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theses

Although some progress has been made over the years, women still earn less than men. Research suggests wage negotiations may be a contributing factor in this pay gap, as men tend to negotiate higher salaries for themselves than women (Mazei et al., 2015). Gender stereotypes that associate men with effective negotiator traits may account for this disparity through stereotype threat and stereotype lift. Negotiator role may also be a contributing factor in that role can provide power to the negotiator. The current study investigated how an individual’s own implicit stereotypes interact with gender and negotiator role to predict negotiation outcomes in distributive and integrative contexts. It was hypothesized that implicit stereotypes that associate men with success at the bargaining table would increase men’s performance but hinder women’s. It is also predicted that this will especially be the case for male recruiters, as well as salary negotiation outcomes. One hundred forty students participated in a two-phase study that involved a computer task that measured implicit stereotypes and then followed by a mock negotiation task. Although our results overall were not statistically significant, the observed trends support our prediction that male’s implicit stereotypes would increase their overall performance. These findings have implications for providing a clearer understanding of the mechanisms that drive the negotiation gender gap, which is important in taking steps toward reducing the gender gap in negotiations.

ETD_8190

M.A.

Includes bibliographical references

by Madeliene Alger

doi:10.7282/T31C20M1

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.