Seminar (Dept. of Organization and Human Resources)

Title: Gender Bias in Evaluations and Selection of Future Leaders: Role of Decision Makers’ Mindsets about the Universality of Leadership Potential

Speaker: Zhi Liu (Guanghua School of Management, Peking University)

Time: 14:00 (Wednesday), March 22, 2023

Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language：Chinese/English

ABSTRACT:

Decades of research have documented organizational decision makers’ preference for men over women when they evaluate and select candidates for leadership positions. We conceptualize a novel construct—mindsets about the universality of leadership potential—that can help remedy this gender bias. People can believe either that only some individuals have high leadership potential (i.e., a “nonuniversal” mindset) or that most individuals have high leadership potential (i.e., a “universal” mindset). Five studies examined the relationship between these mindsets and decision makers’ gender biases in leader evaluation and selection. The more senior government officials in China held a universal mindset, the less they showed gender bias when rating their subordinates’ leadership capability (Study 1). Working adults in the UK who held a more universal mindset exhibited less gender bias when evaluating and selecting job candidates for a leadership position (Study 2). In an experiment, Singaporean students exposed to a universal mindset exhibited less gender bias when evaluating and selecting candidates than those exposed to a nonuniversal mindset (Study 3). Another experiment with working adults in China replicated this pattern and added a control condition to confirm the directionality of the effect (Study 4). Finally, Study 5 showed that a more universal mindset was associated with less gender bias, particularly among decision makers with strong stereotypes. This research demonstrates that mindsets about the universality of leadership potential, which are seemingly unrelated to gender, are a key factor that affect individuals’ expression of gender bias.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Zhi Liu is an associate professor in the Department of Organization and Strategy Management at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. She received her Ph.D. in Management at Columbia Business School, Columbia University in the City of New York. Her research interests include organizational and social culture (e.g., values, norms, and schemas), ethics and justice (e.g., bribery, favoritism, unethical behavior), leader characteristics and behaviors (e.g., perfectionism, career experiences, mindsets, CEO). She has published her research findings at top-tier academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Annual Review of Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Research in Organizational Behavior, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Asian Journal of Social Psychology. She teaches courses in English and Chinese such as Organizational Behavior, Organization and Management, Talents and Teams, CSR, Business Ethics, Experimental Design and Analysis, Methods and Design in Management Research to undergraduates, graduates, MBA, and Executives.