Gender Differences in the Propensity to Initiate Negotiations: Organizational Transparency, Diversity Climate, and the Mediating Role of Organizational Trust

Abstract

While much research has been conducted on gender and negotiation outcomes, fewer studies have explored the propensity to initiate negotiation and how employee gender impacts this decision. Characteristics of organizations, such as transparency, may also play a role in negotiation scenarios, as found in recent studies. While diversity climate has been shown to correspond to female and minority candidates’ attraction to, contentment with, and performance in an organization, whether it influences negotiation behaviors is not yet known. Organizational transparency and diversity climate may influence negotiation behaviors through organizational trust, a key component in employee engagement. This two-study paper examined the mediating role of organizational trust in the relationship between organizational transparency, diversity climate, and gender in propensity to initiate negotiations. In the first study, organizational transparency and diversity climate were manipulated in a laboratory study to explore their effects on propensity to initiate negotiation among men and women. Results indicated that women were less likely than men to initiate negotiation. The second study surveyed working adults about initiation of and participation in negotiations, as well as the organization’s transparency regarding policies and procedures, its diversity climate, and employee perceptions of organizational trust. Results indicated that organizational transparency and diversity climate influence initiation of negotiation and perception of negotiation outcomes. Trust was also found to be a significant mediator of the transparency and negotiation initiation and diversity climate and successful pay negotiations relationships.