Bold or reckless? The impact of workplace risk-taking on attributions and expected outcomes.

Susan R Fisk,Jon Overton,Valerio Capraro

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228672

Abstract

Risk-takers are rhetorically extolled in America, but does this veneration ignore the downsides of failure? We test competing perspectives on how workplace risk-takers are perceived by examining cultural attitudes about individuals who successfully take, unsuccessful take, and avoid risks at work. The results of two experiments show that, in comparison to risk-avoidance, expected workplace outcomes are enhanced by successful risk-taking and that failure does not appear to significantly harm expected workplace outcomes for risk-takers. While one experiment finds that failed risk-takers are seen as more likely to be downsized (because they are viewed as more foolish), we also find failed risk-takers are perceived as more likely to be hired and promoted. Mediation analyses reveal this is primarily because risk-taking—regardless of outcome—considerably increases perceptions of agency and decreases perceptions of indecisiveness, and these attributions predict positive workplace outcomes. We also find the results to be remarkably similar across varying participant characteristics (namely, gender, race, education level, work experience, income, and age), which suggests that there is a broad cultural consensus in the U.S. about the value of risk-taking. In sum, we find evidence that observers generally make more positive attributions about risk-takers than about risk-avoiders, even when risk-takers fail.

Highlights

Risk-taking and risk-takers are culturally praised in the United States [1,2]
We find that successful risk-takers are rated as: much less likely to be downsized (27.4%, p < .001), much more likely to be promoted (79.0%, p < .001), and much more likely to be sent to a leadership training camp for high-potential employees (78.8%, p < .001) than not (Table 2)
Participants ranged in age from 18 to 73 years, with an average age of 32.7 years and a standard deviation of 10.2 years. 46.8% were between 18–29 years old, 32.2% were between 30–39 years old, 13.1% were between 40–49 years old, 5.6% were between 50–59 years old, and 2.2% were between 60–69 years old. 14.2% of the sample was unemployed, and 69.6% of the sample had attended at least some college

Summary

Introduction

Risk-taking and risk-takers are culturally praised in the United States [1,2]. Ethnographic accounts of white-collar workplaces document that those who take risks are seen as active gogetters [3] and as having what it takes to lead effectively [4]. Successful people frequently espouse the importance of risk-taking for career success [5,6]: for instance, Mark Zuckerberg famously asserted “The biggest risk is not taking any risk,” and Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, has been quoted as saying that, “Every risk is worth taking as long as it’s for a good cause, and contributes to a good life.”. Is this veneration of risk-takers a form of survivorship bias that overlooks the impact of failure on attributions?.

Methods

Findings

Conclusion