Competition and gender in workplaces
Gender gaps in the labor market are characterized by differences in salaries, promotion opportunities, and interactions with senior management. It is a known fact that in most workplaces today, the majority of senior positions are held by men. Furthermore, in a 2008 survey that examined gender distribution in government positions, it was found that only 16% of senior government positions worldwide were filled by women. And even in state politics, the picture doesn't change: among 182 heads of state, only eight women can be found.
How can we explain that despite the advancement of women's status in recent years, there are still more male managers than female managers? The archaic explanation for occupational differences between genders refers to different lifestyles of men and women, or preferences for different types of work. However, today we can say that the differences are not very significant, and there is probably another layer to the picture.
In an attempt to provide an innovative explanation for the gender gap phenomenon, researcher Gneezy began to examine the hypothesis that gender differences in employment stem from different integration of competitiveness traits and dealing with them within a society or organization. Gneezy argues that the path to a senior position, and generally to advancement in a certain organization, includes competitions for roles, promotions, and dealing with a competitive atmosphere, and began to examine how men and women deal with competitiveness.
Gneezy examined and found (2003) that men and women perform equally in standard working conditions. However, when competitive incentives are introduced into the work environment, things change. While men are filled with a strong sense of motivation to perform the work and increase their effectiveness, women, on the other hand, are not affected, or more accurately, their performance is not affected by the introduction of the competitive element into the business arena.
In a follow-up study by Gneezy and Rustichini (2004), it was found that gender differences in competitive traits begin to form at a young age. In an experiment conducted, groups of boys and girls, nine years old, were selected and required to run 40 meters, first individually and then in a group. It was found that for boys, running performance improved when they ran in a group compared to when they ran alone. While for girls, their running speed was identical to that of boys when they ran alone, and introducing the competitive effect did not improve their performance as observed with the boys.
Gneezy saw that gender education influences and shapes desired traits in our children - from colors of clothing to types of games and activities. For example, while boys go out to play ball, girls are encouraged to stay in their rooms and play with dolls. But what is the broader impact of this mechanism? How do women still cope with competitions in the employment market? In a study conducted at a clothing and footwear retail chain in the Netherlands, a short-term competition was announced to examine the competitive atmosphere and its impact on male and female sales teams.
For the experiment, 128 branches were examined, with half of the 128 stores managed by women and team compositions ranging from 50% to 100% women. To establish competitive elements, each employee was measured on the number of sales and competed for a personal bonus, which served as an individual incentive, and additionally, each week a report of the ranking of competing branches was received, which served as a group incentive.
The experiment results showed that personal incentives increased productivity by about 5%. Additionally, no difference was found in productivity growth between stores with a male manager and stores with a female manager, or between teams of men versus teams of women.
However, it was found that in stores where the manager was a man, the competition effect increased when the majority of the staff was composed of men, and the same applied for women. In stores managed by a woman, a competition effect was found when the majority of the team was women. In a reverse effect, it was found that in stores where the manager was a man, the competition effect decreased when the staff comprised over 80% women.
These findings indicate that the competitiveness effect is not only gender-based but a combination of the gender mix of the team versus the gender of the team leader. When the team was predominantly female with a female team leader, and when it was predominantly male with a male team leader, the introduction of competitive incentives worked and increased team capability. However, when the mixes were changed, the competitiveness effect decreased. In an attempt to explain these findings, the study authors raised the hypothesis that promotion and communication around the topic of competition passed similarly to a team of the same gender and passed less effectively to a team of the other gender.
In other words, it's easier for us to convey information and feelings to a person of the same gender as ours, and we will find it difficult to convey the information with the same intensity to a person of the opposite gender. Of course, these findings indicate a statistical generality, and more research on the subject is needed.
In conclusion, these findings show that the education we receive in childhood is very important and influential. The ability to deal with competition from childhood strengthens the sense of confidence in men regarding competing for positions and incentives, but as we have seen, in female teams there was also an increase as a result of competitive incentives, and therefore dealing with competition is a learned trait.
How do you feel about competitiveness? Do you think it's something that should be encouraged?
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By: Daniel Danino
Delfgaauw, J., Dur, R., Sol, J., & Verbeke,W. (2013). Tournament incentives in the field: Gender differences in the workplace. Journalof Labor Economics, 31(2), 305-326.
Gneezy, U., Niederle, M., & Rustichini, A.(2003). Performance in competitive environments: Gender differences. TheQuarterly Journal of Economics, 118(3), 1049-1074.
Gneezy, U., & Rustichini, A. (2004). Genderand competition at a young age. American Economic Review, 94(2),377-381.
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