Working together: effects of gender composition on job satisfaction and commitment
| Date | 21 March 2024 |
| Pages | 60-75 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2023-0443 |
| Published date | 21 March 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Katrin Olafsdottir,Arney Einarsdottir |
Working together: effects
of gender composition on job
satisfaction and commitment
Katrin Olafsdottir
Department of Business and Economics, Reykjavik University,
Reykjavik, Iceland, and
Arney Einarsdottir
Department of Business, Bifr€
ost University, Bifr€
ost, Iceland
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to estimate the effects of gender composition in the workplace on
employee job satisfaction and commitment.
Design/methodology/approach–The data were collected on both the organizational and employee levels at
three different points in time in organizations with more than 70 employees. Multi-level mixed-effects ordered
logistics regressions were used to account for the multi-level nature of the data and the ordered nature of the
dependent variables.
Findings –Employees in gender-balanced workplaces show higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment
than those in female-dominated or male-dominated workplaces. The relationship is also based on the gender of
the individual, as men show a significantly lower level of both job satisfaction and commitment when working
in male-dominated workplaces than others, while for women, the effect is only significant for commitment.
Practical implications –Aiming for a balance in the gender composition of the workplace may improve
employee attitudes, especially for men. The results also indicate that further research is warranted into why job
satisfaction and commitment are significantly lower among men in male-dominated workplaces.
Originality/value –The relationship between gender and job satisfaction and commitment is well
established, but less is known about the effects of gender composition on job satisfaction and commitment.
Previous papers have focused on job satisfaction. This paper extends prior studies by estimating the effects of
gender composition on both job satisfaction and commitment using multi-level regressions on a rich dataset.
Keywords Gender, Gender composition, Job satisfaction, Commitment, Diversity
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Employee attitudes are important as studies have shown higher productivity where
employee attitudes are more positive (B€
ockerman and Ilmakunnas, 2012;Oswald et al., 2015).
Employee attitudes depended to some extent on gender, as women consistently reported
higher job satisfaction than men in the last century (Blanchflower and Oswald, 1999;
Clark, 1997;Sousa-Poza and Sousa-Poza, 2000a). This phenomenon has been framed as the
gender gap paradox due to the concurrent evidence of gender wage inequality and worse
working conditions for women than men. As this gap has been more evident in Anglo-Saxon
countries than in other countries, it is referred to as the Anglo-Saxon gender gap paradox.
ER
46,9
60
© Katrin Olafsdottir and Arney Einarsdottir. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is
published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce,
distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial
purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence
may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Finance in Iceland, SA –Confederation of Icelandic
Enterprise and SI –the Federation of Icelandic Industries for supporting this research.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 29 August 2023
Revised 23 November 2023
Accepted 19 January 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 9, 2024
pp. 60-75
Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-08-2023-0443
Recent studies from this century suggest that this gap is diminishing (Green et al., 2018;
Pita and Torregrosa, 2021).
Less attention has been given to how gender composition in the workplace may affect
employee attitudes and whether there is a difference between female-dominated and male-
dominated workplaces. In most countries, men and women tend to work in different
occupations, leaving a sizable occupational gender gap. The dissimilarity index (DI)
measured 49% in the European Union (EU) in 2019; hence, almost half of all employees would
have to change occupations to have equal numbers of men and women (Eurofound and
European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2021). It is therefore important to enhance the
understanding of whether there is a difference in job satisfaction depending on the gender
composition of workplaces.
Existing research has provided mixed results. On the one hand, Fields and Blum (1997)
found higher levels of job satisfaction among men and women working in gender-balanced
groups than those working in gender-balanced groups. Bender et al. (2005) found that job
satisfaction measured highest in organizations with only women, while job satisfaction was
significantly lowest among organizations with a majority of men. On the other hand, more
recent studies show a positive relationship between gender diversity and overall employee
job well-being (Haile, 2012;Clark et al., 2021). While these studies do not provide identical
results, they indicate that gender composition matters for job satisfaction and call for further
research. Existing research is mainly focused on two Anglo-Saxon countries, the USA and
the UK; hence, using data from a Nordic country adds a new dimension and new context to the
subject matter.
This paper contributes to the literature by using a rich dataset on employee attitudes to
estimate the effects of the gender composition in the workplace on job satisfaction and
commitment. While most studies focus on job satisfaction, we extend prior studies by
estimating the effects of gender composition on employee commitment and job satisfaction.
By using ordered logistic regressions, we account for the ordered nature of the dependent
variables, and by using multi-level mixed-effects, we also account for the time factor and
company-level data.
Our results indicate that employees in gender-balanced workplaces showed the highest
level of job satisfaction as well as the highest level of commitment. In fact, the relationship
seems to be asymmetric in that there is less job satisfaction and commitment in female-
dominated workplaces and the least job satisfaction and commitment in male-dominated
workplaces. Therefore, workplace gender integration and diversity management should be of
interest to employees, managers and organizational researchers alike.
The second and third parts of the paper describe the theoretical background and the
importance of gender integration for the economy. In part four, we describe the data and
methodology, while the fifth part presents the results of the regressions, followed by
discussion and conclusion.
Key employee attitudes and the gender gap paradox
This study focuses on the effects of gender composition in the workplace on job satisfaction
and commitment, two key employee attitude constructs commonly used in research where
the relationship between different human resource management (HRM) practices and
different employee related attitudes or outcomes are of interest (Chang, 2005;Edgar and
Geare, 2005;White and Bryson, 2013;Hauret et al., 2022).
Job satisfaction reflects a positive or negative general attitude towards the job and the
organization and is related to employee expectations as well as external comparisons
(Locke, 1976;Cranny et al., 1992;Saari and Judge, 2004). The overall quality of jobs measured
as job satisfaction, or an employee’s evaluation of different job aspects, is considered an
Gender
composition
and employee
attitudes
61
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
