A behavioural investigation of power and gender heterogeneity in operations management under uncertainty
ISSN: 2040-8269
Article publication date: 13 January 2020
Issue publication date: 19 May 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore how power and gender influence decision making in an operational and risky context.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors run a laboratory experiment. The experimental factors are power and operational profitability. Power is manipulated using an episodic priming task, while profitability, by changing a newsvendor-type product’s procurement cost. Participants’ risk attitude is captured using a risk lottery.
Findings
Participants deviate from the optimal order regardless of the power condition and their risk profile. Risk-seeking women order consistently more than risk-seeking men, which allow women to offer a higher service level. In the low-profit condition, men prefer to make more conservative decisions, which allow them to place orders that are closer to the economical benchmark, where both men’ induced power and the risk-seeking tendencies from both genders play a role. Behavioural models in the high-power condition explain the observed differences in ordering behaviours.
Originality/value
This paper provides behavioural research to explore how differences in power and gender, and their links with risky decision making, influence decision making in an uncertain operations management context, representing thus an important departure from mainstream studies.
Keywords
Citation
Villa, S. and Castañeda, J.A. (2020), "A behavioural investigation of power and gender heterogeneity in operations management under uncertainty", Management Research Review, Vol. 43 No. 6, pp. 753-771. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-05-2019-0229
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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