Are Mixed Gender Committees Less Biased Towards Female and Male Candidates?

The present research investigated the spontaneous reference to the criteria of competence, morality, and sociability in descriptions made by professional committees evaluating female and male employees’ work performance. We examined whether professional committees used different criteria in their performance appraisal of male and female employees and how gender of committee members influences this outcome. The evidence showed that men were primarily evaluated on the basis of their competence, while women were evaluated on the basis of their performance in all the three (evaluative) criteria. Moreover, using mixed compared to same gender committee members resulted in higher reliance on competence rather than on the other criteria regardless employee gender. Overall, the evidence reveals that mixed gender committees provide more similar appraisals of male and female employees, suggesting that they might be an effective way to reduce gender bias in the performance appraisals.本研究探讨了专业委员会在评估男女员工工作绩效时，自发援引能力、道德与社交性评价标准的实际情况。本研究旨在考察两个核心问题：其一，专业委员会在对男性与女性员工开展绩效评估时，是否会采用差异化的评价标准；其二，委员会成员的性别构成会如何作用于评估结果。研究证据显示，男性员工的绩效评估主要以能力作为核心依据，而女性员工的评估则需同时参照上述三项评价标准。此外，相较于由同性别成员组成的委员会，混合性别委员会更倾向于以能力作为评价核心，而非其余两项标准，且这一差异不受员工性别的制约。总体而言，研究结果表明，混合性别委员会对男性与女性员工的绩效评估结果更为趋同，这提示此类委员会或可成为降低绩效评估中性别偏见的有效路径。