Are Strategies for Women in Compensation Negotiations More Appealing When It Is Explained How They Are Meant to Impact Negotiation Outcomes

Bibliographic Data

ID12005757
AuthorsMelanie Lietz (0000-0003-4016-2349, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany, corresponding author), Jens Mazei (0000-0003-3579-6857, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany), Marc Mertes (0000-0001-5496-5439, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany), Joachim Hüffmeier (0000-0002-0490-7035, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany)
Year2022
Volume47
Issue1
Pages80-112
Publication date2022-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychology of Women Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-6843 • E-ISSN: 1471-6402
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/03616843221128484
OpenAlexW4306939532
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited60

Women perceive specific strategies developed to support their performance in compensation negotiations as ineffective and are unlikely to use them—suggesting an implementation gap. We examined whether providing theoretical rationales—explaining how specific strategies are meant to work—attenuates this gap. Furthermore, we explored a novel cause of it: women's expectations regarding the perpetuation of gender roles upon using a strategy. In two studies ( N = 1,254), we observed that regardless of the provision of the rationales, women expected all examined specific strategies to be less economically effective and most of them to perpetuate gender roles more than regular assertiveness. Moreover, especially women's expectations regarding economic outcomes decreased their intentions to use most specific strategies. Women also expected most specific strategies to lead to less favorable social evaluations than yielding, which again led to their lower intentions to use them. Altogether, negotiation trainers and educators should consider that explaining how specific strategies are meant to work is not enough to close the implementation gap and to reduce gender inequality in negotiations. To attenuate the implementation gap, they may need to enable women to more fully experience how using specific strategies can improve their negotiation performance. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843221128484

Assertiveness · Compensation (psychology · Gender pay gap · Negotiation · Political science · Public relations · Wage · Work (physics · Conflict Management and Negotiation · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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