The gender pay gap: particularities and challenges in the management context

Women receive lower monetary compensation than men in all occupations and across all ranks. For managers, this gender pay gap is substantially higher than in average working populations. The goal of this chapter is to enhance our understanding of the managerial gender pay gap and its particularities. We first outline the problem using archival evidence of the gaps in male and female managers’ pay around the world, considering the role of gender differences in human capital characteristics and the struc- tural forces that lead to pay inequality. Then we present experimental evidence from psychological research in order to shed light on the underlying mechanisms that lead to gender disparities in managers’ pay. Considering the perspective of both pay allocators and receivers, we explore psychological processes such as the impact of gender stereo- types on biased evaluations of women’s performance and gendered moral standards, as well as the impact of stereotypes on gender differences in attitudes and negotiation behavior. Finally, we present suggestions for legislators, organizations, and women to prevent and counteract the gender pay gap in management, and we discuss potential pitfalls of such interventions. We conclude that gender dynamics affecting manage- rial pay are not straightforward. Therefore, research as well as practical interventions have to go beyond a mere consideration of gender differences in pay and negotiation behavior, and react upon a complex interaction of structural forces, pay allocators, and receivers

Leadership Development Is Failing Us. Here’s How to Fix It

Executive development programs are big business, but too many fail to yield meaningful results. Here, Leroy et al explain what makes for a quality program and outline the questions leaders and program developers should be asking to determine an leadership development programs' (LDPs) effectiveness. A leadership development program should be fundamentally about the growth of participants. An effective one will increase participants' knowledge, skills, or abilities. Any evaluation of an LDP should start with its vision: what capabilities or qualities the program aims to develop in participants, why this is important, and how it will address specific developmental needs.</p

Leadership Development Is Failing Us. Here’s How to Fix It

Executive development programs are big business, but too many fail to yield meaningful results. Here, Leroy et al explain what makes for a quality program and outline the questions leaders and program developers should be asking to determine an leadership development programs' (LDPs) effectiveness. A leadership development program should be fundamentally about the growth of participants. An effective one will increase participants' knowledge, skills, or abilities. Any evaluation of an LDP should start with its vision: what capabilities or qualities the program aims to develop in participants, why this is important, and how it will address specific developmental needs.</p

Beyond Developing Leaders::Toward a Multi-Narrative Understanding of the Value of Leadership Development Programs

Leadership development programs in organizations are often criticized for lacking demonstrated effectiveness, yet they continue to garner popularity and further investment. In this study, we examine alternative rationales and criteria people use to justify leadership development programs, going well beyond the espoused goal of developing more effective leaders. We build on prior literature on leadership development that has pointed to the need to develop a broader view of the value and uses of leadership development programs. We conducted two qualitative studies: (a) a focus group pilot study with business school leadership center directors, and (b) a main study with in-depth interviews with stakeholders involved with leadership development across eight organizations. Our analysis identified four narratives (i.e., empiricist, believer, cynic, and pragmatist), each of which suggests distinct understandings of the function of leadership development in organizations. We discuss how these findings highlight the diversity in logic that justifies the use of various forms of leadership development, thus contributing to the current thinking on how leadership development programs can be designed to meet the needs and expectations of different stakeholders in organizations

Walking our evidence-based talk: The case of leadership development in business schools

Academics have lamented that practitioners do not always adopt scientific evidence in practice, yet while academics preach evidence-based management (EBM), they do not always practice it. This paper extends prior literature on difficulties to engage in EBM with insights from behavioral integrity (i.e., the study of what makes individuals and collectives walk their talk). We focus on leader development, widely used but often critiqued for lacking evidence. Analyzing 60 interviews with academic directors of leadership centers at top business schools, we find that the selection of programs does not always align with scientific recommendations nor do schools always engage in high-quality program evaluation. Respondents further indicated a wide variety of challenges that help explain the disconnect between business schools claiming A but practicing B. Behavioral Integrity theory would argue these difficulties are rooted in the lack of an individually owned and collectively endorsed identity, an identity of an evidence-based leader developer (EBLD). A closer inspection of our data confirmed that the lack of a clear and salient EBLD identity makes it difficult for academics to walk their evidence-based leader development talk. We discuss how these findings can help facilitate more evidence-based leader development in an academic context