Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Information Systems

Advisor/Mentor

Jensen, Sarah

Abstract

Sex discrimination comes in many shapes and colors, such as not wanting to hire pregnant women, passing women up for promotions because of their status of motherhood, women being more likely to be removed from their upper management positions when things go wrong compared to their male counterparts, and economic differences in negotiated outcomes based on gender. Sex discrimination is something organizations should be concerned with their participation in and facilitation of and examine, internally, how to diminish its effect on female employees. Organizations need to clarify that wages are negotiable and increase visibility into compensation plans, hiring, and promotions. Routinely auditing negotiation proceedings will ensure that corporate negotiators are reflecting the ethical and moral practices of the organizations and will minimize the effects of implicit bias on the economic effects of negotiations by gender. Also, by having meetings and negotiations on a flexible schedule, or on a more family-friendly schedule, organizations can ensure that they are not punishing or limiting the career growth of women, and men, with families. By providing negotiation training for all employees, firms can create more inclusive and collaborative work environments, while also not reinforcing the stereotype that only women need help in self-advocacy. In order to better self-advocate, there are a few things women can do in order to mitigate the gendered economic and social effects of salary negotiations. Since women tend to negotiate better for others than they do themselves and receive less social backlash from negotiating for others than they do for negotiating for themselves, women should focus on viewing themselves as change agents for their organization and negotiate for themselves on how they align with the organization’s goals and values. Women also need to focus on how their skills and experiences deserve adequate compensation due to the value and expertise they bring to the job so that they do not feel like they are bragging. Women do not feel as comfortable negotiating for themselves as males do but, by focusing on their role in the organization and by how their skills add value to the organization, women can advocate for themselves better. Women should also prepare for their negotiations by researching internal salary and promotion data, along with industry-wide salary and promotion data, so that they can better benchmark their worth. By highlighting organizational or industry-wide precedent and how each woman’s specific skills and qualifications achieve the criteria of those precedents, women can minimize the feelings of bragging and the social backlash associated with bragging. Another strategy women can implement is framing the negotiation as a collaboration between both sides, rather than a competition, so that they can highlight the value of personal relationship and use that relationship to find a mutually beneficial agreement.

Keywords

Discrimination, Corporations, Negotiations, Gender

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