Women in the Workplace and Management Practices: Theory and Evidence

This chapter reviews recent studies on management practices and their consequences for women in the workplace. First, the high-performance work system (HPWS) is associated with greater gender diversity in the workplace but there is little evidence it reduces the gender pay gap. Second, work–life balance practices with limited face-to-face interactions with coworkers may hamper women’s career advancement. Third, individual incentives linking pay to objective performance may enhance gender diversity, while those with subjective performance may have the opposite effect. Fourth, a rat race model with working hours as a signal of the worker’s commitment is a promising explanation for the gender gap in promotions. Fifth, corporate social responsibility practices may increase gender diversity. The chapter also identifies three major methodological challenges: (1) how to measure management practices, (2) how to account for endogeneity of management practices, and (3) how to minimize selection bias.