They have reason to be concerned; our peer-reviewed study indicates that extraordinarily qualified women are undervalued and taken for granted by organizations.
People have been asked to rate overqualified job candidates or those who have more skills than are needed for the job, in a number of experiments by Elizabeth L. Campbell and
Oliver Hahl. Organizations frequently fail to systematically document why they choose not to promote an employee or hire a job candidate, and even fewer are prepared to share that information with researchers. As a result, the experimental methodology allows us to investigate this phenomenon, which cannot be conveniently investigated using field data from organizations.
It was discovered that gender matters a lot. The findings show that individuals are more comfortable employing women for overqualified professions than males. This is because men and women have different ideas about how hard it will be to keep them.
What People Believe About Who Will Remain at a Company
In a number of experiments, people have been asked to rate overqualified job candidates or those who have more skills than are needed for the job. Organizations frequently fail to systematically document why they choose not to promote an employee or hire a job candidate, and even fewer are prepared to share that information with researchers. As a result, the experimental methodology allows us to investigate this phenomenon, which cannot be conveniently investigated using field data from organizations.Women, on the other hand, are not worried about quitting a company for greater possibilities. It's not that they don't believe great women want to advance in their jobs. Indeed, it was discovered that extraordinary qualifications are regarded as a major indicator of women's job dedication. Rather, people have distinct expectations about what matters to exceptional women. While it is expected that outstanding males may job hop in order to advance in their careers, it is assumed that exceptional women will remain loyal to their company because they cherish their relationships with their coworkers. People continue to believe that exceptional women will opt to The belief that women value these connections is so strong that they will stay despite superior outside professional prospects. Our findings suggest that great women are 20 percent less likely to leave the organization and 26 percent more likely to be hired than men with equal excellent credentials.
Our findings show how corporations can take advantage of exceptional female employees due to gendered assumptions about who is and isn't a flight risk. Furthermore, such gendered interactions are likely to contribute to the glass ceiling and wage disparities between men and women. Firms will not engage in proactive retention initiatives such as bonuses, increases, promotions, or additional responsibilities if they believe women will prioritize loyalty to the firm over advancing in their careers through outside options.
Individuals, to be sure, have agency in their own professions and can argue for themselves when seeking development possibilities. However, there is emerging evidence that women are hesitant to advocate for increases, more responsibility, or incentives for their work for fear of being seen as bossy or arrogant if they do, and these fears are valid. These labels have implications because women suffer additional barriers to career advancement when they are perceived as unlikeable, which men do not experience.
How to Combat Retention Assumptions
So, what are the options? With this information, women should compare their qualifications and experience to those of their male counterparts to see if they are qualified for higher-ranking or higher-paying employment. Women might also seek out outside offers as a means of improving their benefits and salary.However, addressing this injustice should not fall only on the shoulders of women. Putting the onus on women to solve this problem isn't a fair or sustainable solution, and it means they'll have to spend more time and effort than their male counterparts to achieve the same employment with the same pay.
Women experience gender biases in the employment process as well, making it more difficult for them to obtain outside offers that correctly reflect their value. Worse, findings suggest that people believe they are helping when they offer extraordinarily competent women lower-ranking positions in hiring selections. We discovered that, unlike men, people believe women will apply for a job for which they are overqualified in order to leave a company with a glass ceiling or where gender bias is preventing them from advancing. Offering women lower-level roles, in these decision-maker's perceptions, gives them a way out of organizations that are holding them back. But if the "help" or "way out" ends up lowering women's pay and delaying their career paths, it's just another form of discrimination.
Company executives should examine their retention strategies, which are frequently not standardized and are left to the discretion of individual managers. These informal evaluation techniques require managers to make judgments without all of the information they may require or desire about an employee or job candidate. Managers, for example, typically have information about an employee's qualifications and historical performance but lack information about the employee's goals, motivations, and commitment to remaining with the organization. As a result, managers commonly make assumptions about these unknowns based on the limited information available. Problematically, these assumptions are where gender biases can infiltrate decision-making processes.
As a manager, be cautious about making assumptions about the aims and motives of employees and job prospects. When you don't have all of the facts, it's natural to make assumptions. However, basing important, career-advancing decisions on these preconceived beliefs is problematic. Instead, ask direct questions. Discuss your employees' and job seekers' career aspirations, as well as what they want and expect, and listen to what they have to say.
Hiring decisions should be based on merit, but our research demonstrates that this is not always the case. Companies must do more to acknowledge and address these biases in order to stop taking talented women for granted and avoid losing them to competitors. In fact, a true commitment to a fair and equal workplace is dependent on businesses doing precisely that.
