Xiaoxu Zhang
Title
Dr.
Last Name
Zhang
First name
Xiaoxu
Email
xiaoxu.zhang@unisg.ch
Phone
+4171 2247154
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Item type:Publication, Opportunity in Disguise? Examining Career Paths of Female Directors Following Glass Cliff AssignmentsThe glass cliff phenomenon, which denotes the greater tendency of women than men to be placed on precarious leadership positions, has attracted huge scholarly interest since the notion’s inception. By framing women-held upper echelons roles as “cliff”, the glass cliff scholarship thus far has concentrated on uncovering how systematic biases towards women extend into higher-end labor markets, manifested as the “think crisis, think female” association in director appointment process and a greater exposure to courtesy stigma in consequence to their affiliation with crisis-stricken firms. This paper adopts a different angle to explore the potential upsides of glass cliff assignments. Based on a large-scale matched sample of Chinese listed firms, our analyses reveal that 1) preferential selection of women to top corporate ranks is not universal but rather contingent on the configurations of crisis situations and that 2) directorships in distressed firms can increase female directors’ future employability in the director labor market. Our findings contribute to the glass cliff literature in two ways. First, we provide more nuanced understandings to the glass cliff phenomenon by clarifying the boundary conditions. Second, by introducing insights from research on ex post settling up in director labor market and on double standards of competence, we locate long-term opportunities embodied in precarious leadership assignments.Type:conference paperJournal:Academy of Management ProceedingsVolume:2024Issue:1