The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of women's "different voice" on their organizational behaviors. The phrase "different voice" is used here to indicate that women perceive realities and think about them in a manner distinct from men. The study examines this issue by focusing on how men and women, working in similar positions within similar organizations, construct their work-roles. The specific research questions that this study pursues are the following: 1. Does the "different voice" find its expression in women's construction of their work-roles? and 2. If so, in what ways? The study uses the ethnomethodological perspective on understanding roles. For the purpose of data collection, the study uses several methods. Among them, the in depth interview is the major one. In depth interviews are conducted wi th twelve informants, six men and six women, who are working as heads of various academic departments in a university. All the interviews were tape-recorded and later transcribed. / Ph. D.

This study consisted of two field experiments and examined how managerial evaluations may be influenced by the gender and gender-role behavior of the person being evaluated. Literature streams in the domains of leadership, performance evaluation, grievance arbitration, and criminology were reviewed and integrated to derive a conceptual framework. The research hypotheses focused on how male and female managers would differ in their evaluations of male and female target persons in two different contexts. Two cases, each approximately three pages long, were written for the purpose of this study. In both cases, the gender and gender-role behavior of the target person were manipulated. A pilot study, in which 255 students responded to the case of the grievant and 290 students responded to the case of the manager, waS carried out to test the psychometric properties of the scales as well as the integrity of the gender-role manipulation. The results indicated the success of the manipulations. The evaluation measures of interest were found to have high reliabilities. In the actual study, research subjects consisted of 129 unit directors or higher level administrators working for the Virginia Cooperative Extension. The subjects were asked to respond to both cases and evaluate the target persons. The sequence in which the cases were presented was built into the design of the study. There were no significant findings pertaining to the proposed hypotheses. Other results indicated that in the grievance resolution context, female unit directors rated aggressive male workers lower than aggressive female workers on performance and abilities. Relative to male unit directors, female unit directors gave aggressive lower-level male workers unfavorable evaluations. In the context of evaluating managers, female unit directors relative to male unit directors more favorably evaluated the democratic manager. The difference between male and female unit directors was larger when they evaluated the same-sex democratic manager. Female unit directors gave the democratic female manager higher evaluations than those given to the democratic male manager by male unit directors. The discussion focuses on the implications of results for conceptual and theoretical development in the gender bias literature, as well as what the results may mean for organizations and practicing managers. The potential limitations of the study are identified, and the study is concluded with suggestions for future research. / Ph. D.

Attribution theory has been used to explain the responses of individuals to others behavior. Previous research has shown that attributions for performance can influence rater's judgments and the sex of the ratee has been shown to influence the attributions made for performance. Discrepant information was used to cue the formation of attributions and these attributions were predicted to mediate the relationship between the subjects' existing view of a manager's performance and subsequent performance ratings. It was hypothesized that different attributions would be made depending on the sex of the manager and the direction of the discrepant information (positive or negative) and that these attributions would be related to performance ratings. First, no relationship between attributions and performance ratings was found. Second, the expected pattern of attributions was only found for the female manager/positive discrepancy condition. Finally, performance ratings within the positive and negative discrepancy conditions did not differ as a function of sex. Limitations of this study, possible explanations of the current results, and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science

This study examined comparisons of gender stereotypes of executives in two cultures, American and Japanese. Undergraduate students in Japan and the U.S. estimated the extent to which executives in general, male and female exectuives possessed person-oriented and task-oriented leadership traits.

This study examines the problem of operationally defining "hostile environment" sexual harassment, ruled a type of disparate treatment actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by the United States Supreme Court on June 19, 1986. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines a hostile environment as an "intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment," there is no consensus as to what is "offensive" behavior. An extensive review of the literature yielded various attempts to define and ascertain the magnitude of sexual harassment, but the fact that the actual percentages varied indicates that this is a difficult issue to measure. As perception by the victim is the key, this study surveyed 125 working women from all over the United States to determine their perceptions of behaviors that constitute sexual harassment. Discriminant analysis was then used to correctly classify 95% of the women according to their perceptions of having experienced sexual harassment. Using tests for proportions, three hypotheses were found significant. Women who have been sexually harassed are more likely to view sexual harassment as a major problem. Older men are more likely to have their behavior perceived as sexual harassment. In addition, women who have experienced acts such as staring, flirting, or touching in the workplace are more likely to perceive those acts as sexual harassment. The hypotheses deemed not statistically significant yielded interesting results. Younger women are not more likely to be harassed than older women. Neither are single or divorced women more likely to experience sexual harassment. All women, regardless of age, marital status, or geographic location, are vulnerable to sexual harassment. Of importance are which variables contributed the most to the women's perceptions of sexual harassment. None of the demographic variables was found significant, but the women perceived that they had been sexually harassed if sexual remarks, touching, sexual propositions, or staring were directed toward them in the workplace. Thus, these acts were perceived as constituting a hostile environment.

In this study, the sex-role identities adopted by young, middle-aged, and older working females South African were compared. The rationale of the study is based on changes which occurred within South Africa with regards to gender, race, education, as well as work place participation for women. Two hundred females from two South African organisations participated in the study. Two self-report questionnaires were utilised: a demographic questionnaire and Bem’s Sex-Role Inventory. Data was interpreted statistically, by means of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and frequencies. Results revealed that younger women have adopted more masculine characteristics than middle-aged and older females. Results further indicated that black women are more likely to reflect sex-role identity changes on age than white women, given that changes in the South African society many have been more impactful on them. Results on the levels of masculinity amongst the younger group of females are consistent with a study done on working females in India.

A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA by Coursework and Research Report in the field of Organisational Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March 2017. / The present study aimed to explore levels of perceived stress and workplace thriving in a sample of 485 South African employees, within the framework of sex-role identity. A number of research to date has begun to explore the influence of sex-role identities on a number of different organisational outcomes; however few have explored both the positive and negative aspects of gendered personality traits and thus this study aimed to contribute to existing research through utilising a differentiated model of sex-role identity. Three self-report questionnaires were completed by participants, namely the EPAQ-R to assess sex-role identity, the Job Related Tension Index developed by Kahn et al. (1964) to establish levels of perceived stress and the thriving scale developed by Porath et al. (2012) was used to measure workplace thriving. The results of the study highlighted a number of statistically significant differences between sex-role identities and perceived stress and thriving respectively. A number of these results were in line with the proposed hypotheses; however, negative masculinity proved to be inconsistent with the proposed hypotheses as these individuals did not differ from the positive identities in terms of workplace stress. Furthermore, negative femininity did not experience statistically significant differences with the positive identities. The findings of the study provide support for a differentiated model of sex-role identity, as well as support for the Androgynous model of psychological well being. Practical and theoretical implications of this research are discussed in the study. / MT2018

Early nineteenth-century America witnessed social change which significantly altered the structure of human relationships. Out of this transformation came new configurations of gender and sexuality which colored relations between the sexes well into the twentieth century. But these gender prescriptions did not merely serve to pattern male/female interactions, they informed the Victorian America male self-concept as well. As this study will demonstrate, men born and raised in the middle of the nineteenth century were bombarded with a masculine ethos which would permeate their personal and professional lives. This study focuses particularly upon men who entered the medical profession. More specifically, this is an investigation of those practitioners who took up psychotherapy in the course of conducting their medical practice. Overall, the thesis will show that gender roles did indeed influence medical professionals in the investigation and treatment of hysteria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The first chapter is an overview of the issues to be addressed in the thesis. The formal study begins in the second chapter with an examination of the construction of gender roles in nineteenth-century America. The third chapter summarizes the development of the professions and the subsequent ascent of medicine. The process of professionalization created a reciprocal relationship between medical science and the broader culture by which the medical practitioners of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century achieved an unprecedented status. As the mediators between medical knowledge and society, practitioners based their scientific opinions directly upon their congenial view of the world. The fourth chapter explores the therapeutic encounter centered upon hysteria. The hysteria malady, closely linked with femininity over the sweep of its long history, provided physicians with a diagnosis that allowed them to discourse on social concerns about gender difference in general, and about the troublesome nature of women in particular. Finally, the fifth chapter traces the introduction of psychoanalysis into the American psychotherapeutic scene. As a form of psychotherapy taken up by a small group of practitioners interested in psychological theories of illness and healing, psychoanalysis was gradually adopted and then modified to suit the needs of American professionals who continued to be guided by ideas of masculinity forged in Victorian America. / Graduation date: 1996

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Women's exit from employment has been explained in relation to their individual characteristics and family status, but little attention has been given to the relationship between women's experience in employment and their decision to leave. Attrition data indicates that women become even more likely to leave the Canadian Forces, relative to their male counterparts, after 10 years of service. A qualitative approach was used to explore the relationship between organizational environment and exit among women who left the Canadian Forces after serving more than 10, but less than 20 years. The analysis, which is based on interviews with 23 women, suggests that although organizational policies and regulations are evolving in attempts to integrate women, the experiences of women as women within a male-dominated organization contribute significantly to the attrition of women from that environment.