(Managerial) style over substance : determinants of devaluation for female supervisors in an Indian garment factory
Name
974643056-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
6.13 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
96be9c6ef790550b51799440d5ca21a8
Author(s)
Shivaram, Ranjitha
Advisor(s)
Susan S. Silbey.
Alternative Title
Determinants of devaluation for female supervisors in an Indian garment factory
Date Issued
2014
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Despite the rising representation of women in management, female managers continue to be devalued compared to male managers, presenting a challenge for gender inequality in organizations. This study helps address a significant gap in the literature by investigating if the devaluation of female managers can be explained by their lower effectiveness in motivating worker performance. We investigate this question by using a methodological framework that combines unique personnel records, ethnographic and field-experimental data in the context of a large Indian garment factory where female supervisors are devalued and paid 15% less than their male counterparts to manage a female workforce. First, we demonstrate that the devaluation of female supervisors cannot be explained by their lower managerial effectiveness. By exploiting within-worker changes in supervisor gender in the personnel data, we find that female supervisors elicit 5% higher worker performance than male supervisors. Second, we ethnographically and experimentally show that female supervisors outperform their male counterparts by adopting a "non-authoritative managerial style," and further suggest that this style could lead to devaluation by upper management. Combined, these results rule out managerial substance as an explanation for the devaluation of female managers, pointing instead to managerial style as a prime determinant of gender inequality in the workplace.
Description
Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2016.
Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2014.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-71).
Subjects
Urban Studies and Planning.
Center for Real Estate. Program in Real Estate Development.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate. Program in Real Estate Development.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
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