idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Women are more accurate at recognizing social ties in the workplace; yet men tend to use networks more successfully for career advancement. New research shows that women hold an advantage, yet they lose it precisely in situations where networks are open, loosely connected, and often critical for career progression.
Women have a more refined sense for social relationships in professional settings. They are more accurate in identifying who is connected to whom and better at remembering these relational structures. Paradoxically, this ability may help explain why women remain underrepresented in certain positions of influence. This is the conclusion of recent research by Eric Quintane (ESMT Berlin), Matthew Brashears (University of South Carolina), Helena V. González-Gómez (NEOMA Business School), and Raina Brands (UCL School of Management), published in the peer-reviewed journal Personnel Psychology.
Across three studies with a combined sample of more than 10,000 participants, a clear pattern emerged: Women demonstrated more accurate network recall, especially in dense and cohesive networks. This advantage was observed in a large-scale survey conducted in the United States, an analysis of real friendship networks among MBA students, and an online experiment with working professionals. However, as soon as professional networks become more open and less connected, meaning they exhibit so-called structural holes, this advantage disappears.
Structural holes occur, for example, in cross-functional project teams where members have limited direct connections and information flows through a few individuals or in informal executive networks where key individuals connect otherwise disconnected decision-makers. In both cases, it is the people at the intersections who gain access to influence.
In these types of networks, women lost their advantage over men. “Women appear to rely more on a triadic closure mental schema, assuming a relationship between two individuals who are both connected to the same third party. This shortcut boosts their accuracy in cohesive teams but creates phantom ties in sparse networks with structural holes, which makes their advantage disappear in those contexts,” says Eric Quintane, associate professor of organizational behavior at ESMT Berlin.
The findings suggest that organizations should be aware of these differing cognitive perceptions of social networks to ensure that women and men have equal access to key positions where recognizing and bridging network gaps is essential.
Eric Quintane, eric.quintane@esmt.org
https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12691 | Gender, Network Recall, and Structural Holes
https://esmt.berlin/about/press/esmt-berlin-study-hidden-twist-behind-womens-pro...
Women demonstrate superior recall of workplace relationships in dense teams, yet their advantage fad ...
Copyright: ESMT Berlin
Eric Quintane, professor of organizational behavior at ESMT Berlin
Source: David & Bettina Ausserhofer
Copyright: ESMT Berlin
Press release as PDF
Criteria of this press release:
Business and commerce, Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Economics / business administration, Psychology, Social studies
transregional, national
Research results
English
Women demonstrate superior recall of workplace relationships in dense teams, yet their advantage fad ...
Copyright: ESMT Berlin
Eric Quintane, professor of organizational behavior at ESMT Berlin
Source: David & Bettina Ausserhofer
Copyright: ESMT Berlin
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
