Managers' gender role attitudes: a country institutional profile approach
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Managers’ gender role attitudes: a country institutional profile approach K Praveen Parboteeah1, Martin Hoegl2 and John B Cullen3 1
Management Department, College of Business & Economics, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, USA; 2WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany; 3 Department of Management & Operations, Washington State University, Pullman, USA Correspondence: K P Parboteeah, Management Department, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, College of Business & Economics, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA. Tel: þ 1 262 472 3971; Fax: þ 1 262 472 4863; E-mail: [email protected]
Received: 11 January 2005 Revised: 7 September 2007 Accepted: 17 September 2007 Online publication date: 27 March 2008
Abstract In this paper, we use the country institutional profile to investigate how selected cognitive, normative, and regulative aspects of various countries relate to traditional gender role attitudes of managers from these countries. Our cross-level analyses, using hierarchical linear modeling, control for a number of individual characteristics (i.e., age, education, gender, and social class). Results support our hypotheses that managers’ traditional gender role attitudes relate positively to nation-level uncertainty avoidance and power distance. Moreover, the results support our predictions that gender egalitarian normative institutions, degree of regulation, and degree of educational development are negatively related to managers’ traditional gender role attitudes. However, results reject our hypotheses regarding nation-level religiosity, assertiveness, and masculinity, not showing the proposed relationship with managers’ traditional gender role attitudes. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Journal of International Business Studies (2008) 39, 795–813. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400384 Keywords: gender role attitudes; social institutions; national culture
INTRODUCTION All societies develop gender role attitudes, ‘‘the opinions and beliefs about the ways that family and work roles do and should differ based on sex’’ (Harris & Firestone, 1998: 239). Some societies hold traditional gender role attitudes and believe in a clear division of labor, where ‘‘men must be more concerned with economic and other achievements, while women must be concerned with taking care of people in general and children in particular’’ (Hofstede, 2001: 280). In contrast, non-traditional gender role attitudes in some societies suggest a less distinct gender-role-based division of labor, where men and women share various responsibilities (VanYperen & Buunk, 1991). Previous research suggests that gender role attitudes are associated with critical issues related to the workplace environment for women (Eyring & Stead, 1998; Hammick & Acker, 1998; Kirchmeyer, 2002; Schreiber, 1998). Given the significant importance of managers’ gender role attitudes to the workplace environment for women, and the sustained growth in internationa
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