Employee Gender, Family-To-Work Conflict Bias, and Supervisor Ostracism: A Social Exchange Perspective

Abstract

Family-to-work conflict (FWC) bias captures an erroneous assumption that women have more FWC than men. Existing research has relied on a “lack of fit” perspective (i.e., women have less person–job and person–organization fit compared with men) to explain why this bias detracts from women's work outcomes. Building on this, we propose a novel social exchange cost explanation for these effects. We argue that FWC bias promotes a belief in supervisors that female subordinates are less reliable in fulfilling work duties and, therefore, less able to reciprocate resources invested in them. This concern, we maintain, is manifested in their diminished cognitive trust in their female (vs. male) subordinates. In turn, we argue that supervisors, because of their lower cognitive trust, will reciprocate by engaging in greater ostracism of their female (vs. male) employees. To test these predictions, we conducted three studies, including an experimentally randomized instrumental variable design, a multisource field survey using supervisor–subordinate dyads, and an experiment in which we utilized a bias-disrupting strategy. Overall, our findings suggest that women are perceived as having greater FWC than men, leading supervisors to have less cognitive trust in them relative to men, which in turn, manifests in greater ostracism of female subordinates.