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Business

Mara Olekalns

Selected Works

Gender Stereotypes and Negotiation Strategies

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Does Consistency Pay? The Effects Of Information Sequence And Content On Women’S Negotiation Outcomes, Carol T. Kulik, Mara Olekalns, Emma T. Swain Dec 2013

Does Consistency Pay? The Effects Of Information Sequence And Content On Women’S Negotiation Outcomes, Carol T. Kulik, Mara Olekalns, Emma T. Swain

Mara Olekalns

Women are usually perceived as warm or competent, but rarely both. This research investigates how the sequence and content of warmth-relevant relational information and competence-relevant performance information affects female negotiators’ social (perceptions of their warmth and competence) and economic outcomes. Female employers (but not male employers) rated a negotiating female employee as high warmth when they received relational information first and were able to discount the employee’s competence with a team-based relational attribution (E1) or when they received performance information first and were convinced the employee’s warm behavior was genuine (E2). The sequence and content of warmth-relevant and competence-relevant information …


Sweet Little Lies: Social Context And The Use Of Deception In Negotiation, Mara Olekalns, Carol T. Kulik, Lin Chew Dec 2013

Sweet Little Lies: Social Context And The Use Of Deception In Negotiation, Mara Olekalns, Carol T. Kulik, Lin Chew

Mara Olekalns

Social context shapes negotiators’ actions, including their willingness to act unethically. In this research, we test how three dimensions of social context – dyadic gender composition, negotiation strategy, and trust – interact to influence one micro-ethical decision, the use of deception, in a simulated negotiation. To create an opportunity for deception, we incorporated an indifference issue – an issue that had no value for one of the two parties – into the negotiation. Deception about this issue was least likely to be affected by trust or negotiation strategy in all-male dyads, suggesting that dyads with at least one female negotiator …


Natural Born Peacemakers? Gender And The Resolution Of Conflict, Mara Olekalns Dec 2012

Natural Born Peacemakers? Gender And The Resolution Of Conflict, Mara Olekalns

Mara Olekalns

Two males sit apart, staring at each other from the corners of their eyes. A female approaches one and takes him by the arm, pulls him towards the other male. She alternates between the two and eventually brokers peace. In a different scenario, two males are again in conflict. A third male inserts himself between them, screaming at them or physically separating them to prevent the conflict from escalating. He keeps them separate and harangues them into submission (De Waal, 2009). Female as peacemaker, male as peacekeeper. These examples fit with our intuitions about how gender might shape the way …


Negotiating The Gender Divide: Lessons From The Negotiation And Organizational Behavior Literatures, Carol Kulik, Mara Olekalns Dec 2011

Negotiating The Gender Divide: Lessons From The Negotiation And Organizational Behavior Literatures, Carol Kulik, Mara Olekalns

Mara Olekalns

Employment relationships are increasingly personalized, with more employment conditions open to negotiation. Although the intended goal of this personalization is a better and more satisfying employment relationship, personalization may systematically disadvantage members of some demographic groups. This disadvantage is evident for women, who routinely negotiate less desirable employment terms than men. This gender-based gap in outcomes is frequently attributed to differences in the ways that men and women negotiate. We review the negotiation research demonstrating that women are systematically disadvantaged in negotiations and the organizational behavior research examining the backlash experienced by agentic women. We use the Stereotype Content Model …


But Can I Trust Her? Gender And Expectancy Violations In Negotiation, Mara Olekalns, Carol Kulik, Dasha Simonov, Carolyn Bradshaw Dec 2010

But Can I Trust Her? Gender And Expectancy Violations In Negotiation, Mara Olekalns, Carol Kulik, Dasha Simonov, Carolyn Bradshaw

Mara Olekalns

Women who negotiate incur social backlash, being perceived as more pushy and demanding than women who do not negotiate. In two experiments, we test the boundary conditions for this backlash effect. Using a simulated employment contract negotiation, we explore how the strategies that women use, who they negotiate with (E1) and the organizational context within which they negotiate (E2) affects one social outcome, women’s perceived trustworthiness. We compare the how men and women evaluate the use of a gender-congruent accommodating style or a a gender-incongruent, competing style (E1) in either an agentic or a communal organizational culture (E2). In both …


Sugar ‘N’ Spice And All Things Nice: Gender And Strategy Choices In Negotiation, Mara Olekalns, Carol Kulik Dec 2008

Sugar ‘N’ Spice And All Things Nice: Gender And Strategy Choices In Negotiation, Mara Olekalns, Carol Kulik

Mara Olekalns

In this chapter we examine how social stereotypes affect the perception of women who strive to improve their economic outcomes through negotiation. We discuss how gender affects negotiation process and outcomes by: (a) describing how men and women differ in their approach to negotiation (b) highlighting the social consequences for women who adopt a more competitive negotiation style; and (c) articulating the process by which counter-normative behaviour influences negotiation outcomes. Throughout this chapter, we describe the strategies that enable women to preserve ongoing organisational relationships and simultaneously improve their economic outcomes.


Competent And Likeable? Protecting And Promoting Women’S Likeability In Employment Negotiations, Mara Olekalns, Carol Kulik Dec 2008

Competent And Likeable? Protecting And Promoting Women’S Likeability In Employment Negotiations, Mara Olekalns, Carol Kulik

Mara Olekalns

Professional women earn less than their male counterparts and this salary gap largely results from the ways men and women negotiate employment terms. We integrate the Stereotype Content Model and Expectancy Violation Theory to explain why traditional “best practice” negotiation behaviors benefit male negotiators but backfire for female negotiators. Gender counter-normative behaviors create negative expectancy violations for women, generating cognitive and emotional backlash from their negotiation partners. We use this theoretical integration to identify alternative strategies that female employees and their employers can use to avoid negative expectancy violations and ensure that women are not disadvantaged in workplace negotiations.