Date of Award
2020
Degree Type
Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation
Degree Name
Psychology, PhD
Program
School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Michelle Bligh
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Jason Siegel
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Jeffrey Yip
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Miguel Unzueta
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2020 Vienne Wing-yan Lau
Keywords
gender inclusion, men, self-interest, social dominance orientation, zero-sum
Subject Categories
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Abstract
In the Post-#MeToo era, an increasing number of men are feeling discriminated against and threatened. To realize gender equality in the workplace, change efforts ought to encourage men to recognize their stake in the issue rather than highlighting their “contribution” to the problem or excluding them altogether. The present dissertation aims to investigate whether self-interest may be utilized to motivate men to support gender inclusion initiatives in the workplace. In Study 1 (N = 177), using an experimental design with a student sample, I tested whether framing a gender inclusion initiative as beneficial to self (as well as others) leads to more support from men compared to framing the initiative as beneficial to others only. I also examined the moderating effect of social dominance orientation (SDO) and the mediating effect of zero-sum gender beliefs (ZSGBs). In Study 2 (N = 267), I tested the moderating effect of champion gender with a 2 (Framing: Self-interest, No Self-interest) x 2 (Champion gender: Male, Female) factorial between- subject design with male, full-time, non-contingent workers, recruited on Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Together, the two studies revealed that a gender inclusion initiative framed as beneficial to men garnered more support than when it is framed as beneficial to women only and this effect was significantly moderated by SDO. However, the results demonstrated that having a male champion does not alleviate the negative impact SDO has on the relationship between self-interest and support for gender inclusion; this relationship was not mediated by ZSGBs either. Taken together, the findings of the current studies urge a paradigm shift from focusing on mitigating gender biases that affect women and direct attention to emphasizing the positive changes that can be brought by a more inclusive approach to gender equality in the workplace. I discuss relations of the findings to the literature on gender and diversity and management.
ISBN
9798672157689
Recommended Citation
Lau, Wing yan. (2020). What’s in It for Me(n)? The Impact of Self-Interest on Men’s Support for Gender Inclusion Initiatives. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 688. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/688.
