UC Berkeley

Existing literature suggests that individuals who occupy higher (versus lower) hierarchical rank perceive less inequity. Further, research finds that men tend to perceive less inequity than women, possibly due to the fact that their higher positioning on the social hierarchy protects them from experiencing certain inequities firsthand. In this dissertation, using a sample of U.S. employees in a Fortune 500 company (NStudy1a = 4814; NStudy1b = 5327), I find that occupying higher organizational rank is more strongly associated with lower perceptions of organizational inequity for men than for women (Studies 1a and 1b). Additionally, in a sample of employees (N= 652) from several hundred organizations (Study 2), I find that men and women’s differing perceptions of inequity were associated with their greater feelings of power (i.e., control over valuable resources) and status (i.e., being respected in the eyes of others). This suggests that occupying higher hierarchical rank may be linked to lower perceived inequity for men (to a greater extent than for women) only when higher rank boosts feelings of power and status. However, upon experimentally manipulating participants’ feelings of power and status (Studies 3-4), as well as participants’ relative power and status in a virtual organization (Study 5), I did not find causal evidence of the correlational pattern documented in Studies 1-2. This suggests felt-power and felt-status may not be driving men’s (versus women’s) stronger association between higher hierarchical rank and lower perceived inequity. Study 5 detected correlational evidence suggesting that men (to a greater extent than women) perceive less inequity as a function of their greater felt-advantage, and are also less likely to support redistributive policies as a function of their greater felt-advantage. Thus, it is possible that higher hierarchical rank, felt-power, and felt-status may all be operationalizations of greater felt-advantage. Further, given prior research has found high-ranking men and women to differ on several dimensions (e.g., spans of control, task-segregation, personal experiences with inequity), it could be that one of these differences is driving men’s stronger association between felt-advantage and lower perceived inequity. Considering organizational leadership tends to be male-dominated, and those who perceive less inequity are less willing to support efforts that alleviate inequity, the consequences of advantaged ¬¬men’s relatively low perceptions of inequity may create a cycle in which organizational inequity perpetuates.