Reactions to tokenism: The role of individual characteristics in shaping responses to token decisions

Anisman-Razin, Moran; Saguy, Tamar

doi:10.1002/ejsp.2215

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…First, the evidence in this study is consistent with resource dependence theory suggesting that firms benefit from corporate governance [18]. Second, the study highlights the legislative change to examine the differential effect of corporate governance on the value relevance of sustainability reports [9,46]. Lastly, we provided a natural experiment and event study to tease out any confounding effects on the results.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Mandating Gender Diversity and the Value Relevance of Sustainable Development Disclosure

Lim

Park

2022

Sustainability

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This study investigates whether investors react to disclosures of sustainable development. The study further examines if the legislative change has affected investors’ perception on sustainability disclosure via the corporate governance mechanism. With the recent legislative change in Korea, the gender quota may have negatively impacted corporate governance due to tokenism. In this study, we employ a natural experiment and event study with the 72 largest Korean firms listed in the stock market. Findings indicate that firms with female directors experience significant abnormal returns around event days, and that the firms meeting the minimal gender quota requirement indicate insignificant abnormal returns. This implies that firms with female directors provide better governance with diversity in the boardroom. However, the benefits from gender diversity become weak when tokenism is applied to them. The study makes several contributions to the governance and sustainability literature by providing additional evidence on tokenism. Findings have implications about the relationship between corporate governance and sustainable development for academia and practitioners.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Mandating Gender Diversity and the Value Relevance of Sustainable Development Disclosure

Lim

Park

2022

Sustainability

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“…A recent study showed, for example, that among women in the police force, experiencing a positive diversity climate only partially reduced the negative effects of underrepresentation, with the women continuing to show negative consequences of underrepresentation on identity conflict (Veldman et al, 2017). Other work has shown the dangers of piecemeal diversity initiatives and “token” minority representation (i.e., representation of only a few minority group members) that can blind people to existing inequality (Brady et al, 2015; Kirby et al, 2015; Anisman-Razin and Saguy, 2016; Gündemir and Galinsky, 2017), and should therefore not constitute the sole strategy to advance equality (see also Hentschel et al, 2013). Also, in generating a positive diversity climate, it is important that organizations also pay attention to the needs of the majority or high-status individuals, who similarly use information on diversity climate as an indicator of the degree to which their identity is accepted.…”

Section: Supportive Factors That Mitigate Threat or Its Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping With Stigma in the Workplace: Understanding the Role of Threat Regulation, Supportive Factors, and Potential Hidden Costs

et al. 2019

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Despite changes in their representation and visibility, there are still serious concerns about the inclusion and day-to-day workplace challenges various groups face (e.g., women, ethnic and cultural minorities, LGBTQ+, people as they age, and those dealing with physical or mental disabilities). Men are also underrepresented in specific work fields, in particular those in Health care, Elementary Education, and the Domestic sphere (HEED). Previous literature has shown that group stereotypes play an important role in maintaining these inequalities. We outline how insights from research into stigma, social identity, and self-regulation together increase our understanding of how targets are affected by and regulate negative stereotypes in the workplace. This approach starts from the basis that members of negatively stereotyped groups are not just passive recipients of negative attitudes, stereotypes, and behaviors but are active individuals pursuing multiple goals, such as goals for belonging and achievement. We argue that it is only by understanding stigma from the target’s perspective (e.g., how targets are affected and respond) that we can successfully address workplace inequality. Key in this understanding is that stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination have taken on much more subtle forms, with consequences for the way members of stigmatized groups cope. These insights lead us to propose an approach to understanding barriers to workplace equality that highlights four key aspects: (1) the different (often subtle) potential triggers of identity threat in the workplace for members of stigmatized groups; (2) the ways in which members of stigmatized groups cope with these threats; (3) the role of supportive factors that mitigate potential threats and affect self-regulation; and (4) potential hidden costs for the self or others of what appears at first to be effective self-regulation. The focus on threats, coping, support, and potential hidden costs helps us understand why current diversity efforts are not always successful in increasing and maintaining members of stigmatized groups in organizations and provides insight into how we can aid efforts to effectively lower barriers to workplace equality.

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“…Participant's feminist identification. We used two items (adapted from Anisman-Razin & Saguy, 2016) to assess participants' identification with feminism: "I identify with feminists" and "Being a feminist is a large part of my identity" (r = .78). We measured feminist identification after participants completed all other measures to avoid revealing the goal of the study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Putting gender on the table”: Understanding reactions to women who discuss gender inequality

Anisman-Razin

Kark

Saguy

2018

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations

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Friends and colleagues-both male and female-warned me that making this speech would harm my career by instantly typecasting me as a female COO and not a real business executive. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, on her speech on gender inequality for TEDWomen 2010. Gender inequality remains a significant challenge for many societies. While much progress has been made in the last century, there are still major gaps between men and women in various life domains. For example, women are underrepresented in leadership positions (J. Warner, 2015), earn less money than men ("Statistical Overview of Women," 2016), and hold fewer seats in parliaments (The World Bank, 2017). While these inequalities are difficult to dispute, many believe that

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Reactions to tokenism: The role of individual characteristics in shaping responses to token decisions

Cited by 11 publications

References 39 publications

Mandating Gender Diversity and the Value Relevance of Sustainable Development Disclosure

Mandating Gender Diversity and the Value Relevance of Sustainable Development Disclosure

Coping With Stigma in the Workplace: Understanding the Role of Threat Regulation, Supportive Factors, and Potential Hidden Costs

“Putting gender on the table”: Understanding reactions to women who discuss gender inequality

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