Essays on Organizational Inequality: Signaling and Sorting in the Workplace
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Mang-audreygm-PhD-Management-2026.pdf
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2.16 MB
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Author(s)
Mang, Audrey G.
Advisor(s)
Castilla, Emilio J.
Date Issued
May 2026
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Gender inequality in the workplace is persistent, well-documented, and resistant to simple explanation. Decades of research have identified discrimination, occupational segregation, and pay gaps as central features of the gendered labor market. Yet the pathways through which inequality is produced and reproduced in the everyday practices of hiring, evaluation, and advancement remain less understood. Organizations shape inequality not only through deliberate decisions about who to hire or promote, but through the structure of their practices: the language they use to attract applicants, the goal systems they use to direct effort and anchor evaluations, and the internal pathways they create for advancement. Each of these practices creates a moment at which differential outcomes can emerge—not necessarily through bias alone, but through the interaction between organizational structure and worker behavior. The first essay examines initial entry into the pipeline and asks whether the language that organizations use in job postings shapes who chooses to apply. It finds that the request for soft skills functions as a credential signal, attracting more highly educated applicant pools and disproportionately affecting the educational composition of female applicants. The second essay examines what happens inside the pipeline and asks whether the structure of goal-setting systems shapes performance ratings and subsequent employment outcomes. It finds that goal measurability operates primarily as an organizational signal rather than a motivational driver. The third essay investigates a widely held belief about why women are underrepresented at senior levels, that they are less willing to put themselves forward for advancement opportunities, and finds little evidence to support it. Women in this internal labor market apply at rates comparable to men, across levels and types of moves, suggesting that persistent gender stratification is not explained by supply-side application behavior. Together, the three studies trace the lifecycle of the employment process to offer a unified argument: Gender inequality in organizations is produced and sustained by the interaction between organizational practices and worker behavior, and interventions targeting individuals may be insufficient to address the problem. The dissertation contributes to organizational sociology and workplace inequality research by examining how formal talent management practices shape career trajectories and firm-level outcomes.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
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