Considering Employee Sexism in the Feedback-Seeking Process
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CONSIDERING EMPLOYEE SEXISM IN THE FEEDBACK-SEEKING PROCESS: THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPERVISOR CHARACTERISTICS A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Alexandra I. Zelin May, 2017 CONSIDERING EMPLOYEE SEXISM IN THE FEEDBACK-SEEKING PROCESS: THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPERVISOR CHARACTERISTICS Alexandra I. Zelin Dissertation Approved: Accepted: _____________________________ ____________________________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. Joelle D. Elicker Dr. Paul E. Levy _____________________________ ____________________________________ Committee Member Dean of the College Dr. Paul E. Levy Dr. John Green _____________________________ ____________________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Andrea F. Snell Dr. Chand Midha _____________________________ ____________________________________ Committee Member Date Dr. Jennifer T. Stanley _____________________________ Committee Member Dr. Steven R. Ash ii ABSTRACT Feedback-seeking within the workplace is imperative for employee success. Much of the extant research on predicting feedback-seeking behavior of employees relates to job-oriented variables such as motives, goal orientation, attitudes toward feedback, role ambiguity, and the source of the feedback. The present study incorporated yet unstudied, important variables from the Social Psychology literature which could impact feedback- seeking behaviors in the workplace: an employee’s level of both explicit and implicit sexism, and the behavioral “match” of supervisor gender with supervisor behaviors. As the number of women managers in the workplace increases, the need to measure both implicit and explicit sexism to determine the effect of these attitudes on employee behaviors also grows. Further, experience suggests that not all men and women act in accordance with their gender-prescribed roles. However, as evidenced in previous research, some behaviors are seen as more appropriate for management (e.g., masculine behaviors) and may also influence people’s perceptions of their supervisors’ ability to provide feedback. The present study investigated the influence of employee sexism, supervisor gendered behavior (i.e., matching with gender-prescribed behavior), and employee motives in relation to feedback-seeking behaviors from both one’s supervisor and another person within the organization. As outcomes of feedback-seeking behaviors are also important, the present study investigated employees’ levels of stress and anxiety iii in relation to feedback-seeking behaviors. A sample of 280 student employees working over 20 hours per week participated via an online survey. Study results indicated that perceptions of supervisor gender-normative behavior and employee sexism interacted with individual motives for seeking feedback in determining actual feedback-seeking behavior. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a show of gratitude to my support systems who helped make my dissertation, and success through graduate school, a possibility. Your guidance and unwavering confidence in me is forever appreciated and I want to thank those of you who helped me along. First, to my dissertation advisor, Joelle Elicker, for your help in brainstorming this process all the way to the product that it has become. To my committee, Paul Levy, Andrea Snell, Jennifer Stanley, and Steven Ash, thank you for providing important insight and advice during this process. The interpretation of the four-way interactions was truly a team effort! I also want to thank Rosalie Hall and Jennifer Wessel for their support and guidance as my advisors through the thesis and comprehensive exam process. You both greatly influenced the path I took in the field of I-O and I am forever grateful. Although not on my dissertation committee, I want to thank other faculty and staff at the University of Akron who helped me grow and develop throughout my time in the program: Karen Todaro, Kim Sturmi, Dennis Doverspike, Jim Diefendorff, Jan Yoder, Stan Silverman, and Harvey Sterns. I truly appreciate everything you do! Additionally, I want to thank my colleagues at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. You made the process of finishing my dissertation while in my first year as an assistant professor as easy as it could be. Your support in the process and re-reading v numerous drafts was not something that you thought you would get when you hired me, but you did it with a smile and unending encouragement. Thank you for keeping me sane! To my friends and family, I could not have accomplished this without you. Your pride in me, your cheering at my successes, and your encouragement to “keep going” when things got tough is worth more to me than I can say. From the phone calls providing unwavering support throughout the process to making sure I survived the winter storms (Mom, Dad, Sam, & Josh), my personal cheerleader, warm meals and friendly family faces to celebrate the holidays and just any old day (Richard and Debbie and the rest of the Minster clan), calls, texts, and visits from out-of-state friends (too many to name individually), to the never-ending support from friends and colleagues in the program (also too many to name individually), I appreciate all of you. Special shout out to those who accompanied me to the various BSB and NKOTB concerts/listening to my BSB playlists in the office (you know I wouldn’t have made it through without my BSB). This project was possible because of you. Thank you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ............................................................................... 1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 7 Feedback-seeking Behavior .......................................................................................... 11 Method Used to Seek Feedback: Inquiry .................................................................. 11 Target of Feedback-Seeking Behavior ...................................................................... 12 Motives Predicting Feedback-Seeking Behavior ...................................................... 13 Instrumental Motives (Figure 2.1) ................................................................................ 15 Supervisor (Source) Credibility ................................................................................ 15 Sexism and Supervisor Characteristics Predicting Perceived Supervisor Credibility.................................................................................................................. 17 Sexism ....................................................................................................................... 24 Ego- and Image-Defensive Motives (Figure 2.2) ......................................................... 35 Hostile Sexism and Implicit Sexism ......................................................................... 36 Effects of Feedback-Seeking Behaviors ....................................................................... 40 Feedback-Seeking Behavior and Job Stress and Job Anxiety .................................. 44 vii Hostile Sexism, Implicit Sexism, Supervisor Characteristics, and Job Stress and Job Anxiety ...................................................................................................................... 45 Control Variables .......................................................................................................... 47 Job Tenure ................................................................................................................. 47 Learning Goal Orientation ........................................................................................ 48 Feedback Orientation ................................................................................................ 48 Job Performance ........................................................................................................ 49 Supervisor Interactions ............................................................................................. 49 Summary of Contributions of the Proposed Study ....................................................... 49 III. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 54 Participants .................................................................................................................... 54 Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 59 Measures ................................................................................................................... 61 Pilot Testing .............................................................................................................. 73 Analytic Strategy .......................................................................................................... 73 Measuring Implicit Attitudes .................................................................................... 73 Tests of Hypotheses .................................................................................................. 75 IV. RESULTS ..................................................................................................................