Gender and discretionary work effort: Evidence from the United States and Britain

Work and Occupations

Volumn 37, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 3-36

  Kmec, Julie A ^a   Gorman, Elizabeth H ^b  

^a WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Cultural schemas; Discretionary work effort; Gender; National context

Indexed keywords

EID: 77952212271     PISSN: 07308884     EISSN: 15528464     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0730888409352064     Document Type: Article

References (132)

1. Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 1-18.
2. Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1996). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: An examination of construct validity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 49, 252-276.
3. Allen, T. D. (2006). Rewarding good citizens: The relationship between citizenship behavior, gender, and organizational rewards. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, 120-143.
4. Allen, T. D., & Rush, M. (1998). The effects of organizational citizenship behavior on performance judgments: A field study and a laboratory experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 247-260.
5. Aryee, S., & Lau, J. H. (1990). A note on the applicability of an organizational commitment model. Work and Occupations, 77, 229-239.
6. Aven, F. F., Parker, B., & McEvoy, J. H. (1993). Gender and attitudinal commitment to organizations-A meta-analysis. Journal of Business Research, 26, 63-73.
7. Banaji, M., & Hardin, C. (1996). Automatic stereotyping. Psychological Science, 7, 136-141.
8. Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28, 117-148.
9. Barker, J. R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 408-437.
10. Becker, G. (1985). Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labor. Journal of Labor Economics, 3, S33-S58.
11. Becker, G. (1991). A treatise on the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12. Bergeron, D. M. (2007). The potential paradox of organizational citizenship behavior: Good citizens at what cost? Academy of Management Review, 32, 1078-1095.
13. Beyer, S., & Bowden, E. (1997). Gender differences in self-perceptions: Convergent evidence from three measures of accuracy and bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 157-172.
14. Bianchi, S. M. (2000). Maternal employment and time with children: Dramatic change or surprising continuity? Demography, 37, 401-414.
15. Bianchi, S. M., Milkie, M. A., Sayer, L. C., & Robinson, J. P. (2000). Is anyone doing the housework? Trends in the gender division of household labor. Social Forces, 79, 191-228.
16. Bielby, D. (1992). Commitment to work and family. Annual Review of Sociology, 18, 281-302.
17. Bielby, W., & Baron, J. (1986). Men and women at work: Sex segregation and statistical discrimination. American Journal of Sociology, 91, 759-799.
18. Blau, P. (1986). Exchange and power in social life. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
19. Brannen, J. (2000). Mothers and fathers in the workplace: The United Kingdom. In L. L. Haas, P. Hwang, & G. Russell (Eds.), Organizational change and gender equity (pp. 29-42). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
20. Browne, J. (2006). Sex segregation and inequality in the modern labour market. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
21. Burchell, B. (1996). Gender segregation, size of workplace, and public sector. Gender, Work, & Organization, 3, 227-235.
22. Cassirer, N., & Reskin, B. F. (2000). High hopes: Organizational position, employment experiences, and women's and men's promotion aspirations. Work and Occupations, 27, 438-463.
23. Charles, M. (1992). Cross-national variation in occupational sex segregation. American Sociological Review, 57, 483-502.
24. Charles, M., & Bradley, K. (2002). Equal but separate? A cross-national study of sex segregation in higher education. American Sociological Review, 67, 573-599.
25. Charles, M., & Bradley, K. (2009). Indulging our gendered selves? Sex segregation by field of study in 44 countries. American Journal of Sociology, 114, 924-976.
26. Charles, M., Buchmann, M., Halebsky, S., Powers, J. M., & Smith, M. M. (2001). The context of women's market careers: A cross-national study. Work and Occupations, 28, 371-396.
27. Chelte, A., & Tausky, C. (1986). A note on organizational commitment: Antecedents and consequences among managers, professionals, and blue-collar workers. Work and Occupations, 13, 553-561.
28. Cooney, T., & Uhlenberg, P. (1991). Changes in work-family connections among highly educated men and women, 1970 to 1980. Journal of Family Issues, 12, 69-90.
29. Cooper-Hakim, A., & Viswesvaran, C. (2005). The construct of work commitment: Testing an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 241-259.
30. Correll, S. (2001). Gender and the career choice process: The role of biased self-assessments. American Journal of Sociology, 106, 1691-1730.
31. Corse, S. J. (1990). Pregnant managers and their subordinates: The effects of gender expectations on hierarchical relationships. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 26, 25-48.
32. Curran, M. M. (1988). Gender and recruitment: People and places in the labor market. Work, Employment, & Society, 2, 335-351.
33. Davis, N. J., & Robinson, R. V. (1991). Men's and women's consciousness of gender inequality: Austria, West Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. American Sociological Review, 56, 72-84.
34. Davis, S., Greenstein, T., & Marks, J. (2007). Effects of union type on division of household labor: Do cohabiting men really perform more housework? Journal of Family Issues, 28, 1246-1272.
35. Dex, S., & Shaw, L. B. 1986. British and American women at work: Do equal opportunities policies matter. New York: St. Martin's Press.
36. Dorenbosch, L., Van Engen, M., & Verhagen, M. (2005). On-the-job innovation: The impact of job design and human resource management through production ownership. Creativity and Innovation Management, 14, 129-141.
37. Eagly, A. H., & Crowley, M. (1986). Gender and helping behavior: A meta-analytic review of the social psychological literature. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 283-308.
38. Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1991). Explaining sex-differences in social-behavior: A meta-analytic perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 306-315.
39. Edwards, R. (1979). Contested terrain: The transformation of the workplace in the twentieth century. New York: Basic.
40. Elliott, J. (2005). Comparing occupational segregation in Great Britain and the United States: The benefits of using a multi-group measure of segregation. Work, Employment, & Society, 19, 153-174.
41. Feather, N. T., & Rauter, K. (2004). Organizational citizenship behaviours in relations to job status, job insecurity, organizational commitment and identification, job satisfaction, and work values. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 81-94.
42. Felstead, A., Gallie, D., & Green, F. (2002). Work skills in Britain 1986-2001. Canterbury, UK: University of Kent.
43. Fletcher, J. (1999). Disappearing acts: Gender, power, and relational practice at work. Cambridge: MIT Press.
44. George, D., Carroll, P., Kersnick, R., & Calderon, K. (1998). Gender-related patterns of helping among friends. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 685-704.
45. George, J. (1996). Group affective tone. In M. A. West (Ed.), Handbook of work group psychology (pp. 77-93). New York: Wiley.
46. Glick, P., Lameiras, M., Fiske, S. T., Eckes, T., Masser, B., Volpato, C., et al. (2004). Bad but bold: Ambivalent attitudes toward men predict gender inequality in 16 nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 713-728.
47. Gorman, E., & Kmec, J. A. (2007). We (have to) try harder: Gender and workers' assessment of required work effort in Britain and the United States. Gender & Society, 21, 828-856.
48. Gornick, J., Meyers, M., & Ross, K. (1998). Public policies and the employment of mothers: A cross-national study. Sociological Quarterly, 79, 35-54.
49. Graham, L. (1995). On the line at Subaru-Isuzu: The Japanese model and the American worker. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
50. Green, F. (2006). Demanding work: The paradox of job quality in the affluent economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
51. Grusky, O. (1966). Career mobility and organizational commitment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 10, 488-503.
52. Gunkel, M., Lusk, E. J., & Wolff, B. (2007). Gender-specific effects at work: An empirical study of four countries. Gender, Work, & Organization, 14, 56-79.
53. Haas, L. L., Hwang, P., & Russell, G. (Eds.). (2000). Organizational change and gender equity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
54. Hakim, C. (1991). Grateful slaves and self-made women: Fact and fantasy in women's work orientations. European Sociological Review, 7, 101-121.
55. Hakim, C. (1995). 5 feminist myths about women's employment. British Journal of Sociology, 46, 429-455.
56. Halpert, J. A., Wilson, M. L., & Hickman, J. L. (1993). Pregnancy as a source of bias in performance appraisals. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 14, 649-663.
57. Handel, M. (2005). Trends in perceived job quality, 1989 to 1998. Work and Occupations, 32, 66-94.
58. Heilman, M. E. (2001). Description and prescription: How gender stereotypes prevent women's ascent up the organizational ladder. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 657-674.
59. Heilman, M. E., & Chen, J. J. (2005). Same behavior, different consequences: Reactions to men's and women's altruistic citizenship behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 431-441.
60. Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift. New York: Avon Books.
61. Hodson, R. (1989). Gender differences in job satisfaction: Why aren't women more dissatisfied? Sociological Quarterly, 30, 385-399.
62. Hofstede, G. (2001). Cultures consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
63. Hult, C. (2008). Gender, culture and nonfinancial employment commitment in Great Britain and Sweden. European Societies, 10, 73-96.
64. Hult, C., & Svallfors, S. (2002). Production regimes and work orientations: A comparison of six western countries. European Sociological Review, 18, 315-331.
65. Jacobs, J., & Steinberg, R. (1990). Compensating differentials and the male-female wage gap: Evidence from the New York state comparable worth study. Social Forces, 69, 439-68.
66. Jost, J. (1997). An experimental replication of the depressed-entitlement effect among women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 387-393.
67. Kalleberg, A. L., & Mastekaasa, A. (1994). Firm internal labor-markets and organizational commitment in Norway and the United-States. Acta Sociologica, 37, 269-286.
68. Kersley, B., Alpin, C., Forth, J., Bryson, A., Bewley, H., Dix, G., et al. (2006). Inside the workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. London: Routledge.
69. Kidder, D. L. (2002). The influence of gender on the performance of organizational citizenship behaviors. Journal of Management, 28, 629-648.
70. Kidder, D. L., & Parks, J. M. (2001). The good soldier: Who is s(he)? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 939-959.
71. Kidwell, R., & Bennett, N. (1993). Employee propensity to withhold effort: A conceptual model to intersect three avenues of research. Academy of Management Review, 18, 429-456.
72. Kirton, G., & Greene, A. (2002). The dynamics of positive action in UK trade unions: The case of women and black members. Industrial Relations Journal, 33, 157-172.
73. Krackhardt, D., & Porter, L. W. (1985). When friends leave: A structural analysis of the relationship between turnover and stayers' attitudes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30, 242-261.
74. Kunda, G. (1992). Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high-tech corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
75. Lee, H. J., & Peccei, R. (2007). Organizational-level gender dissimilarity and employee commitment. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 45, 687-712.
76. Leidner, R. (1993). Fast food, fast talk: Service work and the routinization of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
77. LePine, J. A., Erez, A., & Johnson, D. E. (2002). The nature and dimensionality of organizational citizenship behavior: A critical review and meta-analysis. Journal oj Applied Psychology, 87, 52-65.
78. Lewis, J., & Campbell, M. (2007). U.K. work/family balance policies and gender equality: 1997-2005. Social Politics, 14, 4-30.
79. Lewis, S., & Cooper, C. (1995). Balancing the work/home interface: A European perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 5, 289-305.
80. Lijphart, A. (1975). The comparable-cases strategy in comparative research. Comparative Political Studies, 8, 158-177.
81. Lin, C. P. (2008). Examination of gender differences in modeling OCBs and their antecedents in business organizations in Taiwan. Journal of Business and Psychology, 22, 261-273.
82. Lincoln, J. R., & Kalleberg, A. L. (1985). Work organization and workforce commitment: A study of plants and employees in the U.S. and Japan. American Sociological Review, 50, 738-760.
83. Lincoln, J. R., & Kalleberg, A. L. (1996). Commitment, quits, and work organization in Japanese and US plants. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 50, 39-59.
84. Loscocco, K. A. (1990). Reactions to blue-collar work: A comparison of women and men. Work and Occupations, 17, 152-177.
85. Loscocco, K., & Spitze, G. (2007). Gender patterns in provider role attitudes and behavior. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 934-954.
86. Lovell, S. E., Kahn, A. S., Anton, J., Davidson, A., Dowling, E., Post, D., et al. (1999). Does gender affect the link between organizational citizenship behavior and performance evaluation? Sex Roles, 41, 469-478.
87. Mandel, H., & Semyonov, M. (2005). Family policies, wage structures, and gender gaps: sources of earnings inequality in 20 countries. American Sociological Review, 70, 949-967.
88. Marsden, P. V., Kalleberg, A. L., & Cook, C. (1993). Gender differences in organizational commitment: Influences of work positions and family roles. Work and Occupations, 20, 368-390.
89. Mastekaasa, A., & Olsen, K. M. (1998). Gender, absenteeism, and job characteristics: A fixed effects approach. Work and Occupations, 25, 195-228.
90. Mathieu, J., & Zajac, D. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 171-194.
91. Maume, D. J. (2006a). Gender differences in restricting work efforts because of family responsibilities. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 859-869.
92. Maume, D. J. (2006b). Gender differences in taking vacation time. Work and Occupations, 33, 161-190.
93. Meyerson, D. E. (1994). Interpretations of stress in institutions: The cultural production of ambiguity and burnout. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 628-653.
94. Morrison, E. (1994). Role definitions and organizational citizenship behavior: The importance of the employee's perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 1543-1567.
95. Mottaz, C. J. (1988). Determinants of organizational commitment. Human Relations, 41, 467-482.
96. Mowday, R., Porter, L., & Steers, R. (1982). Employee-organization linkages. New York: Academic Press.
97. O'Reilly, C. A., & Chatman, J. (1996). Culture as social control: Corporations, cults, and commitment. Research in Organizational Behavior, 18, 157-200.
98. Organ, D. W. (1997). Organizational citizenship behavior: It's construct clean-up time. Human Performance, 10, 85-97.
99. Osterman, P. (1994). How common is workplace transformation and who adopts it? Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 47, 173-188.
100. Ozbilgin, M. R, & Woodward, D. (2003). Banking and gender: Sex equality in banking in Britain and Turkey. London: IR Tauris.
101. Paap, K.(2006). Working construction: Why White working-class men put themselves- and the labor movement-in harm's way. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
102. Padavic, I., & Reskin, B. F. (2002). Women and men at work. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
103. Parker, S., Wall, T. D., & Jackson, P. R. (1997). "That's not my job": Developing flexible employee work orientations. Academy of Management Journal, 40, 899-929.
104. Patton, E., & Johns, G. (2007). Women's absenteeism in the popular press: Evidence for a gender-specific absence culture. Human Relations, 60, 1579-1612.
105. Petrie, M., & Roman, P. (2004). Race and gender differences in workplace autonomy: A research note. Sociological Inquiry, 74, 590-603.
106. Podsakoff, P. M., Mackenzie, S. B., Paine, J. B., & Bachrach, D. G. (2000). Organizational citizenship behaviors: A critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. Journal of Management, 26, 513-563.
107. Reynolds, J. (2006). You get paid for that? Job and establishment level variations in the use of incentive compensation. Research in the Sociology of Work, 16, 121-154.
108. Ridgeway, C. (1997). Interaction and the conservation of gender inequality: Considering employment. American Sociological Review, 62, 218-235.
109. Ridgeway, C., & Correll, S. (2004). Unpacking the gender system: A theoretical perspective on gender beliefs and social relations. Gender & Society, 18, 510-531.
110. Rosenfeld, R., & Birkelund, G. E. (1995). Women's parttime work: A cross-national comparison. European Sociological Review, 11, 111-134.
111. Rudman, L., & Glick, P. (2001). Prescriptive gender stereotypes and backlash toward agentic women. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 742-762.
112. Smith, C., Organ, D., & Near, J. (1983). Organizational citizenship behavior: Its nature and antecedents. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68, 653-663.
113. Smith, R. A. (2002). Race, gender, and authority in the workplace: Theory and research. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 509-542.
114. Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. (1978). Masculinity and femininity: Their psychological dimensions, correlates, and antecedents. Austin: University of Texas Press.
115. Solinger, O. N., van Olffen, W., & Roe, R. A. (2008). Beyond the three-component model of organizational commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 70-83.
116. Stier, H., & Lewin-Epstein, N. (2003). Time to work: A comparative analysis of preferences for working hours. Work and Occupations, 30, 302-326.
117. Svallfors, S., Halvorsen, K., & Andersen, J. G. (2001). Work orientations in Scandinavia: Employment commitment and organizational commitment in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Acta Sociologica, 44, 139-156.
118. Tomaskovic-Devey, D., Zimmer, C., Stainback, K., Robinson, C., Taylor, T., & McTague, T. (2006). Documenting desegregation: Segregation in American workplaces by race, ethnicity, and sex, 1966-2003. American Sociological Review, 71, 565-588.
119. Tomlinson, J. (2007). Employment regulation, welfare and gender regimes: A comparative analysis of women's working-time patterns and work-life balance in the UK and the US. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18, 401-415.
120. Tsui, A. S., Pearce, J. L., Porter, L. W., & Tripoli, A. (1997). Alternative approaches to the employee-organization relationship: Does investment in employees pay off? Academy of Management Journal, 40, 1089-1121.
121. Tumipseed, D. L., & Rassuli, A. (2005). Performance perceptions of organizational citizenship behaviours at work: Abi-level study among managers and employees. British Journal of Management, 16, 231-244.
122. U.K. Equal Opportunities Commission. (2007). Overview of the gender equality duty: Guidance for public bodies working in England, Wales, and Scotland. London: Author.
123. Valian, V. (1998). Why so slow? The advancement of women. Cambridge: MIT Press.
124. van der Lippe, T., & van Dijk, L. (2002). Comparative research on women's employment. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 221-241.
125. Van Dyne, L., & Ang, S. (1998). Organizational citizenship behavior of contingent workers in Singapore. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 692-703.
126. Van Dyne, L., Graham, J. W., & Dienesch, R. M. (1994). Organizational citizenship behavior: Construct redefinition, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 765-802.
127. Van Dyne, L., & LePine, J. A. (1998). Helping and voice extrarole behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 108-119.
128. Van Scotter, J. R., Motowidlo, S. J., & Cross, T. C. (2000). Effects of task performance and contextual performance on systematic rewards. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 526-535.
129. Walsh, J., & Tseng, S. (1998). The effects of job characteristics on active effort at work. Work and Occupations, 25, 74-96.
130. Wharton, A. S., & Blair-Loy, M. (2002). The "overtime culture" in a global corporation: A cross-national study of finance professionals' interest in working part-time. Work and Occupations, 29, 32-63.
131. Williams, J., & Best, D. (1990). Measuring sex stereotypes: A multination study. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
132. Winship, C, & Radbill, L. (1994). Sampling weights and regression analysis. Sociological Methods and Research, 23, 230-257.