The role of job assignment and human capital endowments in explaining gender differences in job performance and promotion

Pema, Elda; Mehay, Stephen L.

doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2010.02.006

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…In the absence of data on individual output, studies on pay differences and promotion decisions conventionally use human capital-related proxy variables (such as tenure and education level) to control for potential productivity differences among workers. Additionally, some studies have used supervisors' performance evaluation scores of employees to proxy for actual productivity (e.g., Bartel 1995;Flabbi and Ichino 2001;Pekkarinen and Vartiainen 2006;Pema and Mehay 2010). The problem with this approach is that performance evaluations may be biased measures of actual productivity (Waldman and Avolio 1986;Prendergast and Topel 1993), most notably because supervisors tend to give more lenient and compressed evaluation ratings when they know that the ratings are used for administrative purposes (Jawahar and Williams 1997;Moers 2005).…”

Section: Motivation and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Promotions and Earnings – Gender or Merit? Evidence from Longitudinal Personnel Data

Jokinen

Pehkonen

2017

J Labor Res

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This study examines the determinants of promotions, performance evaluations and earnings using unique longitudinal data from the personnel records of a large university. The study focuses on the role of gender in remuneration using, first, information on the complexity ratings of job tasks to define promotions on job ladders and, second, information on objective individual productivity. The study finds that individual research productivity was an important determinant of promotions and earnings. The results indicate that gender has no effect on the probability of being promoted, conditional on productivity, nor does it play a role in the performance evaluation of employees. Furthermore, the results suggest that contemporaneous productivity measures provide a usable proxy for the past productivity of a worker.

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Section: Motivation and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Promotions and Earnings – Gender or Merit? Evidence from Longitudinal Personnel Data

Jokinen

Pehkonen

2017

J Labor Res

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“…Top and middle positions are therefore male-dominated and men replicate the traditional HR management, assigning challenging tasks mostly to males (De Pater et al, 2010) and offering less career opportunities to women. Moreover, women need to show higher ability and higher performance than men to be promoted to the same job (Lazear and Rosen, 1990;Pema and Mehay, 2010). Gender gap in promotions and careers is the obvious consequence.…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Women helping women? Chain of command and gender discrimination at the workplace

Cavaletto

Pacelli

Pasqua

2019

Journal of Modern Italian Studies

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We analyse how the gender composition of the Board of Directors and of the management affects the hiring and promotion decisions by gender in large private Italian firms. We observe a disproportionate share of men hired and promoted, regardless of the top ranks' gender composition. However, a mitigating effect is detected due to the presence of women in higher managerial ranks that increases promotions of women in lower ranks consistently with the 'women helping women hypothesis'. However, this mitigating effect is far from rebalancing career chances by gender. No significant differences emerge between firms in innovative and traditional sectors, despite the quite different narrative put in place by HR managers.

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“…Research on gender-specific labour market segmentation analyses the job context, for example the establishment, the branch or the profession, as a further factor, which may influence the individual wage or gender wage gaps (see e.g. Busch andHolst, 2009, 2011;Pema and Mehay, 2010;Palomino and Peyrache, 2010;Wolf et al, 2012). In typical female professions, wages are on average lower than in typical male professions (see Blau et al, 2010;Reskin and Bielby, 2005;Palomino and Peyrache, 2010; Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), 2011, p. 139).…”

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confidence: 99%

Be successful – be male and masculine? On the influence of gender roles on objective career success

Alewell

2013

Evidence-Based HRM: A Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship

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Purpose -The purpose of the paper is to analyse the influence of individual gender role specifications on objective career success (measured by gross yearly income) in the context of different gender job contexts whilst controlling for human capital and working time variables. Typical economic, sociological and psychological variables are combined to improve explanations of the gender wage gap. Design/methodology/approach -Starting from Eagly and Karau's role incongruity theory, the paper derives hypotheses on the influence of gender role specification, gender job context and biological sex on gross yearly income. These hypotheses are analysed by logistic regressions with a data set from Germany. The paper presents results of a quantitative empirical survey of employees on wages, gender role-related self-descriptions and human capital variables. Findings -The paper results show that even in this highly qualified sample, male biological sex, masculine gender roles and non-female job context have a positive effect on individual income. The results hold true when the paper controls for human capital, working time, professional experience and jobs in the public sector. Research limitations/implications -Because of the limited size of the data set and some problems with selectivity, the research results lack generalizability. Researchers are thus encouraged to test the propositions with other data sets. Practical implications -The paper includes implications for wage design and for reaching wage equality in firms. An important implication for policy and practice is that under a gender and equal opportunity perspective, ensuring non-discriminating behaviour with regard to women may be only one (albeit an important) element of equal opportunity activities. Equal wage policies should further consider the gender characteristics of the job context, which may influence job-related roles and thus role incongruities. Additionally, individual interpretations of gender roles might have effects on wages. Human resource (HR) managers could support such policies by shaping job descriptions carefully with regard to gender role aspects, by influencing the gender composition of job contexts and by paying attention to the individual development of gender role interpretations in HR development programmes. Originality/value -The paper fulfils an identified research need to study simultaneously the influence of human capital variables and gender roles on wages. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study, which studies the influence of gender roles as defined by Born (1992) on income in a German context of highly qualified individuals while controlling for human capital, working time and professional experience. The existing lack in the literature with regard to empirical analyses on the combined influence of economic, sociological and psychological variables is mitigated.

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The role of job assignment and human capital endowments in explaining gender differences in job performance and promotion

Cited by 6 publications

References 27 publications

Promotions and Earnings – Gender or Merit? Evidence from Longitudinal Personnel Data

Promotions and Earnings – Gender or Merit? Evidence from Longitudinal Personnel Data

Women helping women? Chain of command and gender discrimination at the workplace

Be successful – be male and masculine? On the influence of gender roles on objective career success

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