Authors
Sofia Schlamp, Richard Ronay, Janneke Oostrom, Mark Van Vugt
Publication date
2019/7/18
Journal
Academy of Management Proceedings
Volume
2019
Issue
1
Pages
13601
Publisher
Academy of Management
Description
Worldwide there is an underrepresentation of women in top leadership roles in business and politics. Many explanations have been offered, including the glass ceiling and glass cliff hypotheses. Here we investigate an alternative explanation: The glass pyramid hypothesis, the idea that aspects of women’s versus men’s psychology may be less aligned with the hierarchical structures that are common to organizational contexts. We hypothesized that sex differences in overconfidence and risk-taking influence preferences for tall versus flat (egalitarian) hierarchical structures. In Study 1, participants (N=200) completed a survey assessing their preferences for flat versus tall hierarchical organizations. As expected, both sexes expressed a stronger preference for flat compared to tall hierarchies, yet women’s aversion to tall hierarchies was greater than that of men’s. In Study 2, participants (N=221) read job …
Total citations
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