Given their potential to negatively impact men's goal of staying in office, can gender quotas be aligned with the preferences of male legislators who adopt the policy? In other words, does the rapid spread of gender quotas worldwide challenge notions of the rationality of legislators as career-driven individuals? These are the main questions that drive this thesis. To answer these questions, I develop a prospect theory-based framework that accounts for how electoral security and political ambition impact legislators' behaviour in influencing the strength of gender quota designs. I argue that, faced with growing pressures to adopt gender quotas, male parliamentarians engage in the risk-taking process of assenting with gender quotas, meanwhile seeking to minimize the potential costs of the policy to their future careers by actively weakening quota designs. To evaluate the plausibility of my theory, I employ a series of multi-method and multi-level analyses presented across five substantive chapters, each of which is respectively based on: 1) a cross-sectional analysis of Latin America countries; 2) an elite survey experiment with Brazilian state legislators; and, in-depth process tracing of the cases of gender quota adoption in 3) Costa Rica; 4) Brazil; and, 5) Chile. The work makes three main contributions. Firstly, although previously identified, the resistance of male legislators towards gender quotas had never been systematically analysed in a comparative manner; focusing on the behaviour of male incumbents is thus a relevant contribution. Secondly, although various authors have provided explanations for the origins of gender quota adoptions, no work had ever comparatively assessed sources of the variation in gender quota designs. Thus, I move the study of gender quotas beyond the binary choice of adoption. Thirdly, I show that the static assumptions of endogenous institutionalism need to be modified by the introduction of risk, which can only be achieved by integrating the insights of prospect theory.

As the workforce ages, enabling individuals to work effectively across the lifespan is critical for individuals, organizations, and societies. Put simply, societies and organizations are beginning to face a "new normal" in which people must continue working later in life. Investigations of work ability (WA), an individual's ability to meet the demands of their job, is a line of research that facilitates our understanding of the factors related to working successfully across the lifespan. Although research has established that WA is influenced by a range of organizational and personal factors and linked WA to retirement and disability, a number of gaps and underlying conceptual issues have limited the value of the WA research to the organizational sciences. Through a series of three studies -- a meta-analysis (Study 1a) with k = 247 studies and N = 312,987 individuals, a supplemental online data collection (Study 1b), a nurse sample (Study 2), and a healthcare sample (Study 3) -- this dissertation draws on the JD-R model to move the WA literature forward and advance WA theory within the organizational science literature. Study 1 provides a quantitative synthesis of the WA literature, establishes its nomological network, and provides a straightforward conceptual definition of WA. This synthesis provides a roadmap for researchers and practitioners by highlighting leverage points to promote WA across the lifespan. Second, these studies answer lingering questions regarding the concept of WA. In doing so, these studies provide a clear conceptual distinction between WA as measured by the Work Ability Index (WAI), which includes health-based questions, and measures of perceived WA (PWA), which are perceptions of WA as rated by individual. PWA measures performed similarly to the WAI in the vast majority of analyses, lending substantial support to the use of relatively simple PWA measures. Third, Study 1 and Study 2 provide evidence that PWA explains unique variance in organizational (e.g., engagement, burnout) and personal (e.g., disability intentions, health) correlates above and beyond the established constructs of perceived fit, general self-efficacy, and job self-efficacy. Fourth, Study 2 identified age discrimination as an important yet understudied antecedent of WA and showed that PWA can serve as a mediator between age discrimination and negative outcomes (e.g., lower life satisfaction and task performance). Finally, Study 3 showed that PWA is related to supervisor ratings of task and creative performance. Taken together, these three studies situate WA within the organizational literature and provide substantial evidence of the value of WA for meeting the challenges of an aging and age-diverse workforce.

Thesis (LLM (Labour law))-- University of Limpopo, 2010.

Thesis (LLM. (Labour Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / The purpose of the study is to address the effects of employment discrimination in the workplace focussing on designated groups, by comparing South Africa and Canada. Canada is one of the few countries that have addressed the employment barriers of target groups with one encompassing piece of legislation. In this study reference was made at the constitutional provisions towards unfair discrimination, labour law materials, employment and statutory provision so that the future researcher could see where employment discrimination in South African and Canada originate and what is the position. In order to address employment discrimination in the workplace case laws, courts judgments and other jurisprudence were used. The scope focused in this study is broad as a researcher did not look at other forms of employment discrimination. Employment discrimination in South Africa and Canada exists, this implies that the employment discrimination between two countries could be comparable. Policies and practices in order to identify employment barriers facing the disadvantaged groups were discussed. Therefore critical look focused on the employment systems, policies and practices at workplaces and also identify employment barriers facing designated groups in relation to recruitment, job classification, remuneration, employment benefits, conditions of services and promotion. South Africa and Canada emanated from a historical background of inequalities. Such inequalities lead to discrimination. South Africa and Canada’s discrimination affected blacks, Aboriginal people, women and people with disabilities. The grounds of discrimination were discussed in full for both countries.

Since the beginning of time, men and women have been separated by the "division of labor." Men were hunters and defenders and the women nurturers, bearing the responsibility of the raising of the children and homemaking. By the time of the Greeks, women were afforded great respect and treated with great dignity. They were looked upon as the pillars of morality and tradition. In 1765, women had been legally declared non-persons in William Blackstone’s Commentaries on English Law. Further reinforcement of this belief was put forth by Max Weber and Sigmund Freud who both felt women had no place in organizations and business. Women wanted recognition of their "personhood" and from the first women’s rights convention in 1848, demanding and finally obtaining the vote in 1920, through to the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's and the women’s movement which grew out of it, women have been making strong statements for equality and job opportunities. Just how successful women have been in their demands for acceptance in the business world is examined in this dissertation.

Do executive coaches have the skill sets necessary for effective partnership with an increasingly diverse workforce? Such inquiry remains unexamined, yet research from similar disciplines casts doubt. Drawing on these findings, a between-subject experiment sampled 129 coaches and examined their willingness to have “difficult conversations” with Black clients. The study investigated two questions in particular: (1) Do coaches provide less critical feedback to Black clients than they do White clients? and (2) Do coaches engage in fewer diversity-based conversations with Black clients than with White clients? The study found that as hypothesized, Black clients received more support, yet less challenge, less constructive feedback, and less time devoted to areas of development than did otherwise identical White clients. Coaches were also twice as likely to provide diversity-related feedback to White executives than they were to Black executives. Put simply, coaches assigned to Black clients chose to sidestep conversations about diversity and development. Substantial implications hold for practitioners, clients, and the greater coaching community. Findings suggested that coaches’ reluctance to provide challenging cross-racial feedback may stem from concern about appearing prejudiced. The result is that leaders of color who receive coaching may be robbed of developmental opportunities offered to White organizational leaders. Thus, the impact of racial dynamics should receive greater attention from U.S.-based coaching certification programs. In particular, institutes should consider mandating coaching supervision as well as incorporating diversity intelligence within their list of core competencies.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the distribution and function of talk in workplace meetings contributes to differential outcomes for women and men in Australian organisations. This study explores how patterns of male advantage and female disadvantage are reproduced in workplace meetings through the different communication styles which tend to be employed by men and women, and through the way that these different performances are judged. Workplace meetings emerge as a critical site where leadership potential is identified yet, it is argued, men and women do not meet as equals when they meet at work. The thesis includes an evaluation of the current literature on women's and men's communication styles, and the findings of the present study are discussed in terms of the extent to which they correlate with or diverge from existing views. The implications for social change are explored and recommendations provided for the consideration of organisations seeking to broaden the pool of talent from which future leaders are drawn. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study focuses on the wage gap between Mexican American men and Mexican American women, and factors contributing to this disparity. People of Mexican descent make up 67% of the U.S. Hispanic population. Previous research tends to lump Hispanics together, masking differences between groups. Even more, studies considering Hispanic subgroups rarely examine gender differences on income. Using secondary data analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, this study examines a neglected subgroup, Mexican Americans, and the income gap within this group. The sample size is 3,408 with Mexican American men comprising 55.2% of the sample and Mexican American women 44.8%. This study employs an income determination model composed of three model segments. Theoretical models include an individual component (comprised of variables such as age and education), a structural component (comprised of variables such as occupation and skill-level), and a gender component (comprised of variables such as sex and occupational sex segregation). Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses are used to examine the independent effects of variables on income. Based on mean annual earnings, analysis shows that net of other factors, an 81% wage gap exists between groups with Mexican American men earning $30,337 and Mexican American women earning $24,548. When examining different elements of the theoretical model, structural model components account for the most variance explained on income between groups. This suggests that gendered discrimination within institutions may affect inequality in pay between men and women. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. / "May 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 45-49).

This paper explores how CSR can be eliminating the discrimination of sexual orientation in the employment between the constraints of state governance and market competition by applying CSR as a strategy of institutional innovation to reach the goal of protecting equality of rights for gay people in the workplace. From interview data, we find CSR has positive effects to make up the limitations within the social regulations of Taiwan government and heteronormativity. In contrast to the Gender Equality in Employment Act imposed by government, CSR as a bottom-up model of institutional practice it will internally provides corporations advantages to maintain their privileges as passing through the failure of state and enterprise systems. By analyzing the CSR ideas, we contend that CSR is a feasible project of social innovation for corporations to create friendly work environments by planning gender equality programs of training, advocating recognition of gay civil partnership, and including anti-discrimination of sexual orientation into CSR routines.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 394-403).