Performance feedback, power retention, and the gender gap in leadership

Abstract

We propose that performance feedback can be a power retention mechanism that puts women at a relative disadvantage and contributes to the lack of women in leadership positions. Feedback is an evaluative process, with the (typically higher-power) source often having considerable discretion and means to deliver feedback and the feedback recipient often being at the mercy of the will of the source. The feedback process, therefore, has a built-in power component that preserves and amplifies existing power differences in organizations (e.g., differences in organizational authority and rank) and disproportionately harms women's leadership development. We develop a theoretical model concerning how power retention conditions (e.g., when giving feedback advances the source's personal status goals) lead to power retention mechanisms in the feedback process, such as patronizing feedback, particularly for female recipients. We discuss how gender moderates feedback delivery and reactions to feedback, which influence the persistent gender gap in leadership, subsequently reinforcing the power retention conditions. We conclude by discussing areas for future research, potential power equalization forces, and practical suggestions for how organizations can change this cycle.