Organizational Behavior Area Virtual Research Seminar Series: Elizabeth Campbell
Elizabeth Campbell
Rady School of Management, UC San Diego
The Gendered Complexity of Sponsorship: How Male and Female Sponsors' Goals Shape their Social Network Strategies
Date: Friday, March 28, 2025
Time:10:30 AM -12:00 PM
Location: Virtual (ZOOM)
All are cordially invited to attend.
Abstract:
Providing sponsorship, when senior colleagues (sponsors) mobilize resources in their social network on junior colleagues鈥� (prot茅g茅s) behalf, is consequential to the effective functioning of organizations. Yet the psychological processes underlying male and female sponsors鈥� goals, priorities, and strategies for activating resources in their networks for prot茅g茅s are not well understood. We conduct four studies to examine male and female sponsors鈥� goals and the resulting impact on their approach to activating resources in their social network. Studies 1a-b provide converging, initial evidence that men approach sponsorship with less complexity than women, by setting fewer goals that focus more on benefiting themselves. Study 2 provides additional evidence: male sponsors are more likely than female sponsors to perceive sponsorship as an opportunity to benefit themselves while female sponsors perceive sponsorship as an opportunity to benefit their prot茅g茅s. Study 3 experimentally links the differences in goal pursuit to sponsors鈥� social network strategies: when asked to balance prot茅g茅-centric and sponsor-centric goals, women cognitively activate networks higher in closure, but men activate sparse networks regardless of their goals. The implications of these network activation configurations for understanding the sponsorship process are discussed.
