Homosocial Reproduction Research Articles

Why a Little Diversity doesn't Go a Long Way: A Collective Moral Licensing Explanation for Homosocial Reproduction

AbstractDespite significant knowledge on the demographic composition of workgroups, the literature lacks group‐level theory that addresses the tendency of work groups with token levels of diversity to maintain their demographic imbalance over time. We explain this phenomenon by extending moral licensing theory to the group level, arguing that a token level of racial or gender diversity leads to the development of a collective moral credential. This credential provides psychological permission for groups to relax their moral strivings, such that they are less likely to question the influence of bias in group member selection decisions, and thus more likely to make subsequent homogenous group member additions. Additionally, we argue that the diversity climates within which groups are embedded can either magnify (i.e., in fairness‐focused diversity climates) or mitigate (i.e., in synergy‐focused diversity climates) the development of a collective moral credential. Further, we suggest that the effect of token levels of diversity on the development of a collective moral credential can be affected by the prevailing social norms for diversity. Finally, we theorize that the effects of this process can be accentuated by group use of a majority decision rule and attenuated by group use of a unanimous decision rule.

Diversity and inclusion in sport leadership: a longitudinal review of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee

ABSTRACT Purpose This paper is to examine the progression of gender and racial inclusion made within the leadership of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and determine what effect benchmarking has had on their inclusion efforts. Methodology Using USOPC’s Diversity and Inclusion Scorecard, the article will examine the gender and racial inclusivity thresholds and use the lens of critical mass to identify possible examples of homo-social reproduction disruption. Findings USOPC is broadly successful in achieving benchmark goals. However, closer analysis of their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) scorecards reveals remaining structural barriers to be overcome. These relate specifically to racial and ethnic EDI. Longitudinally, females have achieved critical mass that has also translated to critical mass of women within Senior and Mid-Level management. Conversely, the USOPC has consistently failed to achieve Critical Mass within its Board of Directors (BOD), which is also replicated at the Senior and Mid-Level management levels. Overall, findings positively support the argument that critical mass positively contributes to the inclusion of marginalised populations. Originality There is no existing research that has examined the relationships between USOPC’s goals for inclusion and actual achievement of inclusion. There is limited research that uses critical mass as a lens to examine USOPC inclusion data longitudinally, or how critical mass may have affected homo-social reproduction within the USOPC.

What Employers Mean When They Talk About Language Proficiency: a Civic Integration Policy Meets the Importance of Informal Skills

AbstractIn 2013, a Norwegian language test was made mandatory for immigrants participating in the Norwegian Introduction Programme (NIP). The rationale behind the law was that documented test scores would allow employers to better evaluate these jobseekers’ language skills, thereby helping reduce the employment gap between the immigrant and majority population. However, although previous research has found that mandated language classes have only a modest, if any, effect on labour force participation, a Norwegian study has identified a positive correlation between high scores on the Norwegian test and the probability of being employed. Whether this correlation is a result of the test diploma is, however, uncertain. In this paper, we investigate how employers in private, mostly service-oriented industries make use of the information they get through this documentation. Based on a unique linkage of two types of data sources—a survey experiment and interviews with employers—we find that the Norwegian test does not signal good Norwegian skills more clearly than a candidate’s self-assessment of their language level. We argue that this is related to a mismatch between the policy instrument’s focus on enhancing immigrants’ formal skills, on the one hand, and employers’ valuation of informal skills, on the other. We discuss these findings in light of notions about cultural cloning and homosocial reproduction. Rather than drawing on theories of discrimination to understand employers’ evaluations of immigrant job applicants, as is often done, we treat the test as an example of a larger societal change, the “civic turn”.

Human capital pipelines – antecedents and consequences

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss the concept of human capital pipelines and explain how pipelines originate and the consequences of pipeline-based hiring in terms of labor market uncertainty, job embeddedness, social ties, homosocial reproduction, employee referrals and turnover intent.Design/methodology/approachThe author provides a viewpoint grounded on a review of recent research regarding human capital pipelines.FindingsThis paper aims at further developing our understanding of human capital pipelines and the implications of such practices. The author points out both the positive and negative aspects of pipeline-based hiring, with the hope that human resource practitioners and mangers will adopt such practices based on the organization’s strategic needs.Originality/valueTo date, very little conceptual and/or empirical work has been carried out on pipeline-based hiring. In organizations, it is important to understand how repeated hiring from labor sources can reduce labor market uncertainty regarding a job seeker’s quality and potential productivity. However, it is also crucial to appreciate that such practices may have important pre and posthire implications for organizations and employees alike.

Female CEO and board composition: A gender rivalry approach to family firms

This paper investigates the impact of female chief executive officers (CEOs) on women’s representation on the board of directors (BoD). As scholars maintain that positive effects exerted by board gender diversity on firms’ performance depend on the achievement of a critical mass, we focus on the role of female CEOs as a determinant of the number of appointed women in the context of family businesses, exploring how the persistence of gender stereotypes, along with homosocial reproduction and individual socio-emotional wealth (SEW) objectives affect tokenism phenomena. We test our hypothesis on a sample of 70 listed family firms in the 2014–2021 period. Consistently with our prediction, our findings provide evidence of a negative association between female CEOs and the number of female directors, thus suggesting that family businesses’ dominant male coalitions and SEW matters may hinder female inclusiveness to avoid inter-group dysfunctionalities in decision-making.

Together forever? The relation between (dis)similar demographics in politico-administrative relationships and executive turnover

Turnover among top executives in government organizations warrants our research interest because of their importance for executive politics, public policy, and the management and performance of public organizations. Whereas the literature so far has primarily studied political, organizational and individual antecedents of turnover, we focus on the relational level. Based on homosocial reproduction, relational demography and social identify theory, we hypothesize that demographic similarities between senior executives and their political counterparts influence executive turnover. Using longitudinal register data of Danish mayors and chief administrative officers (CAOs), our results suggest that gender dissimilarity (specifically, a male mayor and a female CAO) increases the risk of CAO turnover. Similarly, the risk of CAO turnover is higher when the CAO is older than the mayor. Contrary to expectations, however, differences in education reduces turnover risk (specifically when the CAO has more education than the mayor). Our study illustrates the relevance of understanding turnover as a relational phenomenon based on factors beyond rational, political, and functional explanations.

Wrinkles of Change: CEO Succession and the Reproduction of Age Profiles in the Executive Suite

We examine the reproduction of age profiles in the executive suite across CEO succession events. Counter to the trend of the general workforce becoming more age diverse, age profiles in the executive suite seem to become more homogenous and CEOs appear to be increasingly older at appointment. This is despite increasing frequency of CEO succession events, which represent opportunities for demographic change of top management to align with changing environments. Drawing on insights from homosocial reproduction theory, upper echelons theory, and executive succession research, we argue that the age profile of executives may be actually reproduced to reduce social uncertainty around CEO succession events, and that over time, age homophily is particularly reinforced under new outsider CEOs. Exploiting CEO turnover as an empirical identification strategy, we construct a unique sample of 391 successions in 297 S&P500 companies between 2000 and 2020 and apply a hierarchical linear modelling specification to test hypotheses. We find support for the overall notion that some age profiles are reproduced across CEO succession events. Notably, the overall age profile shifts upwards as CEOs are increasingly older at appointment, a tendency that is reinforced by outsider CEO successors. We discuss implications for age homophily in executive ranks, how outsider CEOs reinforce demographic similarity, and age-identity of corporate leadership roles.

Succession Planning in Micro and Small Family Business (Case: Micro and Small Family Business in East Jakarta)

Family business studies are gaining a foothold in Indonesia. This organization is the most common type of firm throughout the world. Nonetheless, the low survival rate of family businesses may relate to the issue of management succession and the issue is still the principal challenge that they need to face. This study will focus on knowing the importance of succession planning for family business owners, especially those belonging to the micro and small business category. The study involved one hundred family business owners in East Jakarta as respondents of the survey. The study itself would be focused on the ground rules made by the incumbents during succession planning. The study has revealed that, generally, the majority of the sample does not have an appropriate plan of succession. The result also exhibits that the majority of respondents favoring nuclear family members as the future successor. Moreover, the homosocial reproduction phenomenon also could be identified from the survey.

Ethnicity and low wage traps: favouritism, homosocial reproduction and economic marginalization

This article analyses the relationship between cultural difference, social connections and opportunity structures using interview evidence from low-paid workers and managers in local government, the health service, facilities management and housing. Exploring the operation of homosocial reproduction it reveals the double-edged nature of informality and the role of favouritism in particular in perpetuating ethnic advantage and privilege. While demonstrating that uses of homosocial reproduction need to be sensitive to intersections of identities or categories of difference, the article adds further evidence of the persistent gap between equal opportunities policies and practice for ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom labour market. The article concludes that stronger forms of positive action, and even positive discrimination, are needed to address the low pay traps and restricted opportunities of ethnic minority workers.

Antecedents and consequences of organizational politics: a select study of a central university

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between perceived organizational politics and three levels of antecedents (i.e. organizational, work environment and individual levels) and its consequents. It further aims to examine the relative importance of the three levels of antecedents in influencing employees’ POP. The study has been conducted at a central university in India. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework and a set of hypotheses were first developed on the basis of a review of previous studies of organizational politics (OP). A questionnaire was then developed, carrying 55 items related to eight constructs and the demographic characteristics of its respondents. Judgmental sampling was used to choose the university. The respondents were selected on the basis of convenience. Primary data were collected via a structured questionnaire from 45 faculty members at the university. The sample was made up of professors, associate professors and assistant professors from its various departments. To test the hypotheses, data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings The results have indicated that all the three levels of antecedents have significant impacts on POP. The antecedents of workforce diversity (the organizational level), relationship conflict (the work environment level) and a need for power (the individual level) have a significant positive impact on POP. No relationship was found between role conflict and POP. Of the three levels of antecedents, it was observed that the organizational level contributed most significantly to POP. Of the three consequences, the intention to turnover and job anxiety were found to be positively related to POP, while organizational commitment was negatively related to it. Practical implications The study provides managerial insights for both organizations and managers. Workforce diversity is a primary driver of POP and it is under the purview of organizations. Thus, to control the unfavorable consequences of POP, organizations must design effective policies to manage workforce diversity. Specifically, human resource processes must be formalized. Since human managers often make decisions in favor of those who are relatively homogeneous to them (homosocial reproduction), the distribution of resources and benefits is restricted to a few people only. Those who do not get their share of organizational resources perceive such acts of homosocial reproduction to be political. If policies are formalized, people have to take decisions within the boundaries of well-defined sets of rules and procedures. Those who are not homogeneous with decision-makers (the outgroup) should get a fair share of organizational resources in such a formalized environment. They neither need to play political games to gain power, nor will they perceive the organizational processes and environment to be political. It is also suggested that managers design effective development programs for enhancing the political skills of “outgroups” and minorities. This would help them to understand how to deal with political situations. Thus, the detrimental effects of employees’ political perceptions on work-related outcomes would be reduced. Originality/value Although a large number of studies on the antecedents and consequents of POP have been reported, the antecedents and consequences mentioned herein have never been examined previously by a single study. Four antecedents are introduced at three levels. Furthermore, in previous research, the relationships examined have treated OP either as a dependent variable or an independent variable. However, for this paper, the authors have provided a PLS-SEM-based model, which allows for simultaneous treatment of organizational politics as an independent variable in some relationships, and as a dependent variable in other relationships.

Tipping Points: The Gender Segregating and Desegregating Effects of Network Recruitment

Current scholarship commonly posits that network recruitment contributes to job sex segregation and that the segregated nature of personal contact networks explains this effect. A variety of empirical findings inconsistent with this explanation demonstrate its inadequacy. Building on Kanter’s observation that recruitment processes often resemble “homosocial reproduction” [Kanter RM (1977) Men and Women of the Corporation (Basic Books, New York)], we develop a population dynamics model of network recruitment. The resulting formal model builds a parsimonious theory regarding the segregating effects of network recruitment, resolving the puzzles and inconsistencies revealed by recent empirical findings. This revised theory also challenges conventional understandings of how network recruitment segregates: in isolation, network recruitment—even with segregated networks—is more likely to desegregate rather than segregate. Network recruitment segregates primarily through its interactions with other supply-side (e.g., gendered self-sorting) or demand-side (e.g., gendered referring rates) biasing mechanisms. Our model reveals whether and to what extent network recruitment segregates or desegregates, and it reveals opportunities for organizational intervention. There is an easily calculable tipping point where demand-side factors such as gender differences in referring can counteract and neutralize other segregating effects from referring. Independent of other personnel practices, organizational policies affecting employees’ referring behaviors can tip the balance to determine whether network recruitment serves as a segregating or desegregating force. We ground our model empirically using three organizational cases.

Of Journal Editors and Editorial Boards: Who Are the Trailblazers in Increasing Editorial Board Gender Equality?

Female academics continue to be under‐represented on the editorial boards of many, but not all, management journals. This variability is intriguing, because it is reasonable to assume that the size of the pool of female faculty available and willing to serve on editorial boards is similar for all management journals. This paper therefore focuses on the characteristics of the journal editors to explain this variability; journal editors or editors‐in‐chief are the most influential people in the selection of editorial board members. The authors draw on social identity and homosocial reproduction theories, and on the gender and careers literature to examine the relationship between an editor's academic performance, professional age and gender, and editorial board gender equality. Longitudinal data are collected at five points in time, using five‐year intervals, from 52 management journals. To account for the nested structure of the data, a three‐level multilevel model was estimated. Overall, it is found that the prospects of board membership improve for women when editors are high‐performing, professionally young or female. The authors discuss these findings and their implications for management journals with low, stagnant or declining representation of women in their boards.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS NOT JUST A WESTERN CONCEPT

For most of us, the western world is where everything worthwhile happens! This home bias extends to concepts and practices that make the world go. Entrepreneurship has become such a concept. The September 2014 issue of the Journal proves otherwise. Entrepreneurship is alive and well in Asia, Africa and even in America’s old nemesis: Cuba. It exists not only in developed economies (Korea), but in economies whose development path has not been designed yet (Lao PDR). It offers hope even to those who find themselves born into extreme poverty, the slums of Mumbai. If it works there, why not in Brazil’s favelas? Why not in Myanmar or Mali? What is stopping us from putting it to work and allow the poorest to dream and believe? The first article of this issue is U.S.-based, but the theoretical framework used could be applied elsewhere. Do Women Fare Better in Female-Owned Businesses? is the questions asked by Pat Roberson-Saunders, Raymond Smith and Rajni Goel. The authors use a human resource management (HRM) framework to extend to female-owned businesses Kanter’s homosocial reproduction thesis that increased numbers of women in positions of management would increase hiring and advancement of women. Results show that, at each step in the HRM process, female business owners fulfill expectations by hiring, promoting and retaining significantly more women than male business owner counterparts. In addition, there were significant differences between minority and non-minority female business owners in the proportion of co-racial managers. Moreover, Whites and Blacks showed a significant preference for co-racial managers, while Hispanics and Asians did not. Dianne Welsh, Gyu Kim, Esra Memili and Eugene Kaciak investigate the determinants of Korean female entrepreneurs’ firm performance. The Influence of Family Support and Personal Problems on Firm Performance: The Case of Korean Female Entrepreneurs examines the impact of personal problems and family support and their interaction effects on firm performance. The authors find empirical support for the negative effects of personal problems on firm performance and positive moderation effects of family support on this link. They then discuss implications and future research potential. The article by Chandralekha Ghosh and Samapti Guha addresses one of the challenges faced by a group of microenterprises operating in an adverse and almost destitute Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship Vol. 19, No. 3 (2014) 1401002 (3 pages) © World Scientific Publishing Company DOI: 10.1142/S108494671401002X

DO WOMEN FARE BETTER IN FEMALE-OWNED BUSINESSES?

Numerous studies have chronicled the problems women experience in seeking to be hired and subsequently break through the glass ceiling in corporate America. These studies have been approached from the traditional perspective of male-dominated organizations. However, using a human resource management (HRM) framework, this article explores the possibility of further extending to female-owned businesses Kanter's homosocial reproduction thesis that increased numbers of women in positions of management would increase hiring and advancement of women in corporate America. Results show that, at each step in the HRM process, female business owners in this study fulfill expectations by hiring, promoting and retaining significantly more women than male business owner counterparts. In addition, there were significant differences between minority and non-minority female business owners in the proportion of co-racial managers. Moreover, Whites and Blacks showed a significant preference for co-racial managers, while Hispanics and Asians did not.

Antecedents of Board Composition: The Role of Nomination Committees

ABSTRACTManuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: The global financial crisis in 2008 has generated increasing recognition of the importance of board diversity reflected amidst the capabilities and skills of directors on a board. As the primary institutional mechanism designed to strengthen the director selection process, nomination committees (NCs) occupy centre stage of this discussion. However, there is a dearth of studies which focus either specifically on NCs or on diversity as a board composition outcome. In this study, we examine the research question of the likely antecedents in terms of NC characteristics of two board composition outcomes, i.e., diversity as variety in terms of gender and nationality, and diversity as separation in terms of a board demographic faultline.Research Findings/Insights: For a panel of FTSE350 companies from 1999 to 2008, we find that the increasing presence on the NC of females or non‐British nationals is likely to have a positive impact on the level of board gender and nationality diversity, respectively. In addition, we report that the presence of the chief executive officer (CEO) on the NC is found to interact with the NC independence, as a result of which a board demographic faultline is likely to emerge.Theoretical/Academic Implications: We bring together three concepts from social psychology research to create the theoretical basis for our study of the influence of NCs on board diversity: these are similarity‐attraction, homosocial reproduction, and social identity. The strong empirical findings suggest that these socio‐psychological dimensions are applicable to the operations of NCs, which has implications for the outcomes of the director nomination and selection process, and consequently also for board composition.Practitioner/Policy Implications: Our research indicates that NC characteristics are significant antecedents of board diversity, hence composition of the NC is an important step and pre‐requisite for assembling a diverse board. For example, appointing females and/or non‐nationals to the NC increases the likelihood of greater representation of females and/or non‐nationals on the entire board. At the same time, our evidence suggests that the presence of the CEO amidst the majority of non‐executive directors (NEDs) on the NC is detrimental for board cohesiveness.

Being a female pension trustee

PurposeWhile there has been much discussion about pension regulation and decision making in relation to pension trusteeship, there appears to be little research on women and men who take up opportunities to become pension trustees. Thus the focus of this research is to explore what it means to be a female or male pension trustee in “a man's world”.Design/methodology/approachAcker's influential model for the gendering of organisational processes and its subsequent development to acknowledge the intersection of multiple inequalities such as gender and class is used as a tool to provide a micro‐analysis of men's and women's interpretation of being a pension trustee.FindingsThe persistence of homosocial reproduction around managerial competences in pension board activity helps explain men's and women's differing experiences within male‐dominated pension boardrooms.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper focuses on a small but diverse sample of pension trustees and further research is needed to explore further why pension trustees take on this challenging and complex role.Originality/valueUK legislation about member representation on pension boards has the potential to bring new female candidates to the board. This paper gives an insight into what this means for a diverse group of pension trustees.

Why do top management teams look the way they do? A multilevel exploration of the antecedents of TMT heterogeneity

While individual-level social psychological processes may promote top management team (TMT) homogeneity, a number of organizational and environmental factors pose requirements for increasing TMT heterogeneity. These opposing mechanisms lead to different predictions regarding the outcome of the TMT selection process. This article investigates the interactions between the different level factors influencing TMT heterogeneity in order to determine under what conditions pressures towards heterogeneity prevail over the tendency towards homosocial reproduction. Based on a panel dataset of 165 Swiss listed companies, the results of hierarchical linear model (HLM) analyses provide support for attraction—selection—attrition (ASA) and similarity— attraction tendencies. Newly appointed TMT members were more likely to be similar to the rest of the team when the prior degree of homogeneity in the TMT was high. However, this tendency was lower in firms with a high degree of internationalization or facing dynamic industry environments. At the same time, munificent industries amplify tendencies towards TMT homogeneity.

People are strange when you're a stranger: senior executives select similar successors

Despite Sweden being considered one of the most equality-minded countries, the uppermost organizational levels are so male dominated that mandatory board of director gender quotas are considered. Homogeneity may only be decreased with difficulty, as it arises through basic social mechanisms such as homosocial reproduction, that is, people prefer and, therefore, recruit people who are similar to themselves. Present structure is perpetuated. Previous research suggests that such reproduction occurs on an organizational, top management and/or interpersonal level. In this paper, simultaneous analyses of these three levels regarding gender, nationality, age and tenure show that homogeneity arises between superior and subordinate. As for top management team composition, there is in general one woman per company, whereas non-Swedes are twice the number of women, cluster together and have line responsibility. Owing to need for critical mass, present composition and position responsibility, we may, therefore, expect gender homogeneity and some nationality heterogeneity to remain.

THE GENESIS OF TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM DIVERSITY: SELECTIVE TURNOVER AMONG TOP MANAGEMENT TEAMS IN DUTCH NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING, 1970-94.

We propose that executive team power strengthens a cycle of homosocial reproduction that is interrupted only when teams face such compelling needs for diversity as poor organizational performance, high corporate diversification, and tough market competition. Hypothesis tests in data from major Dutch newspaper publishers over 25 years did not support many of our benchmark expectations. Apparently, top management teams tend to close ranks when environmental complexity and pressure increase. Explanations and new research avenues are discussed.

Race, Gender, and Workplace Power

Survey data support hypotheses regarding differential access to workplace power among women and minorities relative to white men. Specific findings indicate that, relative to white men, all groups encounter increasing inequality at higher levels of power, but only black women seem to experience this form of inequality as a result of direct discrimination. Further analysis indicates that network assistance is more a response to this form of discrimination than an indirect cause. Finally, analysis shows that most groups attain power through homosocial reproduction, but what differs is the opportunity to engage in such reproduction, wherein white men excel. These findings imply that while women and minorities face lower odds than white men of achieving higher levels of workplace power, the reasons for this disadvantage vary among respective groups and thus will likely require different remedies.