Recent Publications

• RECENT PUBLICATION: Article

  Article | Harvard Business Review | May–June 2018

  What Most People Get Wrong about Men and Women: Research Shows the Sexes Aren't So Different

  Catherine H. Tinsley and Robin J. Ely

  Why have women failed to achieve parity with men in the workplace? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not because women prioritize their families over their careers, negotiate poorly, lack confidence, or are too risk averse. Meta-analyses of published studies show that those ideas are myths—men and women actually have similar inclinations, attitudes, and skills. What does differ is the way they are treated on the job: Women have less access to vital information, get less feedback from supervisors, and face other obstacles to advancement. To ensure gender equity, the authors recommend that managers (1) question the stereotypes behind their practices, (2) consider other factors that might explain the achievement gap, (3) change workplace conditions accordingly, and (4) keep challenging assumptions and sharing learning to create a culture in which all employees can reach their full potential.

  Keywords: Working Conditions; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Organizational Culture; Change Management;

  Citation:

  Tinsley, Catherine H., and Robin J. Ely. "What Most People Get Wrong about Men and Women: Research Shows the Sexes Aren't So Different." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 3 (May–June 2018): 114–121.  View Details

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• RECENT PUBLICATION: Article

  Article | Harvard Business Review | May–June 2018

  Structure That's Not Stifling: How to Give Your People Essential Direction—Without Shutting Them Down

  Ranjay Gulati

  Most leaders view employee freedoms and operational controls as antagonists in a tug-of-war. They tend to focus on regulating workers’ behavior, often putting a damper on commitment, innovation, and performance without realizing it. But freedom and control aren’t zero sum, argues the author. By giving people a clear sense of their organization’s purpose, priorities, and principles—that is, by providing freedom within a galvanizing framework—leaders can equip employees to make on-the-ground decisions that are in the company’s best interests. Gulati uses businesses as diverse as Netflix, Alaska Airlines, and Warby Parker to show how freedom can function in different settings. A coherent framework helps employees develop a deeper understanding of the business, which can lead to improved engagement, creativity, efficiency, and customer service.

  Keywords: Organizational Structure; Mission and Purpose; Framework; Employee Relationship Management; Performance Effectiveness;

  Citation:

  Gulati, Ranjay. "Structure That's Not Stifling: How to Give Your People Essential Direction—Without Shutting Them Down." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 3 (May–June 2018): 68–79.  View Details

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• RECENT PUBLICATION: Article

  Article | Academy of Management Journal | April 2018

  We Ask Men to Win & Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding

  Dana Kanze, Laura Huang, Mark Conley and E. Tory Higgins

  Male entrepreneurs are known to raise higher levels of funding than their female counterparts, but the underlying mechanism for this funding disparity remains contested. Drawing upon Regulatory Focus Theory, we propose that the gap originates with a gender bias in the questions that investors pose to entrepreneurs. A field study conducted on question-and-answer interactions at TechCrunch Disrupt New York City during 2010 through 2016 reveals that investors tend to ask male entrepreneurs promotion-focused questions and female entrepreneurs prevention-focused questions, and that entrepreneurs tend to respond with matching regulatory focus. This distinction in the regulatory focus of investor questions and entrepreneur responses results in divergent funding outcomes for entrepreneurs whereby those asked promotion-focused questions raise significantly higher amounts of funding than those asked prevention-focused questions. We demonstrate that every additional prevention-focused question significantly hinders the entrepreneur's ability to raise capital, fully mediating gender's effect on funding. By experimentally testing an intervention, we find that entrepreneurs can significantly increase funding for their startups when responding to prevention-focused questions with promotion-focused answers. As we offer evidence regarding tactics that can be employed to diminish the gender disadvantage in funding outcomes, this study has practical as well as theoretical implications for entrepreneurship.

  Keywords: Business Startups; Finance; Gender; Prejudice and Bias;

  Citation:

  Kanze, Dana, Laura Huang, Mark Conley, and E. Tory Higgins. "We Ask Men to Win & Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding." Academy of Management Journal 61, no. 2 (April 2018): 586–614.  View Details

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