in the promotion process of hotel employees

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine hotel managers’ perspectives on the promotion process of hotel employees based on the promoted employee’s gender, their perceived organizational justice and perceived gender discrimination against women. The moderating role of anti-male bias beliefs in the promotion process was examined. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted an experimental design (female vs male promoted) with a sample of 87 hotel managers. Data were analyzed using mediation and moderated mediation analyses. Findings The results indicated procedural and distributed justice mediates the effect of gender of the promoted employee on perceived gender discrimination against women. It was found that perceptions of anti-male bias moderate the relationship between gender of the promoted employee and distributed justice, demonstrating higher levels of perceived fairness within the organization when a female is promoted, especially when low levels of anti-male bias exist. Practical implications Many organizations may refrain from offering more promotional opportunities to women for fear of reverse discrimination. This research demonstrates that the organization will be perceived as fairer if it offers more opportunities to women, should create a stronger organizational culture and higher financial performance. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to address the gender inequity in promotional opportunities of hotel employees and demonstrate the overall benefit of combating such inequality. This is the first time that anti-male bias has been addressed in the hospitality context, suggesting the need for more research on reverse discrimination, especially in promotional situations.

Family-supportive supervisor behaviors and employee turnover intention in the foodservice industry: does gender matter?

“…In fact, some research suggests that family-supportive supervision may be more beneficial to employees in managing work-life conflict than formal, defined organizational policies (Behson, 2005). Furthermore, as organizations strive to ensure growth and promotion of women, especially to executive-level positions where they are currently underrepresented, FSSB may represent a tool to help accomplish these goals by fostering retention of talented women, which may have important salutary effects given that attempts to retain and advance women may lead employees to view the organization as more fair and improve organizational culture (Russen et al , 2021). Finally, given the costs of extreme turnover in the hospitality industry, and the fact that women make up the majority of the hospitality workforce (BLS, 2020), our results provide important insights into ways that organizations may be able to retain employees and reduce turnover-related costs.…”

Women in hospitality and tourism: a study of the top-down and bottom-up dynamics

“…In this view, people react negatively to the increasing presence of women in managerial positions for multiple reasons, such as increased competition for promotions, increased media attention on women and a perceived threat to men's traditional status as managers and leaders (Burke and Black, 1997). Employment equity programs may be perceived by non-beneficiaries as contradicting principles of procedural justice and meritocracy and thus unfair (Burke and Black, 1997;Russen et al, 2021;Seijts and Jackson Casper, 2001), which may lead to a reduction in the number of women hired for traditionally male roles (Ng and Wiesner, 2007). Building on these findings, it is argued that when women's representation in management reaches a relatively high percentage, backlash against employment equity reduces decision makers' willingness to add more women to that level.…”

“…Bias training may also be beneficial. According to Russen et al (2021), fear of reverse discrimination may cause organizations to avoid promoting women; yet overcoming that fear and showing a lack of gender bias will elevate fairness perceptions, such that reducing bias will allow more women to be promoted to managerial positions. Fair treatment, ensuring equal rights to all employees, and minimizing perceived incivility are essential to mitigate stressors and tension (Sarwar and Muhammad, 2021).…”

Hospitality’s ethical values and unethical employee behaviour: The mediating roles of work values and the moderating role of perceived organisational support

“…Status value implies an assessment of employee satisfaction with promotion opportunities and fairness. In the hotel industry, promotion is not always considered fair, which means that building a fair promotion mechanism can advance hotel employees’ work participation and productivity ( Russen et al, 2021 ). Ethical corporations advocate a fair organisational atmosphere ( George Jr, 2021 ) to make employees believe their organisation has provided fairness in promotion opportunities.…”