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Katz, D. (1987). Sex discrimination in hiring: The influence of organizational climate and need for
approval on decision making behavior. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11(1), 11-20.
Example annotated bib for this article:
• Previous studies have elicited the idea that equally competent men and women are assessed unequally when applying for jobs. The present study observes the influence from different organizational climates or “the quality of an organization’s internal environment” and society’s need for approval on the notion of biased personnel decisions. The study sought out three main hypotheses, if a discriminatory organizational climate would influence personnel to hire a male applicant over an identical female applicant. Second, that in a discriminatory climate a male applicant would be ranked as a better fit and more likely to stay with the company longer than a female applicant. And third, that those subjects with a high need of approval would match more to the demands of climate on the hire and salary assessments than lower approval motivation applicants. The study included 161 male undergrads enrolled in a business class. The subjects were given a booklet which contained experimental materials necessary in controlling organizational climate. They were also given either a female or male completed application and asked for their judgments on an applicant’s suitability for the position. Randomly assigned climate and applicant sex conditions were also in effect. Results from the experiment showed that as initially expected, males were favored over females in the discriminatory climate. The results also showed that in the discriminatory climate males were chosen as fitting significantly better than females, and that men were also offered higher salaries in the same conditions. The implications of this study can ascertain that the organizational climate of a workplace can deeply influence the decisions of hiring personnel and lead to gender bias.
