Imagine you are having a hard time at work; you
are being bullied. Do you think you are more likely to be bullied by a male or
female superior? It is hard to imagine that such childlike and juvenile
behavior would occur in the workplace among adults and the leaders of today –
sadly however it does. Women are commonly heard making complaints about their
fellow female coworkers behaving in a hostile manner towards them; but how
about men? Do they also receive harsh backlash from other male coworkers?
Researcher Allison S. Gabriel along with her team devised an experiment to test
this theory.
More specifically, the primary
objectives that researchers wanted to test were the extent to which women
experience higher rates of female- versus male-instigated incivility as well as
what factors might exacerbate this uncivil treatment. Thus, Gabriel et al conducted
a series of 3 experiments to determine which of the genders have a greater tendency to behave
"uncivily" in the work environment.
For the first experiment, 422 students
who were working part-time were recruited from Indian University. To qualify,
participants had to be at least 18 years of age and working in a service job
for at least six months. Participants worked in a variety of service occupations
including retail, cashiers/tellers, food service, and administration.
Gender was coded such that 0 male and 1 female and incivility was assessed with
the Workplace Incivility Scale (WIS; Cortina et al., 2001). Participants
indicated how frequently (1 never; 5 always) they experienced each behavior at
work over the past month. There were three (3) controlled variables that
researchers also paid attention to which were as follows: race (minority or
white), occupational tenure (how long they worked) and also dispositional
negative affectivity (people who are likely to perceive behavior as uncivil)
The second study focused on the
role of agency and communion. This study was conducted under the understanding
and hypothesis that women are more likely to compete with each other for
limited resources as opposed to competing with their male counterparts thus
resulting in hostile behavior towards each other. 693 participants were
required to work full time (at least 32 hours a week) in various fields such as
financial services, legal, retail, government/military, telecommunications,
health care, and accounting. They were then required to take a survey much like
the one in the first experiment.
Finally, the 3rd study
the same method as in the two (2) previous studies were employed among 690 participants
who worked full time at business companies. They were also required to take
surveys about how they were treated in the workplace
Surprisingly enough, the results were consistent amongst the female
participants - they all stated that their fellow female co-workers in an
authoritative were the culprits. Although, results show that men also engaged
in unprofessional behavior, there were higher levels of such behavior stemming
from females targeting other females. Basically, women were meaner to each
other than they were to their male counterparts. This is called the
"Queen-Bee Syndrome"; a term coined by in 1973. It describes a woman
in a position of authority who views or treats subordinates more critically if
they are female.
Combined evidence from all three studies have shown that companies are at risk of losing their female employees who fall victim to "female-instigated incivility". This is because they do not feel comfortable working in hostile environments and are thus more inclined to quit their jobs. Companies should now view these new findings as an opportunity to address the issue and resolve it before it gets out of hand. We spend most of our weekdays at our workplaces trying to earn an honest living to provide for our families- so why must the work environment be anything less than a comfortable, positive and healthy environment? If we must work together, we might as well do so in harmony. Let's do better and let's be better!
Combined evidence from all three studies have shown that companies are at risk of losing their female employees who fall victim to "female-instigated incivility". This is because they do not feel comfortable working in hostile environments and are thus more inclined to quit their jobs. Companies should now view these new findings as an opportunity to address the issue and resolve it before it gets out of hand. We spend most of our weekdays at our workplaces trying to earn an honest living to provide for our families- so why must the work environment be anything less than a comfortable, positive and healthy environment? If we must work together, we might as well do so in harmony. Let's do better and let's be better!
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