Workers' attitudes toward women managers: evidence from Vietnam
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
ISSN: 2040-7149
Article publication date: 22 August 2022
Issue publication date: 3 February 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to investigate personality-related antecedents of Vietnamese workers' attitudes toward female managers, which subsequently predicted workers' judgments of them.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a factorial experiment to examine participants' general attitudes toward women's rights and roles and their particular attitudes toward female managers in the workplace. Vietnamese workers (N = 159) were randomly assigned to experimental conditions of manager performance and completed a post-test questionnaire. This study also qualitatively explored participants' observations of any gender stereotypes in the workplace.
Findings
Findings demonstrated that participants' gender, general attitudes toward women's social rights and roles, and internal work locus of control positively predicted their attitudes toward female managers. Qualitative findings showed perceived gender-based egalitarianism in the workplace, but women's leadership qualities were barely recognized.
Originality/value
This study is the first to utilize a mixed-method approach to assess Vietnamese workers' attitudes, contributing to the literature on attitudes toward both women in general and women in management in Asia generally and in Vietnam in particular.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The research was partially funded by Hannah-Hanh D. Nguyen's International Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship granted by the Social Science Research Council, New York.
The authors have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Citation
Phan, A.T. and Nguyen, H.-H.D. (2023), "Workers' attitudes toward women managers: evidence from Vietnam", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 53-69. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-08-2021-0215
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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