- 19 Mar 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
Beyond Gender and Negotiation to Gendered Negotiations
How does gender affect negotiations within organizations or rather how do organizations affect gender relations? Deborah Kolb, a professor at Simmons College School of Management, and HBS professor Kathleen McGinn explore how definitions of work, specified roles in organizations, status hierarchies, and the politics and practices of organizational realities affect how gender plays out in organizations. Considering gender in organizations from a "negotiated order perspective"—that is, from the perspective that cultural patterns and work practices are the result of past interaction and negotiation—not only expands the range of issues that are potentially negotiable, it also turns attention to rethinking certain dimensions of the negotiation process itself. Key concepts include: Following recent scholarship, the authors distinguish between "first generation" gender discrimination involving intentional acts of bias from "second generation" gender issues, practices that are embedded in organizational workings, that seem unbiased in isolation, but result in different experiences for and treatment of women and men. Certain roles may be deemed more suitable to men than women and vice versa, setting up the need to negotiate for opportunities and fit. A woman's effectiveness as a leader, and the authority she can claim, is often judged differently from that of her male counterparts. Access to networks and flexible work arrangements give rise to the need to negotiate and this need often falls along gendered lines. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Jun 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
Gender in Job Negotiations: A Two-Level Game
The traditional division of labor between the sexes—women managing the private realm and men the public—continues to have an indirect influence on job negotiation outcomes through links between private realm and public realm negotiations. Women's negotiations at work are often constrained by agreements in negotiations at home. There still remains a significant "unexplained" difference in male and female compensation that, according to research in the past several years, cannot be accounted for by gender differences in work commitment, education, and experience, or other considerations such as unionization. The literature on gender in negotiation may offer insights with regard to how negotiation contributes to or could help diminish gender differences in compensation. Bowles and McGinn review two bodies of literature on gender in negotiation—one from psychology and organizational behavior on candidate-employer negotiations, and another from economics and sociology on household bargaining over chores and child care. Key concepts include: The traditional division of labor between the sexes—in which women managed the private realm and men the public—continues to have an indirect influence on job negotiation outcomes through gendered stereotypes feeding into gendered pay expectations. The effects of gender on job negotiations are best understood if negotiations at work are viewed as a two-level phenomenon in which candidates' job outcomes are the product of negotiations with domestic partners as well as prospective employers. Separate bodies of research on gender in candidate-employer negotiations and on gender in intra-household bargaining offer complementary insights into these two levels of negotiation. Taking stock of the practical implications of this literature may help candidates overcome disadvantageous effects of gender on job negotiations and facilitate the creation of greater value for their employers, their domestic partners, and themselves. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 25 Mar 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
Incompatible Assumptions: Barriers to Producing Multidisciplinary Knowledge in Communities of Scholarship
Just as flows of knowledge within and across communities of practice improve the quality of new products, knowledge sharing among knowledge workers within interdisciplinary communities may be critical for new discoveries and for a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of phenomena. In spite of this, biologists tend to talk to biologists, economists tend to talk to economists, and lawyers tend to talk to lawyers. This paper argues that producing and disseminating knowledge within a multidisciplinary community of practice is enhanced when knowledge workers hold compatible assumptions, even when the form and content of knowledge generation across those workers varies. Key concepts include: Generating multidisciplinary knowledge may require communities of scholarship to acknowledge the presence and limitations of their assumptions. Within a community of scholarship, interpretive barriers to sharing knowledge arise when subgroups hold contrary assumptions about the appropriate questions to be asked or the fundamental nature of the phenomenon under investigation. Cross-discipline understanding may stem from the potential for members to recognize the relevance of others' findings to their own scholarship. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Feb 2006
- Research & Ideas
When Gender Changes the Negotiation
Gender is not a good predictor of negotiation performance, but ambiguous situations can trigger different behaviors by men and women. Here is how to neutralize the differences and reduce inequities. From Negotiation. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Sep 2005
- Research & Ideas
What Perceived Power Brings to Negotiations
What role does "perceived power" play in negotiations? For one thing, it may help all the parties take away a win at the table. Professor Kathleen McGinn discusses new research done with Princeton’s Rebecca Wolf. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Dec 2003
- Research & Ideas
Why Negotiation is Like Jazz
Negotiation is improvisational—demanding quick, informed responses and decisions. Professor Kathleen L. McGinn lays out the score in this article from Negotiation. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Oct 2003
- Research & Ideas
Negotiating Challenges for Women Leaders
When negotiating compensation, women often sell themselves short. Some practical advice on claiming the power to lead in this interview with HBS professor Kathleen L. McGinn and Harvard's Hannah Riley Bowles. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 May 2000
- Research & Ideas
The Emerging Art of Negotiation
A negotiation is rarely open-and-shut, but research is starting to reveal a number of ways that this complicated and often-volatile process might go a lot better for all concerned. HBS Professor Kathleen L. Valley, HBS Senior Research Fellow Max H. Bazerman and two colleagues point the way toward a new understanding of the psychology of negotiation. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Feb 2000
- Research & Ideas
Phenomenological Assumptions and Knowledge Dissemination within Organizational Studies
Field-wide integration of knowledge generated by subfield specialists is critical for new discoveries and for a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of complex phenomena. In spite of the value of broadly disseminating knowledge within the social and physical sciences, scholarly discourse tends to be contained within subfields of research. Further constraining innovation and understanding, knowledge dissemination between academics and practitioners or clinicians is often limited and inaccurate. In this article, UCLA professor Corinne Bendersky and HBS professor Kathleen L. McGinn introduce "phenomenological assumptions"—revealed beliefs about the fundamental qualities of the phenomenon under investigation and its relationship to the environment in which it occurs—as barriers limiting the integration of knowledge generated within a subfield into the broader intellectual discourse of its field. Key concepts include: Explicating assumptions underlying academic research may make new information more transparent and easily adopted. Assumptions can pose a barrier limiting the integration of knowledge generated within a subfield into the broader intellectual discourse of its field. Specifically, assumptions that negotiations are one-shot "at the table" interactions make it more difficult for non-negotiations organizational scholars to recognize and appreciate the relevance of the findings to broader organizational research. The negotiation studies in this data set, spanning 15 years of published research in top-tier journals, seldom were explicit about the assumptions made and seldom acknowledged reasonable boundary conditions for their findings. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.