Surprise! People Hate Women CEOs More for Ethical Failures! But Men Get It, Too, for Competence Failures

Surprise!  Women CEOs are judged more harshly for corporate-ethical failures.

According to newswise.com, people are less likely to support an organization after an ethical failure if the business is led by a woman, the American Psychological Association reports. However, organizations led by women endure less negative backlash for competence failures than those headed by men.

“Our study found that consumers’ trust in, and willingness to support, an organization after a failure varied based on the gender of the organization’s leader and the type of incident,” says Nicole Votolato Montgomery, PhD, of the University of Virginia and lead author of the study, at the site. “Women incur greater penalties for ethical transgressions because of persistent gender stereotypes that tend to categorize women as having more communal traits than men, such as being more likable, sensitive and supportive of others. Even in leadership settings, women are still expected to be more communal than their male counterparts.”

So who wouldn't have guessed?  Women are still expected to be the good girls while men get away with everything.

No, I don't hate men but it just seems like women are held to a higher standard on some things than their male counterparts.  I suppose it all goes back to the fact that we're still a male-dominated world.  Even with "Me, Too," and the victories we've had with that, the world still turns on the opinions and leadership of men, and women are still less likely to be dominant in these ways.

"Across three experiments, Montgomery and co-author Amanda P. Cowen, DBA, examined how gender would influence perceptions of female-led and male-led organizations after experiencing a competence failure, such as a product flaw, or an ethical failure, such as if the product flaw was known but not disclosed to the public for a long period of time," the web site explains.

In the first experiment, 512 participants read a business news article about an auto manufacturer and then filled out a survey about their intent to buy a vehicle from the company. One-third of the participants read about an ethical failure, one-third read about a competence failure and the final third only read the company description. 

Afterward, the participants were asked how likely they were to purchase a car from the company the next time they were in the market for a vehicle and reported their trust in the organization (e.g., “I feel that XYZ automobiles is very dependable/undependable, very competent/incompetent or of low integrity/high integrity”).

“When participants were told that the company had previously been made aware of a fuel sensor problem and failed to take immediate action, an ethical failure, they reported less intent to purchase from the company when the CEO was a woman than when the CEO was a man,” says Montgomery at newswise.com. “However, when participants were told that the company was previously unaware of the product issue, a competence failure, they reported greater intent to buy the products when the CEO was a woman than when the CEO was a man.”

The purchase intentions for the group that read only the company description did not vary based on the CEO’s gender.

"Similar to the previous experiment, when participants read about an ethical failure where the CEO was described using traits consistent with stereotypes (e.g., the female leader was described as being communal and the male leader was described as being agentic), participants were less likely to buy from the company led by the female CEO," the site notes. 

"In contrast, when the CEO was described using traits inconsistent with stereotypes (e.g., the male leader was described as being communal and female leader was described as being agentic), the participants said they were less likely to buy from the male-led company than the female-led company in the aftermath of an ethical failure, the researchers said."

“When leaders are described in ways that reinforce stereotypes, we continue to find that people penalize female-led organizations more for ethical failures, but we can reduce these penalties for female-led organizations by highlighting agentic traits of their leaders,” says Cowen.

“Organizational performance affects how leaders are evaluated, how they are compensated and ultimately, whether they retain their positions,” Montgomery concludes. “Our research suggests that when ethical failures occur, female leaders may aid their organizations’ recovery efforts by exhibiting agentic traits that are more consistent with male stereotypes.”