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Break Up Your Masculinity Contest Culture
by Jennifer L. Berdahl, Peter Glick, and Marianne Cooper
From Uber to Nike to CBS, exposés have revealed dysfunctional workplaces rife with misconduct, bullying, and sexual harassment. Why do companies get caught up in illegal behavior, harassment, and toxic leadership?
Our research identifies an underlying cause: what we call a “masculinity contest culture.” This kind of culture endorses winner-take-all competition, where winners demonstrate stereotypically masculine traits such as emotional toughness, physical stamina, and ruthlessness. It produces organizational dysfunction, as employees become hypercompetitive to win.
Masculinity Contest Cultures
We surveyed thousands of workers in the United ...
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