Do core self-evaluations mitigate the effects of workplace gender bias? A personal resource perspective.

Abstract

Gender bias has been a consistent and negative barrier for women to overcome in the workplace. Due to its persistence at work and the toll it can have on female employees, gender bias can be considered a job demand. Empirical evidence shows that perceiving gender bias at work can negatively impact an employee's self-perceptions, such as workability, which is an employee's perspective of their ability to do their job and do it well, given the demands and resources that come with it. The more gender biases an employee perceives; the less likely employees will perceive themselves to be able to handle the job demands inherent to the position. However, various job resources such as core self-evaluations, which typically combat the job demands to reduce their effects on the employee, have been observed to increase outcomes related to an employee's workability. The current study explored whether core self-evaluations and gender moderated gender bias effects on perceived workability. Analyses identified that while there are gender differences in perceived gender bias and gender bias and core self-evaluations both influence workability on their own, gender and core self-evaluations did not influence the relationship between gender bias and perceived workability. Implications of this research offer explanations for the lack of effects found, and future directions and limitations are also discussed.