The glass cliff: Appointment of women to precarious positions in times of crisis as an organizational sign of change

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jürgen Wegge
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 257685241

Current research suggests that women are more likely to be appointed to senior positions that are particularly precarious. This phenomenon is called the glass cliff. To date, research has mainly focused on the discriminatory aspects of glass cliffs against women. However, and without denying the importance of investigating such processes, we argue that perceiving the glass cliff only from the standpoint of its victims offers a narrow and incomplete view of the phenomenon. Instead, in this proposed research project we analyze the organizational motives that drive glass cliffs. We suggest that, from the point of view of the organization, the appointment of women to precarious leadership positions serves strategic purposes by signaling change in leadership to the organizations stakeholders. The appointment of women as top-managers in a crisis situation should increase trust in the organization ability to solve the crisis problem soon. With one archival study at the organizational level (the 110 largest German companies traded in the DAX, MDAX and TecDAX stock markets from 2003 to 2012) and two lab studies (N = 192 and 240 individuals) we test four potential moderating variables that either should strengthen or weaken this effect (visibility, gender of previous leader, identification, severity of the crisis). To demonstrate that the expected signal effect underlies class cliffs, other potential mediator variables that could motivate the promotion of women are controlled in the laboratory studies (e.g., assumptions about women-specific leadership qualities and benefits of diversity). This work will extend current theoretical accounts of the glass cliff phenomenon and pave the way to better understanding how to manage the glass cliff in practice.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants