University Study Finds Women Impacted More Than Men by “Managerial Derailment”

A new study led by Joyce Bono, a professor of management in the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida, found that subtle and/or unconscious bias can play a significant role in what she calls “managerial derailment.” The phenomenon occurs when managers show differing expectations for young male and female managers that can often lead to the loss of mentorship for young women on the management track.

Professor Bono and her colleagues found that when evaluating managers who exhibited equal levels of ineffective interpersonal behaviors, supervisors were more likely to predict derailment for women managers than for men. Because of these negative assessments, female managers receive less mentoring — a benefit Dr. Bono said is especially important to female advancement in the workplace.

“Sponsorship and mentoring are even more important for women than men because women typically are less connected to those higher in the corporate hierarchy,” said Professor Bono, “in part because there are more men than women at higher levels.”

Dr. Bono joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 2001 after teaching at the University of Minnesota. She is a graduate of Spring Arbor University in Michigan, where she majored in human resource management. Professor Bono holds a master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Iowa.

The article, “Dropped on the Way to the Top: Gender and Managerial Derailment,” was published on the website of the journal Personnel Psychology. It may be accessed here.