Glass cliffs describe
situations in which women are promoted to executive roles in declining
organizations. To explain them, some authors suggest that people tend to “think
crisis-think female.” However, the root cause of this association remains
elusive.
Using several subfields of evolutionary theory, we argue that biology
and culture have shaped the perception of women as being more empathic than men
and, consequently, as capable of quelling certain crises. Some crises are more
intense than others and, whereas some brew within organizations, others
originate from the external environment. We therefore propose that women will
be selected to lead whenever a crisis is minimal to moderate and stems
primarily from within the organization.
Men, on the other hand, will be chosen
as leaders whenever the crisis threatens the very existence of the firm and its
source is an external threat. Leadership is a highly stressful experience, and
even more so when leaders must scale glass cliffs.
It is imperative that we
understand what gives rise to them not only because they place women and
potentially other minorities in positions where the likelihood of failure is
high, but also because they help propagate stereotypes that undermine their
true leadership ability.
Women and Leadership: From Glass Ceilings to Glass Cliffs
Today, more than ever before,
women who pierce the glass ceiling are joining the ranks of executive
leadership once considered the sole province of men. Despite this progress, few
of them hold top positions in government, business, law, and medicine (Anderson and Court, 2012). A global study on
the percentage of board seats occupied by women in the largest companies found
that women held 19.2% of seats in the US (S&P 500) and 20.8% in Canada
(S&P/TSX 60) (Catalyst, 2015). In Europe and Asia-Pacific,
respectfully, their participation ranged from 7% in Portugal (PSI-20) to 35.5%
in Norway (OBX Index), and from 3.1% in Japan (TOPIX Core 30) to 19.2% in
Australia (S&P/ASX 200). Demand for gender equality in boardrooms is
surging, and efforts requesting diversity through lobbies and quotas have
peaked (Catalyst, 2014). For example, in Canada, a
country known for labor-market gender equity, the Ontario Securities Commission
recommended that companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange disclose how
they recruit and select women executives (Canadian Press, 2014). Women’s managerial
involvement has not been without its critics, however, some of whom have
condemned women leaders for ruining firm performance:
“So much for smashing
the glass ceiling and using their unique skills to enhance the performance of
Britain’s biggest companies. The march of women into the country’s boardrooms
is not always triumphant—at least in terms of share price performance. Analysis
of FTSE 100 shares shows that companies that decline to embrace political
correctness by installing women on the board perform better than those that
actively promote sexual equality at the very top.” (Judge, 2003, p. 21)
At best, the above claim
published in the British press could be seen as a mismatch between society’s
moral obligation to give women a fair shot at leadership and women’s actual
performance as leaders. At worst, it could be interpreted as a mismatch between
one’s gender and one’s leadership ability. Stated plainly, women’s “unique
skills” as organizational leaders are simply ineffective. Given its
controversy, this claim led to the burgeoning of studies exploring the
relationship between organizational performance and leader gender (for a
comprehensive review, see Bruckmüller et al., 2014). Findings from this
research unearthed evidence that women breaking through the glass ceiling must
overcome an added hurdle in their quest to attain executive roles—that of
scaling a glass cliff...
Full article at: http://goo.gl/O63iX1
By:
Edited by: Stephen M. Colarelli, Central Michigan University, USA
Reviewed by: Thomas Pollet, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands; Rachael G. Falcon, University of New Mexico, USA
*Correspondence: John G. Vongas, ac.aidrocnoc@sagnov.nhoj
This article was submitted to Evolutionary Psychology and Neuroscience, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
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