D O NICE GUYS -- AND GALS -- REALLY FINISH LAST? T HE JOINT EFFECTS OF SEX AND AGREEABLENESS ON INCOME K ey Findings • The pay gap between agreeable and disagreeable males is significantly larger than the gap between agreeable and disagreeable females. That is, there is a “benefit” of being (moderately) disagreeable as a male, but this “benefit” is minimal for females • Employees are subject to gender stereotypes in the workplace. Males are expected to exhibit masculine qualities, including disagreeableness. Females are expected to exhibit feminine qualities, including agreeableness. When one gender defies such stereotypes, the employee can be perceived as deviant • Males who are agreeable are disadvantaged (vs. disagreeable males) for two reasons: first, agreeableness is negatively correlated with income; secondly, they defy the male stereotype of being assertive and disagreeable 1 93 Ives Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850 | 607.255.9358 | www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs p age 2 T opic Does it Pay More to Create Harmony or to Rock the Boat? A lthough developed nations celebrate the progress of females in the workplace, sobering studies show that gender inequality continues even today (Weinberger & Kuhn, 2010). While it is common knowledge that women tend to earn less than their male counterparts, the effect of agreeableness on income is reported on less frequently. Agreeableness is often defined as the level to which a person displays trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness (Costa & M cCrae, 1992). Research has repeatedly found that workers displaying higher levels of a greeableness earn less than their colleagues displaying lower levels of agreeableness (Ng et al., 2005; Mueller & Plug, 2006; Nyhus & Pons, 2005; & Rode et. Al., 2008). In other words, being less agreeable pays—literally. It is important to understand that low levels of agreeableness, as well as high levels of disagreeableness, do not imply hostility; they instead refer to one’s tendency to be assertive upon disagreement. T his study examines the extent to which gender roles and agreeableness interact to determine wage. A main focus of this study was to see how expected gender roles influence the level to which agreeableness affects wage. For example, because women are expected to be high in agreeableness, will displaying disagreeableness in the workplace result in backlash for not conforming to their gender stereotype (Rudman & Fairchild, 2004), or will the p ositive wage effects of being low in agreeableness lead to higher earnings? This article covers four separate studies examining the dynamic between gender and agreeableness w ithin the workplace. S tudy Questions • D o agreeable workers earn less than disagreeable workers? • D oes the level of agreeableness or disagreeableness a worker shows affect wage differently based on the gender of the worker? • W hen the traditional gender roles of agreeableness are met, (i.e. men are less agreeable and women are more agreeable) do wages increase? • Is the difference in wages between agreeable and disagreeable workers wider for men or for women? G ender High Agreeableness L ow Agreeableness* Women C onforms† D oes not Conform Men◊ Does not Conform C onforms† I t is expected that men◊, less agreeable workers*, and those who conform to gender stereotypes† ear n more; therefore, men who are low in agreeableness (their F eoxpre ca tend giennd-edr neoprmth) s hdoiusldc ueasrns itohe mos 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca, N Y 14850 n of t. this topic: 607.255.9358 w ww.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs cahrs@cornell.edu page 3 R esults • Even after considering job responsibility and occupational status, agreeableness has a m uch stronger negative effect on earnings for men than for women. Being agreeable is a ssociated with a lower income, but men who are agreeable incur an additional disadvantage: they are perceived as deviants, since they are not conforming to their assumed gender role of being disagreeable. • The effect of agreeableness on men’s income is more drastic than for women’s income. M eaning, the wage differences between agreeable and disagreeable workers is larger for men than for women. • Men who are less agreeable not only earn more, but increase their salaries at a faster rate. Additionally, regardless of gender, agreeable candidates are less likely to be recommended for advancement • D isagreeableness exacerbates the gender wage gap; although agreeable men earn more t han agreeable women, this gap almost doubles for disagreeable men and women. So, the wage gap between men and women decrease as men display more agreeableness. Agreeableness Affects Males More Than Females T his research was conducted through a series of four, smaller studies. The first three studies examined the effects of agreeableness on the wages of men and women. In all three studies d isagreeable women earned more than agreeable women (Fig. 1 -3), but only in study 2 was t his significant. This suggests that the level of agreeableness displayed by women has less of an effect on income. Conversely, men who were lower in agreeableness earned significantly more than men h igher in agreeableness in all three studies, even after job responsibility and occupational status are taken into account. Overall agreeableness has a greater impact on the wages of men than women. Although, compared to their female counterparts, men receive a much larger benefit from b eing disagreeable; they also face far more negative outcomes from being agreeable. The research suggests the negative outcomes associated with agreeableness in men are a result of agreeableness being viewed as counter-stereotypical trait in men, causing backlash. Besides having an effect on wage, agreeableness was also associated with the rate of career a dvancement. In study 4, agreeable candidates were less likely to be recommended for advancement (Fig. 4). Women were also less likely to be recommended for advancement than men, but this connection was not as significant as the association between agreeableness and advancement. One reason agreeableness has less of an impact on women’s wages may be due to how the a greeableness scores given to women are not translating into their actions. There is evidence t hat if women fear a possible backlash for acting counter to their gender stereotype, they 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850 will change their behavior to be more similar to what is expected of them (Rudman & 607.255.9358 w ww.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs cahrs@cornell.edu page 4 F airchild, 2004; Moss-Rascusin & Rudman, 2010). In the workplace this would translate into disagreeable women making more of an effort to get along with others. By “toning d one” the actions that disagreeable men still display—such as being more demanding in s alary negotiations or imparting disapproval on others—these women may be eliminating the actions which bring about the wage outcomes associated with disagreeableness. This research helps employers re-examine the way they perceive their employees’ performance levels based on agreeableness. Agreeableness is a positive trait, but it is not b eing rewarded in the workplace. Agreeable individuals are more cooperative and helpful (LePine & Van Dyne, 1998) and are better liked by others (Jensen-Campbell, Adams, Perry, Workman, Furdella, & Egan, 2002). Although reexamining the way compensation is a llotted based on agreeableness will not fix the still-present gender disparity in wages, it will help focus organizations on what traits they wish to encourage in their employees, regardless of gender. F igure 1: Study 1 Results 45000 $ 42,113 40000 35000 $32,283 $ 31,259 30000 $ 30,431 2 5000 LOW (-1 SD) H IGH (+1 SD) A GREEABLENESS M EN  WOMEN Figure 2: Study 2 Results 5 0000 $ 47,514 45000 4 0000 $38,246 3 5000 3 0000 $ 28,381 25000 $ 26,505 LOW (-1 SD) HIGH (+1 SD) AGREEABLENESS 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca, N Y 14850  MEN W OMEN 607.255.9358 www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs cahrs@cornell.edu INCOME ($) INCOME ($) p age 5 F igure 3: Study 3 Results 95000 $90,241 8 0000 $70,774 65000 5 0000 $ 42,093 35000 $ 38,851 L OW (-1 SD) HIGH (+1 SD) AGREEABLENESS  MEN  WOMEN F igure 4: Study 4 Results 0 .2 0 .19 0.1 0 .05 0 0.00 - 0.1 -0.15 -0.2 L OW (-1 SD) HIGH (+1 SD) A GREEABLENESS M EN W OMEN D ata Source Study 1: o I ndividuals enrolled in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY97), which l asted from 1997 – 2008. Participants were between 12-16 years old when they e nrolled in 1997. Survey participants were required to be working outside of their h omes, not enrolled in college full-time, and be working a minimum of 1,000 hours p er year to participate at each time point when data was collected. 560 individuals t ook part in the surveys. 1 93 Ives Hall, Ithaca, N Y 14850 607.255.9358 www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs cahrs@cornell.edu ADVANCEMENT RECOMMENDATONS I NCOME ($) page 6 Study 2: o I ndividuals who worked full-time outside of the home and were enrolled in the N ational Survey or Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) were r andomly selected to complete a phone interview and two mail surveys. 1,681 i ndividuals took part from 1995 – 1996. Participants were all non-institutionalized, E nglish-speaking adults, age 25-75, living in the United States. Study 3: o Individuals who took place in the 1992 – 1993 interview as a part of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) who were employed full-time and earned a positive income for the year. The sample included 1,691 individuals. Participants answered questions on how much they valued pay and relationships. Study 4: o 4 60 undergraduates in a business management class at a Southeastern University were asked to read assessments of eight entry-level candidates for a job opening and determine the candidates’ potential for growth in the position. The eight candidates varied in the level of agreeableness and were either all male or all female. Takeaways • Low levels of agreeableness at work are associated with better job-related outcomes. Managers should keep this in mind when deciding what types of behaviors their compensation and promotion structures could unwittingly be encouraging in their e mployees. • Agreeableness affects the wages of male workers more than female workers. This may be due to agreeableness being counter-stereotypical to gender expectations for males. R esearchers T his study was conducted by: Timothy A. Judge, F ranklin D. Schurz Professor of Management, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame B eth A. Livingston, assistant professor of Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University C harlice Hurst, a ssistant professor of Organizational Behavior, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario page 7 References Jensen-Campbell, L. A., Adams, R., Perry, D. G., Workman, K. A., Furdella, J. Q., & Egan, S. K. (2002). Agreeableness, extraversion, and peer relations in early adolescence: Winning friends and deflecting aggression. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 2 24-251. LePine, J. A., & Van Dyne, L. (1998). Predicting voice behavior in work groups. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 853-868. Moss-Racusin, C., & Rudman, L. (2010). Disruptions in women’s self-promotion: The b acklash avoidance model. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34, 1 86-202. Mueller, G., & Plug, E. (2006). Estimating the effect of personality on male and female earnings. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 60, 3-22. Ng, T. W. H., Eby, L. T., Sorensen, K. L., & Feldman, D. C. (2005) Predictors of objective and subjective career success: A meta-analysis. P ersonnel Psychology, 58, 367-408. Nyhus, E., & Pons, E. (2005). The effects of personality on earnings. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26, 363-384. Rode, J., Arthaud-Day, M., Mooney, C., Near, J., & Baldwin, T. (2008). Ability and p ersonality predictors of salary, perceived job success, and perceived career success in the initial career stage. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 16, 2 92-299. Rudman, L. A. & Fairchild, K. (2004). Reactions to counterstereotypic behavior: The role of backlash in cultural stereotype maintenance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 1 57-176. Weinberger, C., & Kuhn, P. (2010). Changing levels or changing slopes? The narrowing of the gender earnings gap, 1959-1999. I ndustrial & Labor Relations Review, 63, 384-406. 1 93 Ives Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850 The Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) is an international center serving 607.255.9358 corporate human resources leaders and their companies by providing critical tools for building and www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs leading high- performing HR organizations. CAHRS’ mission is to bring together partners and the I LR School’s world-renowned HR Studies faculty to investigate, translate and apply the latest HR cahrs@cornell.edu research into practice excellence