© Prof. Dr. Ingelore Welpe, Kiel The relevance of the gender perspective on communication at work and promotion in the workplace 1 The relevance of the

The relevance of the gender perspective on communication at work and promotion in the workplace

1

© Prof. Dr. Ingelore Welpe, Kiel



2


Maleness as a set of principles, symbols, behaviour, strategies and objectives is predominant in the backbone of organizations and in their patterns of communication

and interaction.


3


Why be concerned with the genderperspective at work and promotion in the workplace?


4


Communication, social arrangements and cultural practices in organizations

are connected to structures and mechanisms that build the architecture of inequality and create

the well known gender order and perceive it as natural and for granted.

Three factors: Individual & social & organizational contribute to the phenomen of the „glass ceiling“


5


What are theoretical frameworks to explain significant culturalnorms in organizations?

Gender Schema Theory and Social Role Theory!


6


Culture can be defined as a:

„collective programming of the mind that is a manifestation of the value systems of various groups which is able to sustainitself over long periods of time.“

Hofstede (1991, p.5)


7


Sex is defined as the grouping of humans in two biological categories,

males and females.

Gender refersthe meanings that societies and individuals ascribe to female

and male categories and

Gender rolesare those social roles a society defines for women and men.


8


A schema

Is a network of interrelated elements

that defines a concept for individuals to define expectations.

A gender schema

defines expectations about behaviour of men and women.


9


Research demonstrates as well,

that men are expected to have high levels of agentic attributes(independent, masterful, assertive, competent)

and

women to have high levels of communal attributes(friendly, unselfish, emotionally, expressive).


10


Many aspects relating to sex and gendercan probabely understood by means of structure and power,established by the „gendered substructure“

(Acker 1992:225)

and through genderspecific communication in public life.

Therefore promotion in the workplace should be linked positively to genderspecific style of communcation.


11


Is there a male & female talk –

and is promotion in the workplace and for leadership positionsconnected with linguistic styles?


12


Communication may be defined as

„the process of using verbal and nonverbal cues to negotiate a mutually acceptable meaning between two or more people within a particular context and environment.“

(Lumsden & Lumsden 2000)


13


Productive styles

Faciliative/ Commanding/Equal…………………………………………………………… Autoritative

responsibleconfirmingappropriate

Tactfully assertive………………………………………Directly assertive


14


Unproductive styles

Passiv/ hostile/aggressive…………………………………………………. divisive

not responsibledisconfirming inappropriate

Aggressive/Non participative………………………………………..indirect


15


What do we know from current research on Gender and Communication ?


16


- as status asserting, dominant and negative

- display of high levels of visual dominance, power and status

- keeping people in eyecontact and time control,

- intrusive interruption of others to gain the floor in conversation adapted to wide variety of social and professional contexts

- associated with formal leadership and authority in groups

Male communication


17


- disclose more personal information

- collaborative, warm and more supportive and open

- encourage others´ speech and reinforcing by minimal verbal responses

- mitigated speech

- tentative manner including tag questions

e.g. Carli (2000), Mulac (1998), Grob et.al. (1997)

Female communication


18


Female leaders

- display a more democratic style

- encouraging collaboration

- involving subordinates in decisions

- higher level of transformative leadership: mentoring, empowering

Male leaders

- display a more autocratic style- discouraging participation of subordinates in decisions- asserting leader´s control and authority- higher level of transactional leadership: reward and punishment

(e.g. Eagle et al 2003)


19


Are there situational factors in workplace that moderate male and female talk?

Look at:

Gender Composition

Power

Social influence !


20


Meta-analytic findings show that

the gender differerence

in smiling, social behaviour, verbal reinforcement, encouragement, self-disclosure and lower levels of task behaviour

interacts with gender composition such that gender difference isbigger in same-than in mixed-gender interactions.

(La France et al 2003)


21


Differences in mitigation and dominance

have been more pronounced in mixed gender interactions,

reflecting greater mitigation and less dominance toward men.

That means:

People display greater mitigation and less visual dominance to men thanto women.

Men speak in a more mitigated manner when talking to other men thanwhen talking to women.

(Sayers & Sherblom 1987)


22


Research suggests that,

legitimate power may mediate gender effects on communication.

Studies also suggest that,

expert power may affect gender differences in communication.


23


These findings suggest:

1. The typical gender differences in agentic communication derive from the male advantage in power and authority.

2. But typical gender differences can however be reduced in contextswhere women posses high power relative to men.


24


Various studies have revealed that,

- Both men and women exert greater influence when communicatingin a gender stereotypical manner.

- And other research show that women face far more serious consequences than men when they violate gender-role norms.

- Highly dominant behaviour by women is not surprising ineffective.

- Apparently dominant, assertive, direct or even merely competent communications are particularly problematic for women.

- As a result, women have a narrower repertoire of behaviours for gaining social influence than men.


25


As a result:

Women who are too agentically competent may be disliked as peopleevaluate women who exhibit an exeptional level of managerial competence more negatively than their exceptionally competent male counterparts-

seeing the competent female manager as having a less desirablepersonality.

Display of communal behaviour can blunt the threat of female competence.

(Heilman et. Al. 2004)


26


The double bind of competence can be particularly problematic for women who want promotion in the workplace or for female managersand leaders.

Female managers and leaders have responded to this dilemmaby

displaying higher levels of transformative leadership(Low et al 1996) as a means to overcome the double bind and excelling as leaders.


27


1. Women have more constraints on their style of communication in order to be effective influence agents in the workplace than men.

2. Women who look for promotion and female managers must adhere more closely to gender-role-prescriptions to avoid penalties.

3. Women leaders must display exceptional levels of competence toovercome the presumption that women lack agency, competency and leadership abilities of men.

Implications


28


4. Women who exhibit exceptional levels of competence may be evaluated unfavourably because such behaviour violates prescriptive gender-role-norms particularly in domains as management and leadership which are seen stereotypically as masculine.

5. Gender stereotypes thus create a double bind for women, who can be penalized for showing too little or too much agency.

6. Women may overcome the double bind by displaying communal behaviour, which can reduce resistance to female promotion, authority and influence.

Female managers have shown to employ a transformational leadership style, which effectively combines communality with competent leadership.

Implications II


29


What does micro-level analysis of communication factorstell us on formal promotion and other processes

underlyingwomen´s advancement at work?


30


Double Devaluationof women´s linguistic style and business

communication.


31


It has been documented that,

women and men have different notions of what

constitutes interruption of a turn at talk.


32


In relation to (western) values of individualism andgendered hierachy in society,men

prefer sole-speaker-turnsinterpret any invasion into their turn as violation of their sole-speaker-right favour competition in talks it is important to achieve a dominant position in hierarchy

Male perceptions and preferences:


33


Female perceptions and preferences

In relation to socialization and segregation of private and public spheres in society,women

prefer inclusivness and egalitarianismprefer ensemble or melded conversation floorsachieve collaborative floors through overlapping speech and completion of another woman´s utterane share knowledge and experience.

(e.g. Coates 1994; Coates 1996)


34


It is claimed that women could succeed in the workplace through performing in a range of styles, effectively representing masculine as well as feminine identities through communication.

(e.g. Case 1995)

Performing Androgenity?


35


Women should develop communication skills that they can draw on in business settings, meetings and decisionmaking boards,and where they can perceive that androcentic model will be effective in promotion situations.


36


According to a male genderlogic in organizations

Women, who want promotion

are required to sacrifice major elements of their gender identity.So promotion is possible only at higher costs and by perpetuation of the traditional male gender oder in the workplace.


37


Will the „New Paradigm for Management and Leadership in the 21. Century“

offer women better promotion in the workplace?


38


The new paradigm is described as a

„feminine one“ (Burton and Ryall 1995, p.8) as „more femine than masculine practices are claimed on and factors such as relational rather than competitive values are important and the need for organizations to seek for interdependence rather than dominance in the marketplace.“

New Management and leadership model is regularily described in gender images and according to Tom Peters „the time has come for men to move to learn to play women´s games“ (Fierman 1990, p.71)


39


As long as tokenism in the workplace (Kanter 1977) exists,

that means that relatively few women hold prominent positions in a particular occupational setting and therefore women in senior and top positions hold minority and outsider status,

there will be no significant change for promotion in the workplace.

Men and women will evaluatethat tokens are not part of the „club“and the members of the organization could state:

We still can use the usual course of events and communication, tokens do not interrupt our traditional dominant culture.


40


The success of the new organizational paradigm in the workplace depends on how the senior male management

will articulate it and dissolve gender stereotypes for promotion.


41


For women is recommended to translate experience-based skills into learned skills

through processes such as formal training or education programs or mentoring programs

that are either internal to their organization or offered by external institutions. This will authenticate the skill base and will enable women to gain acknowledgement that is reserved for learned skills.


42


So the great man or „hero“

still dominated criteria for leadership positions. Anyone embarking on a quest for membership on to executive culture was considered to be on

„a Ulysses-like Journey: full of grand-scale trials of endurance and testsof strenght- the modern equivalent of the heroic quest“

(Sinclair 1994, S.15)


43


1. Through charismatic leadership: the unic example beeing Joan of Arc

2. Through inherited leadership positions: example include women who become heads of family businesses or queens of kingdom

3. Through achievement of professional eminence: women who become leading figures in their discipline because of their professional and/or scientific achievement

4. Through becoming a selected leader – that is, elected, appointed or nominated through important public offices such as prime minister, senator: examples include Merkel, Thatcher, H. Clinton

(e.g. Apfelbaum & Hadley 1986)

Four main ways forms women to become leaders:


44


A fifth path to leadership:

Selection by merit

through

the adoption of equal opportunity laws in many countries

The interpretation of merit depends largely on the assumptionsperceptions and values of the people and organizations applyingthe principle, but one particular view sees it as the relationshipbetween a person´s job-related qualities and those genuinelyrequired for performance in particular positions.

(Burton et al 1994)


45


Women

gain under merit interpretation,

and lose under the non-merit-one.


46


Merrill & Kolb (2001, p.2) conclude

„THAT SPECIFIC SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

IDENTIFIED AS BEEING IMPORTANT FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

DO NOT MIRROR THE ASSUMPTIONS AND IMAGES PEOPLE HOLD OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS.“


47


The result is a paradox:

Women are rated as having the required skills, but are not seenculturally as leaders in comparison with men.

Even the concept of post-heroic-leadership or shared leadership(Huey and Sookdeo, 1994) does not advance women´s interestaccording to Fletcher (2002).


48


We agree with Fletcher that,

The „transformational call for new leadership“ has already beenincorporated into the mainstream discourse according to therules of the old paradigm.

The result:is yet another idealized image- the post-heroic heroes- gender: male


49


The male hero provides a symbol

of career success and it can be seen as a form of communicationmanagement that attempts to control and homogenize executiveidentity… (Salzer-Morling, 1998, p.112)

„and organizations foster their corporate masculity andperpetuate assessments of who looks like leadership material.“


50


Women lack neither leadership nor charisma,But rather an archetypal profile as leaders!?

„XENA“

While gender remains a continuing given of social constructions and interactions,

gender content evolves and changes.

Olson (2002)


51


One of the ways of affirming change, of making it happen, is by women telling their stories under four interrelated

headings:

Emotions Stereotypes Sexuality/ Age Leadership

By communicating distinctive images of women leaders,

arising of their expressed voices.


52


„If no-one´s speaking out and showing how

things are progressing then we´ll never get

anywhere“.


53


Thank you for your attention !

Contact for further questions or remarks:

Prof. Dr. Ingelore WelpeInstitut für Frauenforschung und Gender-StudienSokratesplatz 224149 KielTel.: (49) (0)431 210 1780Email: [email protected]

© 2007

Documents

© Prof. Dr. Ingelore Welpe, Kiel The relevance of the gender perspective on communication at work and promotion in the workplace 1 The relevance of the