Effects of Subordinates’ Gender on Managers’ Disciplinary Actions

Last registered on January 03, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Effects of Subordinates’ Gender on Managers’ Disciplinary Actions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010697
Initial registration date
December 31, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 03, 2023, 5:19 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Pakistan
Region
Punjab

Primary Investigator

Name
Sakina Shibuya
Affiliation
University of Wisconsin Madison
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Zunia Tirmazee
PI Affiliation
Lahore School of Economics
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-01-09
End date
2023-04-30
Keywords
Behavior, Firms & Productivity, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
How does the gender of subordinates affect managers’ management styles? The current management literature tends to focus on investigating the differences in management styles and effectiveness across the gender of managers (Paoloni and Demartini, 2016). A qualitative study by Atwater et al. (2001) touches on this question by comparing different combinations of the gender of managers and subordinates in terms of disciplinary actions but fails to provide a conclusive insight due to the small sample size. This paper asks whether top managers change their management style by introducing female workers and perceive the change to be costly. We attempt to provide causal evidence on the effects of subordinates’ gender on management styles. To answer this question, we ask the sample of about 600 top managers in the garment manufacturing industry in Pakistan; what disciplinary actions they will take in several hypothetical situations. The key part of this design is that we randomize the gender of a subordinate to whom a top manager has to give a disciplinary measure and that all top managers are asked to think of themselves as top managers of a hypothetical company.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Shibuya, Sakina and Zunia Tirmazee. 2023. "Effects of Subordinates’ Gender on Managers’ Disciplinary Actions." AEA RCT Registry. January 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10697-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partner

Name
Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA)
Type
none
URL
http://phmaonline.com/home.asp
Name
Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA)
Type
none
URL
https://www.prgmea.org/
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This experiment randomly assigns the gender of subordinates in hypothetical scenarios in which top managers are required to take disciplinary action.
Intervention Start Date
2023-01-09
Intervention End Date
2023-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome of interest is top managers’ disciplinary action choice under each hypothetical scenario.

More specifically, we construct the following dummy variables:
1. If a top manager chose to warn;
2. If a top manager chose to reduce pay;
3. If a top manager chose to suspend the contract;
4. If a top manager chose to terminate contract; and
5. If a top manager chose to transfer the subordinate to a lower-paying position.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Moreover, we also expect that the degree to which top managers reduce pay and the length for which they suspend the contract differ by the gender of subordinates. To explore this possibility, we construct the following outcome variables:
1. Percentage of the daily wage reduced; and
2. Number of days of suspension.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This experiment randomly assigns the gender of subordinates in hypothetical scenarios in which top managers are required to take disciplinary action. The gender of subordinates is expressed as two very common names: Amna for the female subordinate and Ahmed for the male subordinates. In this experiment, each respondent is asked to think of himself as the top manager of a hypothetical company, A, and that the following questions are about a hypothetical employee, Amna or Ahmed, at this company.

The respondent is provided with the following scenario.
1. Suppose that [Name] is late to work by an hour for the first time.
2. Suppose that [Name] is late to work by an hour for the second time.
3. Suppose that [Name] is too distracted during work hour and talking to other employers.
4. Suppose that [Name] takes a break much longer than allowed during the work day.

After each scenario, he is asked to choose from one of the following disciplinary actions.
1. Warning
2. Pay Reduction
3. Suspension
4. Contract termination
5. Transfer to a lower-paid position
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization is conducted by a computer program written by the authors.
Randomization Unit
Individual top managers
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
600
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Female subordinate (Amna): 300; Male subordinate (Ahmed):300
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
The minimum detectable effect size, given the treatment and control group size of 300 firms each, is 22.91 percent points.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Wisconsin-Madison
IRB Approval Date
2022-07-18
IRB Approval Number
2022-0635
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

PAP_ManagementStyle.pdf

MD5: 64d91af9c679674562c4171c5fbe495c

SHA1: dad12300f15e4664fde7f02db61ab5d4f95c2633

Uploaded At: December 31, 2022

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials