Closing the Leadership Gender Gap in European Athletics FINAL

Transcription

Closing the Leadership
Gender Gap in European
Athletics
Project number EAC/21/2009/145
FINAL REPORT
Submitted by:
Royal Dutch Athletics Federation
Papendallaan 60, 6816 VD, Arnhem
Postbus 60100, 6800 JC, Arnhem
rien.vanhaperen@atletiekunie.nl
www.atletiekunie.nl
Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5
Part I ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Work Package 1 – Survey ............................................................................................................ 6
Objective ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 6
Content and implementation ......................................................................................................... 6
Results............................................................................................................................................. 8
Follow-up ...................................................................................................................................... 15
Recommendations ........................................................................................................................ 15
Work Package 2 – Awareness Training for the Athletics Population ........................................... 17
Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 17
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 17
Content and implementation ....................................................................................................... 17
Results........................................................................................................................................... 19
Follow-up ...................................................................................................................................... 22
Work Package 3 – Awareness Training for Federation Presidents and CEOs ............................... 23
Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 23
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 23
Results........................................................................................................................................... 24
Follow-up ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Work Package 4 – Skills Training for Future Women Leaders ..................................................... 27
Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 27
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 27
Results........................................................................................................................................... 31
Follow-up ...................................................................................................................................... 34
Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................................... 36
Part I - Survey:............................................................................................................................... 36
Part II - Gender awareness interventions: .................................................................................... 36
Appendix A – Survey homepage .................................................................................................... 38
Appendix B – Sample press coverage of the survey ....................................................................... 39
Appendix C – Text of an e-mail from a Member Federation Communications Manager (female) ... 40
Appendix D – Perspective taking exercise from the awareness training for the general athletics
population. ................................................................................................................................... 41
Appendix E – Gender quiz from the awareness training for the general athletics population. ........ 42
Appendix F – Diversity quiz from the awareness training for the general athletics population. ...... 44
Appendix G – Volcano forces change to CEO Conference plans ...................................................... 46
Appendix H – Future Women Leaders Seminar Programme ........................................................... 47
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List of Partners
Partner
Representative
Level
Dutch athletics federation
Atketiekunie
Rien van Haperen
rien.vanhaperen@atletiekunie.nl
Austrian athletics federation
Österreicher LeichtathletikVerband
Helmut Baudis
baudis@oelv.at
Danish athletics federation
Dansk Atletik Forbund
Jakob Larsen
jal@dansk-atletik.dk
I
Estonian athletics federation
Eesti Kergejõustikuliit
Sirje Lippe
sirje@ekjl.ee
I
II
I
French athletics federation
Jean Gracia
Fédération Française d’Athlétisme
jean.gracia@athle.org
II
Maltese athletics federation
Malta Amateur Athletic
Association
Anthony Fava
anthony.c.fava@gmail.com
I
Slovenian athletics federation
Atletska Zveza Slovenije
Boris Mikuz
boris.mikuz@atletska-zveza.si
I
Spanish athletics federation
Real Federación de Atletismo
Jose Luis De Carlos
jdecarlos@rfea.es
II
Swedish athletics federation
Svenska Friidrotsföbundet
Mikael Peterson
mikael.peterson@friidrott.se
I
European Athletics
European Athletic Association
Bill Glad
bill.glad@european-athletics.org
II
University of Lausanne
John Antonakis
john.antonakis@unil.ch
II
Note: The key tasks of Level I partners were to promote a) the online survey and b) the awareness training
intervention to the general population of the sport. Moreover, Level I partners are also committed to using
the tools developed through the project in the future and to making special efforts to a) disseminate the
results of the project within their countries through their websites and publications and through contacts
with other national-level organisations and b) supporting an ongoing European network for exchange
information on matters related to the project. In addition to the commitments of Level I partners, Level II
partners a) participated in the delivery of one or more project activities and b) provided staff time for project
assistance. In addition, the University of Lausanne will a) use data gathered as the basis for scientific papers
and b) conduct the follow-up studies that are not included in the current project.
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List of Main Contributors
Name
Partner Affiliation
Role
Rien van Haperen
Atletiekunie
Project Leader
Dr. Philippe Jacquart
Atletiekunie
Researcher
Project Manager
Leadership Skills Trainer
Prof. Dr. John Antonakis
Scientific Consultant
Leadership Training Consultant
Prof. Dr. Raphael Lalive
Prof. Dr. Christian Zehnder
Prof. Dr. Jean-Philippe Bonardi University of Lausanne
Leadership Training Consultant
Marika Fenley
Dr. Jane Khayesi
Bill Glad
European Athletics
Project Assistant
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Introduction
The Closing the Leadership Gender Gap in European Athletics project focuses on
gender equality in the sports of athletics. Generally, we wanted to see if we could create
effective tools that could be used by the sport to alter the culture of its community and
thereby improve the conditions for the emergence of more women leaders at the local,
national and international levels. We believe that if available such tools could also be used
by other sports and thereby make sport a significant driver in promoting gender equality in
the whole of European society.
This project was conducted from January 1st, 2010 to March 31st, 2011. It was led by
Atletiekunie—the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation—with a consortium of initially 10
partners (the athletics federations of Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Malta, Slovenia, Spain and
Sweden plus the Swiss-based European Athletics and University of Lausanne), which grew to
11 during the project (with the French athletics federation joining later).
This project comprised two main parts. The aim of Part I was to document the
attitudes (and biases) of individuals within the sport of athletics towards women in general,
and towards woman leaders in particular. The aim of Part II was to test the efficacy of three
interventions: i) a bottom-up intervention in the form of a gender awareness training for the
general athletics population, ii) a top-down approach through a gender awareness training
for federation leaders (presidents and CEOs) and iii) a targeted intervention designed to
provide leadership skills to potential future women leaders. With the knowledge and
understanding gained from the results of these tests we will be better able to develop the
tools for altering the sport’s culture.
In the following pages we describe the content and implementation of the different
work packages related to parts I and II of the project. We then present and discuss the
results of these different work packages. Finally, we make recommendations for future work
to support organizations in athletics and other sports.
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Part I
Work Package 1 – Survey
Objective
Design and conduct an online survey to measure attitudes and awareness in the
athletics population.
Introduction
To change the culture of a sport or any other group in a systematic way it is
important to have indicators that describe that culture. For us, the key points of interest in
the culture of athletics in Europe are the attitudes within the athletics community towards
women and women leaders in the sport. In order to obtain a picture of these attitudes, we
developed an online, multi-language athletics population survey from existing tools used to
measure explicit and implicit forms of sexism.
We anticipated that the results would have strong policy implications and serve as a
guide for designing our interventions and tools. In particular, the figures obtained were
essential for testing the efficacy of the Awareness Training for the Athletics Population Tool
that we developed as a part of the project (see Work Package 2).
Furthermore, we can use the figures we obtained as a baseline to compare the
athletics population (and sub-groups within the population) with other sports and with
society in general, to assess the efficacy of policies and interventions and to measure
progress or lack thereof towards a culture of gender equity.
Content and implementation
The online, multi-language athletics population survey measures sexism using two
scientifically validated instruments:
i. The Gender-Career Implicit Association Test (IAT)1: Measures automatic associations
held in memory (predicting unconscious bias and implicit discrimination);
ii. Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI)2: Measures hostile and benevolent attitudes
towards women.
We also included questions from the European Value Survey (EVS)3 measuring attitudes
towards women in society and towards family. This set of questions will allow researchers
from the University of Lausanne to assess the extent to which the surveyed population is
1
Greenwald, Anthony G.; McGhee, Debbie E.; Schwartz, Jordan L.K. (1998). Measuring Individual Differences in
Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (6): 1464–1480
2
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent
sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491-512.
3
www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu
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representative of their country’s general population (for the purpose of scientific research).
These analyses will be conducted by October 1st and the results will be communicated to the
project partners and to the European Commission.
In order to maximise the chances that the survey would be well received by the
athletics community, we included a number of customised athletics-related questions. These
served to ground the survey in issues relating not only to gender but also to athletics.
Indeed, a first version of the survey with only gender related questions was criticised by
some because it was perceived as unrelated to athletics.
The inclusion of the IAT in a web-based multi-language survey presented a number of
technical challenges, which were met by running the IAT4 simultaneously on multiple online
platforms and by developing a custom questionnaire as a substitute to the IAT for Macintosh
users.
The survey was developed using an online survey application5 provided by the
University of Lausanne. The University of Lausanne also hosted the surveys on their own
servers. These services were contributions to the project. A screen shot of the survey
homepage is shown in Appendix A.
The survey was promoted by the project partners as well as by a number of other
European Athletics Member Federations who enthusiastically supported the project.
Information about the survey was communicated through press releases (see Appendix B for
sample press coverage), mailing lists, and on the partner federation websites. Both
Atletiekunie and European Athletics created permanent pages on their websites to provide
information about the survey and the overall project. Furthermore, Dr Sylvia Barlag, a vicepresident of Atletikunie and a member of the European Athletics Council, was named Project
Ambassador to further promote the project and used her contacts throughout the sport.
A number of incentives were offered to ensure participation in the survey and the
Awareness Training for the Athletics Population (Work Package 2). The French athletics
federation and European Athletics offered a chance to win two all expenses paid trips for
two people to the March 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris (flights,
accommodation, VIP tickets) to all participants completing the survey (and the awareness
training for the athletics population—i.e., Work Package 2) by February 1st, 2011. European
Athletics further contributed by offering secondary prizes in the form of merchandise. A
second wave of incentives was proposed to further foster participation. This time European
Athletics offered a chance to win an all expenses paid trip for two to the 2011 summer's
European Team Championships to everyone who completed survey (and the awareness
training for the athletics population) by March 31st, 2011.
A delay caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland prevented a
meeting to brief the project partners on their role in this work package meant that the
survey was launched later than originally planned. This did not affect the data gathering
4
5
www.millisecond.com
www.limesurvey.org
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process but it meant that the original incentive prize offer of trips to the July 2010 European
Championships in Barcelona had to be substituted with prizes mentioned above.
In addition, some unforeseeable difficulties were encountered during the
implementation of the survey, which hindered the collection of data from certain countries.
For instance, the Estonian athletic federation was unable to promote the survey because of
a major change in their web servers and the French athletic federation was unable to
promote the survey because of its late entry as a partner in the project. The result is that the
number of participants in these two countries was lower than we planned for these two
project partners. As described in our follow-up plan below, we will be collecting additional
data from these two countries before the end of the year.
Results
A total of 2’068 individuals took part in, and completed, the athletics population
survey. We first present demographic information about participants and then present
information on the levels of sexism.
Participants reported coming from a broad array of countries. The Figure 1 graphic
represents the distribution of participants by country. Surprisingly, a small number of
individuals based outside of Europe participated in the survey. Given that there was no
promotion targeting these individuals, we can only speculate that they learned about the
survey from the partner websites or heard about it through word-of-mouth.
Athletes represent more than half of the respondents (54%). Coaches come in second
position in terms of largest group with 20%. Figure 2 displays the distribution of respondents
by role in the sport.
In terms of age and gender, we have broad representation of the population. Figure 3
presents the distribution of respondents by age group. Men are slightly over-represented in
this sample with respectively 55.66% vs. 44.34% of total respondents.
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Figure 1 – Distribution of respondents by country
Note: Countries are listed in the legend by decreasing number of
respondents (countries with less than 37 respondents are not
listed in the legend).
Figure 2 – Distribution of respondents by role in athletics
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Figure 3 – Distribution of respondents by age and gender
We now present and discuss a statistical picture of attitudes towards women and
women leaders in the athletics community across countries. We report data obtained from
16 EU member states for which we have more than 10 observations. Additionally, we report
data obtained from 9 non-EU member states (8 of which are nevertheless members of the
European Athletics Federation).
Figure 4 presents the mean levels of explicit sexism as measured by the ASI in the
athletics community by country in decreasing order of magnitude. These results are in line
with what the existing literature would suggest. For instance, northern European countries
in general, and Scandinavian countries in particular, tend to have more gender egalitarian
values and this is also what our data indicates, with Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden
averaging the lowest values of sexism. Previous research6 has reported levels of sexism for
some of the countries included in our sample (i.e., Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands). It
is noteworthy that we report lower levels of sexism for these countries. However, the results
from such comparisons should be interpreted with caution as the data collected in previous
research was not derived from representative samples of the population. Thus, the
differences we observe might result from differences in terms of the population sampled.
For example, because men are on average more sexist than women, the proportion of men
included in a given sample should affect the overall sample level of sexism. Nevertheless, the
data we report here has great value as it can serve to monitor the evolution of sexism over
time in athletics and help to assess the effectiveness of interventions and programs designed
at reducing sexism.
6
Glick, P., S. T. Fiske, Mladinic, A., Saiz, J. L., Abrams, D., & Masser, B. (2000). Beyond prejudice as simple
antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 763775.
- Page 10 of 50 -
Figure 4 – Mean levels of explicit sexism in the athletics community by country
The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory conceptualises sexism as comprising two
components: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism represents what is
traditionally thought of as prejudice, while benevolent sexism represents attitudes that,
while being positive in the mind of the perceiver, are nevertheless sexist in that they carry
and convey stereotypical representations of women. Figure 5 shows the levels of these two
facets of sexism in the athletics community per country. It is noteworthy that, with the
exception of Germany and Italy, hostile sexism prevails over benevolent sexism. This result is
congruent with existing research on sexism and reflects the fact that across cultures, the role
of women has always carried less social value. Consequently, policies and tools aimed at
reducing sexism should in priority focus on changing these hostile attitudes towards women.
Figure 5 – Mean levels of hostile and benevolent sexism in the athletics
community by country
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Table 1 – Mean levels of explicit sexism in the athletics community by country
Country
Austriaa, b
Belarusb
Bulgariaa, b
Croatiab
Denmarka, b
Estoniaa, b
Francea, b
Germanya, b
Great Britaina, b
Hungarya, b
Icelandb
Irelanda, b
Israelb
Italya, b
Maltaa, b
Netherlandsa, b
Norwayb
Polanda, b
Russian Federationb
Serbiab
Sloveniaa, b
Spaina, b
Swedena, b
Ukraineb
United States
Sexism7
Benevolent
sexism
Hostile
sexism
Number of
respondents
3.04
3.59
3.33
2.99
2.39
3.13
2.89
3.39
2.63
3.02
2.42
3.10
2.63
3.36
2.97
2.36
2.01
2.98
3.50
3.13
3.10
2.73
1.98
3.56
2.88
3.07
3.15
2.99
2.70
1.98
2.75
2.50
3.46
2.17
2.77
1.80
2.81
2.49
3.46
2.59
1.99
1.36
2.60
3.03
2.80
2.79
2.80
1.48
3.08
2.61
3.01
4.09
3.72
3.32
2.86
3.57
3.33
3.33
3.14
3.31
3.13
3.42
2.79
3.26
3.40
2.78
2.75
3.41
4.03
3.52
3.45
2.66
2.56
4.11
3.18
37
68
77
48
140
13
12
306
46
103
21
78
110
106
75
198
19
106
73
40
97
336
94
101
14
Note: Countries with less than 10 respondents are not shown here. This data is available on
request. Item relating to the ASI scale were rated on a 1 to 6 rating scale.
a
European Union member state.
b
European Athletics Member Federation.
Furthermore, we find that these sexist attitudes are negatively associated with the
prevalence of women leaders. Indeed, we find statistically significant associations between
these measures of explicit sexism and variables measuring women’s empowerment in
Europe in general and in the sport of athletics in particular. We considered two measures of
gender empowerment. The first is the United Nation’s Gender Empowerment Measure
(GEM) which measures the degree of participation of women in political and economic
forums. The second measure is the percent of women executives sitting on boards (Council,
7
Sexism was measured using the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI)—see footnote 2.
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Executive Board, etc) of European Athletics Member Federations. Zero-order correlations
between explicit sexism and these measures of gender empowerment are presented in
Table 2.
A cautionary note is here warranted: these correlations measure association and do
not imply any causality. It is however noteworthy that these associations are in the direction
we would expect to find with one exception. We find a positive association between country
levels of hostile sexism and the percentage of women executives sitting on the boards of
European athletic federations. We leave it to our partner, the University of Lausanne, to
establish in future scientific studies the nature of the relationship between these variables.
Table 2 – Correlations between country levels of sexism and gender
empowerment
United Nations' Gender
Empowerment Measure
Percentage of women
executives sitting on the boards
of European Athletics Member
Federations
Sexism
-.54†
-.44
Benevolent
sexism
-.34
-.91**
Hostile
sexism
-.65**
.90*
Note: Standard errors clustered at the country level
†
p < .1, * p < .05, ** p < .01
We now report and discuss the (implicit) measures of sexism we collected using the
implicit association test (IAT). The number of observations for this measure is smaller (i.e.,
540) than the number of observations collected for the ASI, and this is for several reasons.
Firstly, the IAT could not be used for all respondents as it does not support Macintosh
operating systems, and could not (at the time we conducted the survey) support all
alphabets. Secondly, in its present form, we found the use of the IAT to be problematic when
using computers with little internal memory. In order to correct for these problems, we had
to pull down the IAT from the survey on two occasions. Thus, on these two occasions
participants taking part in the survey did not complete the IAT. Coincidently, it is during
these two occasions that participants from Austria took part in the survey, which is why we
do not report any data on the IAT for Austria. Country mean levels of implicit sexism are
displayed in Table 3 along with the number of respondents.
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Table 3 – Mean levels of implicit sexism in
the athletics community by
country and number of
respondents
Country
Bulgaria
Denmark
Germany
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Russia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Ukraine
IAT
0.209
0.162
0.158
0.119
0.330
0.103
0.053
0.136
0.077
0.163
0.127
0.290
0.112
0.149
N
33
58
107
43
36
8
12
87
54
10
31
4
43
14
Note: Greater values indicate stronger stereotypical
associations in the sense that “men” were more easily
associated with positive attributes than were “women”
(i.e., indicating greater levels of implicit sexism).
Figure 6 – Mean levels of implicit sexism in the athletics community by country
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
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As we noted above, the numbers we report for explicit sexism are lower than those
reported in previous research (this concerns Italy, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands).
However, because the numbers reported by previous research were based on samples nonrepresentative on the general population, any comparisons should be made with caution. No
country level data has ever been published on implicit levels of sexism, thus comparisons
cannot be made here between our data and previous data. However, our data can serve as
initial reference point for future surveys studies of implicit sexism.
Finally, we note that at this time it is not possible to compare sexism in athletics with
sexism in other sports, again because of a lack of published data. However, should data on
levels on sexism in other sports become available, such comparisons could easily be made.
Follow-up
As mentioned above, the research team of the University of Lausanne will conduct a
supplementary survey in the two project partner countries, France and Estonia, where the
number of survey participants was less than originally hoped.
Furthermore, the University of Lausanne will conduct analyses of the European
Values Survey by October 1st to assess the extent to which our sample is representative of
the general population. They will then communicate the results to the project partners and
to the European Commission.
Recommendations
1. We strongly recommended conducting similar surveys in the future in order to study
the evolution of sexism in athletics throughout Europe. Indeed, the information
collected over time through these surveys would allow decision makers to optimally
decide when and where to implement interventions to reduce sexism. Furthermore,
regularly conducting such surveys would also allow assessment of the effectiveness
of these interventions.
2. Conduct similar surveys in other sports for the same reasons mentioned above and
to make a comparison between sports possible. This would assist with the
identification of sport specific factors in sexism in sport and with assessing the
effectiveness of interventions
3. On the practical side, implementing a multi-language, multi-platform (with one php
based interface and one custom programmed interface in the case of the IAT) has
proven to be very challenging. We strongly suggest that future research efforts
willing to take a similar path ensure have the necessary specialized support to
implement this type of survey.
4. Another challenge associated with this survey was to balance the content between
the scientific and political requirements within a sport community. A first version of
the survey designed solely with the scientific aim in mind was found to be too remote
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from athletics for a number of participants. Moreover, certain questions8 had to be
removed from the survey because some federations found them inappropriate. One
federation (not a partner) found the whole line of questioning and the general idea
of the survey so objectionable that it refused to use its channels to communicate to
the athletics population in its country (see Appendix C). It is noteworthy that i) the
removal of the questions did not directly affect the project; ii) these questions have
been asked thousands of times throughout Europe as they are part of the European
Value Survey, which is a cross-national, large-scale, and longitudinal survey research
program on basic human values. Our recommendation is that future researchers
ensure the aim and value of surveys to the sport as a whole are well communicated
and agreed with those who will be involved. The researchers need to be aware that
this task requires a certain time and resource allotment.
8
e.g., “Which of these statements comes closest to your beliefs? (a) There is a personal God; (b) There is some
sort of spirit or life force; (c) I don’t really know what to think; (d) I don’t really think there is any sort of spirit,
God or life force”.
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Part II
Work Package 2 – Awareness Training for the Athletics Population
Objective
Design and test an online training task to increase awareness and change attitudes
towards women and women leaders.
Introduction
We believe that raising awareness and challenging prejudices can lead to a change in
individual attitudes and behaviour. Moreover, if the attitudes of enough individuals in a
given group change, the culture within that group will change. Our aim in this work package
was work towards a tool that could be used cost effectively to raise awareness with subgroups in the athletics population, including athletes, coaches, competition officials, club
leaders, federation leaders, etc.
The Internet seems to present an opportunity in this area. However, conducting
awareness training online represents a major challenge in that the setting inhibits the use of
traditional methods like role playing, group discussions, and so forth. On the other hand, if it
could be developed, an effective online tool would provide the opportunity to reach a
greater number of a sport’s population and thereby impact the culture of the sport more
quickly.
The awareness training for the athletics population of this work package was
designed as an online scientific experiment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
time an intervention for this purpose been done this way. Only through this procedure can
we rigorously test for the effects of the training we are trying to provide, and without it we
would be only left speculating about its effectiveness.
All individuals who took part in the athletics population survey (Work Package 1)
were automatically contacted to take part in the awareness training. Participants who had
completed this task were then invited to go online a third and last time, during which we
measured their levels of prejudice towards women so as to test the effectiveness of our
awareness training. In order to ensure participation, only those participants who completed
the athletics population survey (Work Package 1), the Awareness Training for the Athletics
Population and the follow-up measurement were entered in the draw and had a chance of
winning one of the incentive prizes offered by the French athletics federation and European
Athletics.
For this awareness training, we used two primary tools:
i.
a perspective taking exercise;
ii. a series of questions and answers relating either to gender or diversity (or both).
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Participants were asked to read a story in which they had to imagine they had landed
on an alien planet along with fellow humans and had to get accustomed to the social rules
prevailing in this new environment. The aim of this perspective taking exercise was to put
individuals in a situation in which they were faced with situational constraints similar to
those with which women are faced when they seek leadership positions. In one version of
the story, the main characters, a human, tried to climb the leadership ladder in an alien
organization, is ridiculed during a meeting for wanting to act in a tough and decisive manner.
In another version of the story, the same behaviour is well received. The two versions of the
story used for the perspective taking exercise are presented in Appendix D.
After reading the story, participants answered a series of questions about how they
would feel in the situation they had just read. We adapted an existing perspective taking
exercise, which had originally been developed to reduce prejudice against homosexuals9and
has been shown to successfully change attitudes in a classroom setting10. None of the
participants were informed that the situation described in the perspective taking exercise
can mirror the situation faced by women. Our intent was for the participants to make the
link themselves when they engaged in either one (or the two) of the following quizzes:
i. the gender quiz, which aims at making participants aware that women are
underrepresented in leadership positions, that this situation is not due to what is
commonly believed but rather to stereotypical expectations about leaders and
women;
ii. the diversity quiz, which serves to verify whether any effect obtained by the
gender quiz should be attributed to gender specifically, or diversity related
questions would produce the same effect.
The gender and diversity quizzes are presented in Appendix E and Appendix F.
The design of the awareness training was thus a 2 x 2 x 2 fully crossed between
subjects experiment11. In order to run such a design we programmed 8 different surveys one
for each experimental condition. Participants were randomly assigned within country to one
of the surveys.
After completing the awareness training, we contacted the participants one last time
and asked them answer a questionnaire that would allow us to measure sexism and thus
evaluate the efficiency of our intervention. In order to not make participants weary, we
chose to use a different measure of sexism than the one which had been used in the
athletics population survey. The measure we used this time defines sexism as taking on two
forms: an old fashioned and a modern form12. Conceptually, this measure of sexism has
some overlap with the ASI used in the athletics population survey and could, in the context
of this awareness training, serve as a pre-intervention control measure.
9
Hillman, J., & Martin, R. A. (2002). Lessons about gay and lesbian lives: A spaceship exercise. Teaching of
Psychology, 29 (4), 308-11.
10
Hodson, G., Choma, B., & Costello, K. (2009). Experiencing Alien-Nation: Effects of a simulation intervention
on attitudes toward homosexuals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45, 974-978
11
The design is the following: perspective taking (situational constraints vs. no situational constraints) x gender
quiz (present vs. absent) x diversity quiz (present vs. absent).
12
Swim, J., Aikin, K., Hall, W., & Hunter. (1995). Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudices.
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 68, 199-214.
- Page 18 of 50 -
Results
We estimated three statistical models to evaluate the effectiveness of the awareness
training for the athletics population. We first estimated a baseline model (model 1), which
looks at the effects of the experiment on sexism without controlling for any other variables.
Given that we randomly assigned participants within country to a given condition, and given
that we would expect to find permanent difference between countries, we estimated a
second model (model 2), which tests for the effects of the experiment while controlling for
any unobserved country-level heterogeneity. Finally, in a third model (model 3), we
additionally accounted for the effects of participant age, gender, and pre-intervention levels
of sexism (as measured in the survey). Table 4 below presents the results from these three
models.
We find a three-way interaction between our experimental manipulations in models
1 and 2. The pattern of this three-way interaction is the same for both models and is
graphically depicted in Figure 7. It can be understood as follows: taking either the diversity
quiz or the gender quiz reduces sexism. Furthermore, we find that taking both quizzes has an
additional effect over taking only either one of them but only for those participants for
whom the perspective taking exercise involved situational constraints. For participants who
were asked to take part in a perspective taking exercise in which the situational constraints
were nonexistent, taking both quizzes did not have any additional effects beyond the effects
of either one of the quizzes.
In model 3, we find that the main effects of both quizzes are significant and are
qualified by a two-way interaction, which is graphically represented in Figure 8. The threeway interaction is no longer statistically significant (although we observed a similar pattern
of effects) and would suggest that this model specification is too strong a test. Following
these results, as a cautionary measure, we tested whether our experimental manipulations
would predict sexism measured during the survey (i.e., prior to the intervention). In other
words, we tested whether the average level of participants’ sexism was equal across
conditions, and thus, whether we had successfully randomized participants across conditions
as far as sexism was concerned. Our intervention successfully passed this test.
Finally, it is noteworthy that the gender and age of participants have highly significant
effects. The researchers from the University of Lausanne will conduct sub-sample analyses in
future studies to further probe these results.
- Page 19 of 50 -
Table 4 – Experimental effect on sexisma
Variable
Perspective
Gender quiz
Diversity quiz
Perspective x
Gender quiz
Perspective x
Diversity quiz
Gender quiz x
Diversity quiz
Perspective x
Diversity quiz x
Gender quiz
(1)
Sexism
(2)
Sexism
(3)
Sexism
0.179
(-1.85)
0.239
(-1.92)
0.281*
(-2.24)
-0.17
(-1.23)
-0.298*
(-2.54)
-0.306
(-1.91)
0.434**
(-2.71)
0.141
(-1.6)
0.255*
(-2.14)
0.275*
(-2.37)
-0.142
(-1.05)
-0.215
(-1.85)
-0.308*
(-2.19)
0.328*
(-2.12)
0.0789
(-0.94)
0.261*
(-2.37)
0.228*
(-2.39)
-0.109
(-0.74)
-0.101
(-1.06)
-0.264*
(-2.12)
0.228
(-1.46)
Included
-0.206***
(-4.04)
0.00498**
(-3.29)
0.378***
(-8.84)
Included
-0.409
(-1.26)
998
-0.000159
(-0.00)
980
Sexism (time 1)
Age
Gender
Country fixed
effects
Intercept
n observations
-0.245**
(-2.95)
998
Note: t statistics in parentheses. All models were estimated using OLS
estimator and country level cluster robust standard errors.
a
The dependent variable sexism is measured using Swim et al.’s (1995)
measure of old-fashioned and modern sexism. The scale is constructed
such as that lower scores on this variable denote higher levels of sexism.
* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001
- Page 20 of 50 -
Figure 7 – Three way interactional effects of perspective taking, gender and diversity
quizzes on sexism (from model 2)
Perspective taking without
situational constraints (control)
Perspective taking with situational
constraints (experimental manipulation)
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
No gender quiz
No diversity quiz
Gender quiz
No gender quiz
Diversity quiz
Gender quiz
No diversity quiz
Diversity quiz
Note: Dependent variable is Swim et al.’s (1995) old-fashioned and modern sexism. The scale was constructed
in such a way that greater values indicate less prejudice.
Figure 8 – Two way international effects of gender and
diversity quizzes on sexism (from model 3)
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
-0.05
No gender quiz
No diversity quiz
Gender quiz
Diversity quiz
Note: Dependent variable is Swim et al.’s (1995) old-fashioned and
modern sexism. The scale was constructed in such a way that greater
values indicate less prejudice.
- Page 21 of 50 -
Follow-up
The research team from the University of Lausanne will conduct sub-sample analyses
of the gender and age of the participants in future studies to further probe the results
presented here. They will also communicate the content and results of this intervention to
the scientific community through publications in academic journals.
In the context of its ongoing commitment to promoting the development of women
leaders in the sport of athletics, European Athletics will be working with the project partners
and others to develop the knowledge and experience collected here into a tool that can be
used in practical settings in the sport.
Recommendations
5. The results we obtained indicate that we have put together elements of an online
tool which can be easily be developed for use by sport and other organizations to
provide gender awareness training to large groups of people. We know that
combining a perspective taking exercise with questions and answers designed to go
against preconceptions about gender and leadership (and diversity) is effective in
reducing sexist attitudes. Thus, we recommend that young athletes, both boys and
girls, coaches, club leaders and others take part in gender issue awareness training
interventions based on these findings. An online platform should be developed
extending what we have done by including animations, videos, and the such.
6. Organizations that may use such a tool in the future should be aware of the fact that
running this intervention requires up to four hours per day of work for each day the
intervention is active in order to collect data from each subsection of the
survey/awareness training and randomly assign participants to the subsequent
subsections (this may vary as a function of the number of people taking part in the
intervention per day). Consequently, we recommend developing a custom survey so
as to be able to automatically run the 9 surveys that form this intervention (8
experimental conditions, plus one post-intervention survey) and automatically
randomly assign participants to conditions within country.
7. Finally, comments from the participants made it clear that the time required to
complete the initial athletics population survey (Work Package 1) and take part in the
Work Package 2 intervention (including the awareness training and the follow-up
survey) were felt by some, at least, to be excessive. It is certain that a number of
people will have abandoned the initial survey before completion, but it is hard for us
to know how many, and then we know that some completed the survey but
abandoned the process at a later point. Although the intervention tool we have in
mind would not be as time consuming, we recommend that future researchers take
into account the sport community they are working with and in particular its
expectations and tolerance when designing their online survey and intervention
projects.
- Page 22 of 50 -
Work Package 3 – Awareness Training for Federation Presidents and CEOs
Objective
Design and deliver workshops for federation leaders to increase awareness and
change attitudes towards women and women leaders.
Introduction
Federation leaders obviously play key roles in their organizations. Indeed, because of
the managerial discretion available and their function as role models, federation presidents
and CEOs to are able to directly and indirectly impact their organizations, including their
internal culture. Therefore ethical and values-based leadership at the top of federations is a
sine qua non to fostering gender equality at both the higher levels of the organizations and,
through a trickle-down process, in the attitudes seen at the other levels of the sport.
The purpose of this work package was to promote, and give an understanding of
ethical and values-based leadership to athletic federation leaders in the hope that it would
impact the culture of the organizations and the sport. Just as importantly, we wanted to
develop our understanding of the most effective way to teach these. In other words, to
create a top-down approach to changing attitudes within sports organizations towards
women in general, and women leaders in particular. If we can identify and confirm effective
teaching techniques, they can be developed for use in a variety of situations and in other
sports.
This intervention was delivered during European Athletics’ biennial CEO conference.
The CEO conference was originally scheduled to take place in Barcelona, Spain, in April of
2010. However, a day prior to the beginning of the conference, the European air space was
shut down following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland and two thirds of
the participants were unable to attend. Because of this force majeure the CEO Conference
was rescheduled to November 2010.
Federation presidents and CEOs took part in this conference along with a few of their
top managers. The intervention per se took place within sessions devoted to strategic
leadership training. After having taken part in one session on leadership in general, the
participants were randomly split into two groups. Each group was led by a training
consultant who facilitated group discussions focused heavily on ethical and transformational
leadership—a highly effective component of leadership based on morals and vision. The
consultants demonstrated how to effectively communicate a vision through the use of
rhetoric and they put a strong emphasis in the value of ethical leadership (from both
pragmatic and moral standpoints). In one of two groups, a strong emphasis on gender issues
and leadership was placed.
- Page 23 of 50 -
Participants (n = 66) were asked to complete a pre-conference survey in which they
completed the ambivalent sexism inventory (ASI)13 and a short version of the questionnaire
measuring the big-five dimensions of personality14. During the conference, we also obtained
measures of fluid intelligence15, as well as measures of implicit sexism (IAT)16 for some of the
participants.
Unfortunately, we were unable to conduct a post-intervention study to assess the
effectiveness of this intervention. Our original intent was to sample the work colleagues in
the organizations of all the seminar participants to test whether any observed systematic
difference in organizational-level sexism could be attributed to group assignment. However,
because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland (which delayed the intervention) and mainly the
workload inherent to the position of the seminar participants, we were not able to get
sufficient numbers to participate in a follow-up to the intervention at a distance.
In order to assess the effectiveness of this training, over the next couple of years,
European Athletics will be monitoring the proportion of female employees in the different
federations, especially at the higher-echelons, in order to observe any systematic difference
which could be attributed to participants’ group assignment in this intervention.
Results
As mentioned above, we cannot, as of now, assess the effectiveness of this
intervention in a scientific manner. Nevertheless, we have reasons to believe that it has had
an effect. First, this intervention was carried out by seasoned trainers who are accustomed
to giving such interventions—and especially to such a high profile audience. Indeed, the
researcher who devised the intervention and delivered it to one of the groups has published
scientific papers showing the effectiveness of this leadership training, and is highly proficient
on matters relating to gender and leadership (he has been nominated for several awards
because of his engagement in this direction). Second, we informally surveyed a sample of
participants to gauge their feelings about the intervention. The feedback obtained was by
and large very positive. The participants reported that the leadership training was extremely
interesting and interactive, and that the discussion on gender and leadership was
particularly pertinent. Thus, we are confident that the intervention was effective.
Using the data collected in the pre-conference survey we can test whether country
level factors can predict sexism amongst top-level leaders in athletics organisations. Societal
norms convey expectations of men and women and consequently influence sexism
attitudes. Thus, we estimated a model regressing explicit measures of sexism (ASI) on the
following country-level factors:
13
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent
sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491-512.
14
Donnellan, M. B., Oswald, F. L., Baird, B. M., & Lucas, R. E. (2006). The Mini-IPIP Scales: Tiny-yet-effective
measures of the Big Five Factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18(2), 192-203.
15
Vernon, P. A. (1993). Der-Zahlen-Verbindungs-test and other trail-making correlates of general intelligence.
Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 35-40.
16
Greenwald, Anthony G.; McGhee, Debbie E.; Schwartz, Jordan L.K. (1998). Measuring Individual Differences
in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (6): 1464–
1480
- Page 24 of 50 -
Hofstede’s cultural dimension of masculinity which measures the extent to which
there are role gender expectations in a given culture;
Atheism which is directly related to the prevalence of religion which may convey
expectations about gender.
Because this country level data is not available for all the countries in our sample, our
sample size for this analysis is effectively reduced by half to 31 observations.
Table 5 – Experimental effect on sexism
Variable
Sexism
Hofstede’s Masculinity
dimension
0.48*
(2.20)
0.38
(1.96)
-0.22
(-1.72)
-0.17
(-0.93)
-0.09
(-0.46)
1.59
(1.50)
Atheism
GDP
Age
Gender
Intercept
R2
N
29.09%
31
Note: t statistics in parentheses. Estimates are
beta standardized coefficients. Standard errors
are robust to heteroskedasticity.
* p < 0.05
We find Hofstede’s country level measures of masculinity, collected several decades
ago, predicts individual levels of sexism of athletic federation CEOs and presidents. The fact
that these measures are predictive of current levels of sexism is indicative that sexist
attitudes are still rather entrenched and that the present project is highly relevant to
advance gender equality in European sports. The University of Lausanne researchers and
the project partners continue to believe that through interventions such as the present
ethical leadership training sexist attitudes at the top of organizations can be changed and we
will be working to devise ways that these can be scientifically shown to be effective.
Follow-up
European Athletics will continue to monitor the number of women in leadership and
management positions in the different athletic federations to see if there is any change that
might be attributed to the intervention.
- Page 25 of 50 -
The University of Lausanne and European Athletics will discuss the development of
the training method tried in this work package, the possibility of a second seminar and new
approaches to working with federation leaders to raise awareness and change attitudes
towards women leaders in the sport.
Recommendations
8. Focus specifically on the “trickle-down” hypothesis mentioned above by surveying
the different federations to test to which extent changes in the attitudes of
federation leaders carry over to their followers as a result of the present intervention
or future projects.
9. Stage a second workshop with federation CEOs and presidents. As we have not been
able to get access to federation leaders from a distance for important follow-up
actions, having them at hand on two occasions will probably be a necessary condition
to i) fully assess the effectiveness of the intervention on the participants and ii)
investigate the extent to which changes in the attitudes of federation CEOs and
presidents carry over to their followers.
10. Offer additional transformational and charismatic leadership trainings to male
leaders who have been identified as non-effective and/or problematic with regard to
gender equality issues in the sport.
11. Ensure future workshops are tailored to the participants in order to be well received.
It is likely that federation presidents and CEOS would not “buy in” to a perspective
taking exercise involving a hypothetical situation on an alien planet (because of their
prior experience and achieved rank in their organizations). However, such an exercise
would certainly serve as a valuable starting point from which to work from in order
to devise a tool specifically designed for this population. Furthermore, these two
workshops might be enhanced by taking into account the findings from Work
Package 2 (in terms of understanding efficient means to reduce sexism).
- Page 26 of 50 -
Work Package 4 – Skills Training for Future Women Leaders
Objective
Design and deliver a seminar to increase the knowledge of sports management and
the charismatic and visionary skills of potential women leaders.
Introduction
Prototypical leaders are associated agentic attributes such as being dominant,
achievement-oriented, and so forth. Men also tend to be associated with such agentic
attributes, while women are usually associated with communal attributes, such as being
nurturing, being understanding, etc. Because of the mismatch between the prototype of a
leader and the prototype of women, women are perceived as less leader-like than men.
Furthermore, if women behave in agentic ways, they will be disliked because as a result of
violating the gender role expectation. Given that leadership emergence depends on the
extent to which individuals are perceived to match the leader prototype, teaching individuals
to behave in more leader-like ways and to be more charismatic (an important component of
leadership) should increase the probability that these individuals attain leadership positions,
either through elections or through an employment selection process.
In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that in a number of athletics federations,
lack of training or knowledge in sports management and international contacts are used as
reasons to pass over women candidates for leadership positions. Taking away these
arguments against individuals by providing specific international training could also be
important factors in them advancing into leadership positions.
Studies have shown that leadership and charisma can be taught and it is certainly
possible to increase the knowledge of an individual about sports management and related
topics. The seminar that was the focus of this work package was designed to increase the
participants’ chances of attaining leadership positions in the future by providing extensive
training in a broad array of leadership and charisma skills, by providing technical and
organisational information about athletics in Europe and by integrating participants in a
network of future women leaders. Importantly, we wanted to test the format and key
elements of the seminar to see if they could be used (and developed) to training other
potential leaders in athletics and other sports.
In January 2011, 44 women identified by their national athletic federation as having
the potential to attain a higher leadership position in the future took part in a week-long
seminar in Evian, France. Most were nominated by the partner federations of the project but
two additional participants were added at European Athletics’ expense as a part of an
existing leadership training programme. Demographic information about the participants is
presented in Figure 9 and Figure 10.
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Figure 9 – Distribution of participants by country
Turkey
1
2
6
5
Sweden
Slovenia
Norway
Netherlands
5
5
Malta
Iceland
1
4
France
Estonia
5
1
Denmark
Austria
5
Figure 10 – Distribution of participants by age
- Page 28 of 50 -
The seminar was built as follows:
two and a half days were dedicated to leadership skills training (described below);
three evenings were dedicated to networking and to the exchange of leadership
experiences;
half a day served as a team building exercise during which participants engaged in
activities with young athletes from the Evian area;
a day and a half was dedicated to meeting top-level leaders in European Athletics
(e.g., Dr Sylvia Barlag – ambassador for this project, Christian Milz – Director General
of European Athletics and experts from other sports) who shared their experiences
and knowledge about leadership and practical issues with the participants;
one half day was dedicated to group exercises, which served the participants to apply
the training they had received, and for us, to test the effectiveness of this training.
See Appendix G for further details on the programme and timetable.
Upon arriving to the seminar, participants were randomly assigned (within country) to
one of two groups. As part of a three-day program dedicated to leadership skills training,
participants from both groups received training in:
intrapreuneuship (2h)—i.e., the capability to foster entrepreneurial activity within an
organization;
gender awareness and leadership (2h);
leader judgment and decision making (4h);
transformational leadership (8h)—i.e., a highly effective form of leadership based on
vision and ethics.
Additionally, one group (we will refer to this group as to the charismatic group)
received one hour of training in charismatic leadership during the sessions dedicated to
transformational leadership. The training on charismatic leadership emphasized an
understanding of what is charisma, on presenting charismatic rhetorical techniques
associated with higher attributions of charisma, and on how to communicate a vision. The
professor in charge of the transformational and charisma leadership module based this
training on some previous work he had published in a top scientific journal17. It is
noteworthy that transformation leadership is the best available intervention in terms of
leadership training18. Transformational leadership training served here as our benchmark
training and we investigated whether we could further improve transformation leadership
training with charismatic training. This set-up ensured that both groups received valuable
leadership training (rather than testing one training against a control group receiving no
training).
17
Antonakis, J., Fenley, M., & Liechti, S. (in press). Can charisma be taught? Tests of two interventions.
Academy of Management Learning and Education.
18
Avolio, B. J., Reichard, R. J., Hannah, S. T., Walumbwa, F. O., Chan, A. (2009). A meta-analytic review of
leadership impact research: Experimental and quasi-experimental studies, The Leadership Quarterly, 20(5),
764-784.
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The effectiveness of the training was assessed during the half day dedicated to group
exercises. Groups of four participants were made by randomly selecting two participants
from the transformational leadership group and two participants from the charismatic
group. All groups engaged in a series of three coordination and information sharing
exercises. As mentioned before and as we will discuss in the next section, these group
exercises served to establish whether the participants in the charismatic group would come
out as being more leader-like than participants in the other group.
Participants completed a number of questionnaires (Work Package 1) before and
after receiving the leadership skills training and after completing the group exercises. The
measures collected served different purposes as explained below.
Prior to the leadership skills training, we collected from participants measures of
traits that are known to be associated with leadership emergence and leadership
effectiveness. These are: the big-five dimensions of personality19, fluid intelligence20, and
self-efficacy21. Accounting for the effect of these stable individual differences allows to us to
better detect the training effects.
After the leadership skills training and before the group exercises, participants took a
quiz on transformational and charismatic leadership, completed a scale measuring core selfevaluations (i.e., self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, and neuroticism), and evaluated
the trainers. Following previous scientific research on charismatic leadership training22, we
employed the evaluations of trainers and the scores on the quiz to test whether any posttraining measured differences between the charismatic group and the other group could be
attributed to the charismatic leadership training. Indeed, the quiz served to test whether
participants in the charismatic group had a greater understanding of charismatic leadership
than did participants in the other group. The evaluations of the trainers allowed us to verify
whether the participants from both groups had perceived their training in a similar fashion.
After the group exercises, participants rated their group members in terms of leader
prototypicality using a scientifically validated instrument23. Our interest was to see if the
within group ranking of leader prototypicality could be predicted by the knowing from which
groups participants came, and whether any effect could be attributed to the additional
charismatic training.
19
Donnellan, M. B., Oswald, F. L., Baird, B. M., & Lucas, R. E. (2006). The Mini-IPIP Scales: Tiny-yet-effective
measures of the Big Five Factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18(2), 192-203.
20
Vernon, P. A. (1993). Der-Zahlen-Verbindungs-test and other trail-making correlates of general intelligence.
Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 35-40.
21
Chen, G., Gully, S. M., and Eden, D. (2001). Validation of a New General Self-Efficacy Scale. Organizational
Research Methods, 4, 62-83.
22
Towler, A. J. (2003). Effects of charismatic influence training on attitudes, behavior, and performance.
Personnel psychology, 56(2): 363 - 381.
23
Cronshaw, S. F., & Lord, R. G. (1987). Effects of categorization, attribution, and encoding processes on
leadership perceptions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 97–106.
- Page 30 of 50 -
Results
Participants from both groups rated all four trainers of the leadership skills training
on a seven-point scale. The trainer responsible for the transformational and charismatic
training was equally well evaluated by both groups indicating that participants from both
groups found the training of value. There was a significant difference in the mean evaluation
of the three other trainers by both groups. These results are depicted in Figure 11. This
difference was such as that the charismatic group evaluated the other trainers less positively
than did the other group. This difference is likely to result from an ordering effect between
the different session. Indeed, the charismatic group began the seminar with the
transformational leadership session which was the most appreciated. Thus, the following
sessions probably suffered from the comparison.
Figure 11 – Evaluation of trainers by group
7
6
5
Ratings of trainer for the
transformation and
charismatic leadership
session
4
3
2
Ratings of the trainers for
the other sessions
1
0
Group receiving
transformational
leadership training
Group receiving
transformational and
charismatic leadership
training
As figure 12 indicates participants in the charismatic group scored higher on the
charisma related questions indicating that they had a better knowledge of charismatic
leadership.
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Figure 12 – Participants’ score to questions
on charismatic leadership
Note: Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.
We used leader prototypicality ratings to establish a within group ranking of the
individuals perceived as being the most leader-like. We tested whether this ranking could be
attributed to the knowledge about charismatic leadership (as measured by the score on the
charisma quiz).
Finally, we tested whether the differences in scores on the charisma could be
attributed to the training in charismatic leadership, and this beyond the effects of
personality, intelligence, self-efficacy, and age. Table 6 below presents the results of these
analyses.
These results show a strong effect of the charismatic leadership training on leader
prototypicality ranking (model 1), an effect that is fully mediated by the knowledge of
charismatic leadership (model 2). The effect of the charismatic leadership training on leader
prototypicality ranking holds when not controlled for the knowledge of charismatic
leadership (model 3).
The results also lend support to the effectiveness of charismatic leadership training
above and beyond that of transformational leadership training. In this intervention, the
participants who received both the transformational and charismatic leadership training
were perceived as more leader-like by their group members (across all three group
exercises).
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Table 6 – Model predicting the effects of charisma training on
leader prototypicality ranking through charisma quiz
Variable
Charisma quiz
R2
Variable
Charisma training
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness
Fluid intelligence
Self-efficacy
Age
Intercept
R2
(1)
Leader prototypicality ranking
0.383***
(0.115)
31.1%
(2)
Charisma quiz
2.045***
0.456
-0.268
0.646
-0.094
0.428
-0.010
-0.754
-0.035
7.926
(0.552)
(0.251)
(0.324)
(0.445)
(0.304)
(0.491)
(0.032)
(0.545)
(0.027)
(2.786)
40.9%
Note: Robust standard errors in parenthesis. The model predicting Leader
prototypicality ranking is an ordered probit model. The model predicting
Charisma quiz is an OLS model. Both models were estimated simultaneously.
The error terms of both models do not significantly correlate ( 2(9) = 7.67, p =
0.57).
*** p < 0.001
- Page 33 of 50 -
Table 7 – Model predicting the effects of charisma training on
leader prototypicality ranking without charisma quiz
Variable7=
Charisma training
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness
Fluid intelligence
Self-efficacy
Age
Intercept
pseudo R2
(3)
Leader prototypicality ranking
0.774*
0.623*
-0.161
0.522
-0.016
0.787*
0.0406**
-0.319
-0.0207
0.774*
13.24%
(-0.394)
(-0.284)
(-0.228)
(-0.439)
(-0.131)
(-0.319)
(-0.016)
(-0.394)
(-0.018)
(-0.394)
Note: Robust standard errors in parenthesis. This model is an ordered probit
model.
** p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01
We have been able to demonstrate that the leadership training we provided to the
participants had significant effects and that it can be conducted over in a relatively short
period of time. Thus, scientifically validated leadership training could be proposed to women
having the potential to attain leadership positions as a way of helping them advance more
effectively.
Interestingly, participants assigned to the charismatic leadership group scored lower
on the post-training core self-evaluation questionnaire in comparison to participants from
the other group. This result can most probably be attributed to what can been referred to as
“the burden of expertise”24. Indeed, while individuals have a tendency to overly evaluate
their abilities in areas of incompetence, in areas of competence, individuals have the
opposite tendency, namely that of underestimating their own skills.
Follow-up
The University of Lausanne will be conducting two follow-up studies. The first will be
to assess whether the training will impact participants’ propensity to be elected or
appointed to key positions in the sport. The second will be to assess the change in
participants’ leadership behaviour over time, by obtaining ratings of the participants’
leadership behaviours from peers, subordinates, and superiors (i.e., using a 360° degree
leadership evaluation). This later study was not planned in the initial proposal and is thus an
addition to the project.
24
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own
incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1121-1134.
- Page 34 of 50 -
Following the seminar, European Athletics established a Facebook page entitled
“European Athletics Women’s Leadership Network” to promote discussion on issues related
to women in the sport and to strengthen and expand the relationships formed during the
seminar. The network is open to anyone but the seminar participants have been specifically
invited to join, as have the 24 winners of the 2009 European Athletics Women’s Leadership
Awards. The network discussions are currently driven and monitored by a staff member of
European Athletics with input from Dr Sylvia Barlag, but it is hoped that in the future a
critical mass of members will be reached and the discussions will be self-sustaining.
European Athletics has created a working group that will be reviewing its strategy for
promoting women leaders in the sport based on the results of the seminar and the overall
project as well as ideas that emerge from the European Athletics Women’s Leadership
Network. Particular consideration will be given to the possibility of regular training
measures for potential women leaders.
Recommendations
12. European Athletics should offer similar leadership training on a regular basis for
women with the potential to attain leadership positions in the sport, including
coaches, club leaders and federation leaders.
13. Transformational leadership training—the best intervention available at this time
(see footnote 12)—be supplemented with charismatic leadership training. Although
the specific mechanisms through which charisma influences followers are by and
large unknown, there are some elements that are understood and help to explain the
influencing effect of charismatic rhetoric on followers.
- Page 35 of 50 -
Concluding Remarks
On behalf of all the partners, we would like to thank the European Commission for its
interest and confidence in our project and for the support provided by the Sports Unit over
the course of its implementation.
In summary, we are satisfied with the overall outcome of this project. Indeed, at the end
of the project, three of the four work packages have had significant results:
Work Package 1—Survey: We obtained a statistical picture of the levels of sexism in
Europe;
Work Package 2—Online Awareness Training: We devised an online tool which was
successful at reducing prejudice towards women;
Work Package 4—Skills Training for Future Women Leaders: We delivered a targeted
intervention to potential future women leaders which provided them with leadership
skills. Additionally, we enhanced the best available intervention in terms of
leadership training and observed a difference in terms of leadership emergence.
As for the remaining work package (i.e., Work Package 3—Awareness Training for Federation
CEOs and Presidents), we can only speculate as to its effectiveness, but as discussed earlier,
we have good reasons to expect a positive effect.
The following summarises our recommendations:
Part I - Survey:
1. Conduct surveys similar to our general athletics population survey over time to
document sexism in European athletics, in order to i) observe the evolution of
attitudes so as to decide when and where to conduct gender awareness
interventions, ii) allow decision makers to optimally decide when and where to
implement interventions to reduce sexism and iii) assess the effectiveness of such
interventions.
2. Conduct similar surveys in other sports.
3. Ensure the availability of the specialized IT support required to implement a survey
running custom programmed interfaces.
4. Ensure that the aim and value of gender issue surveys to the sport as a whole are
well communicated.
Part II - Gender awareness interventions:
5. Offer an enhanced version of the awareness training for the athletics population
intervention comprising both quizzes and of the perspective taking exercise to young
athletes, both boys and girls, coaches, club leaders and others through an online
platform including animations, videos, etc.
- Page 36 of 50 -
6. Develop a custom survey platform so as to be able to automatically run the various
surveys that form the awareness training for the athletics population intervention
and randomly assign participants to experimental conditions.
7. Account for the expectations and tolerance of the participants, particularly in terms
of the time necessary to complete an online awareness training task, when planning
such interventions.
8. Survey federations to test to what extent changes in the attitudes of federation
leaders carry over to their followers as a result of the present intervention or of
future projects.
9. Stage a second leadership workshop for federation CEOs and presidents to i) fully
assess the effectiveness of the intervention and ii) investigate to extent to which
changes in the attitudes of federation CEOs and presidents carry over to their
followers.
10. Offer additional transformational and charismatic leadership trainings to male
leaders who have been identified as non-effective and/or problematic with regard to
gender equality issues in the sport.
11. Ensure future leadership workshops and gender awareness interventions for
federation leaders are tailored to the participants in order to be well received.
12. Offer leadership training on a regular basis for young women with the potential to
attain leadership positions in the sport, including coaches, club leaders and
federation leaders.
13. Supplement transformational leadership training—the best intervention available at
this time (see footnote 12)—with charismatic leadership training for women with the
potential to attain leadership positions in the sport.
- Page 37 of 50 -
Appendix A – Survey homepage
- Page 38 of 50 -
Appendix B – Sample press coverage of the survey
- Page 39 of 50 -
Appendix C – Text of an e-mail from a Member Federation
Communications Manager (female)
Trust you are well. [The federation CEO] has passed this onto me to take a look at in terms of both
filling in and publicising and I have to say I am very uncomfortable with the tone of the survey and is
not something I would want to push through our comms channels.
I appreciate the sentiment of the Women’s Leadership programme and imagine there is probably
some sort of educated psychological reasoning as to why these questions are being asked, but in my
humble opinion the very fact that you’re even having to ask them is firstly a sad reflection on our
sport and will probably only tell us what we already know – one look at both your and our councils is
enough to demonstrate the problem.
Surely you’re better off engaging with those of us in leadership roles and work to ensure our
organisations reflect society by providing the right opportunities instead of confirming that there are
lots of old men in our sport with outdated views.
Sorry to be controversial, but a number of our senior team in the office here were wholly
uncomfortable with the tone of questions.
- Page 40 of 50 -
Appendix D – Perspective taking exercise from the awareness
training for the general athletics population.25
Imagine that, when you were only a young child, you crash-landed on an alien planet, Vigg-O-tron, along
with 3000 other humans. Unfortunately, your spaceship was damaged beyond repair and all hope of escaping
from the planet is gone. The inhabitants of this new planet, Vigg-O-tron, appear remarkably Earth-like and
friendly. They speak the same language as you, and it is impossible to distinguish them physically from humans
from a distance. The Vigg-O-tronians express a desire to welcome you to their planet. They provide each of
you with an apartment, a small car, and an entry-level job.
Treatment 1—situational constraints
Treatment 2—no situational constraints
Over the years, you learn that Vigg-O-tronians
view humans as overly affectionate and caring, and
consider humans as too sensitive to be of equal value
with them. Despite this view, humans and Vigg-Otronians live together in harmony. However since you
arrived on Vigg-O-tron, not much has changed: ViggO-tronians have control over nearly all the major
institutions including politics, the universities, the
judiciary, businesses, the arts, the professions, etc.
Over the years, you learn that Vigg-O-tronians
view humans as affectionate and caring, and consider
humans to be of equal value with them. Because of
this view, humans and Vigg-O-tronians live together
in harmony. Since you arrived on Vigg-O-tron, a lot
has changed: Vigg-O-tronians and humans now share
the control of nearly all the major institutions
including politics, the universities, the judiciary,
businesses, the arts, the professions, etc.
You have just begun your first job and you are
determined to make it to the top! During your first
weeks on the job, you hear that one of your human
colleagues who has been one of the top performers
in your department over the past years has recently
been refused a promotion on the grounds that he
was not suited for the job because he wasn’t
sufficiently forceful and aggressive. It is now clear to
you, if you want to be respected by the Vigg-O-trons
on your job, you will have to behave more like them.
In the following weeks, you decide to give it all you
have: you are assertive and dominant, and you
display confidence and ambition. With this kind of
attitude you WILL make it. Alas, this morning during
the team meeting while you are forcefully discussing
how to solve the problem at hand, your superior cuts
you short and throws at you: “Hey human, don’t try
to be who you’re not. It doesn’t look good on you.
Why don’t you just keep cute and let the Vigg-O-trons
lead this meeting?” Everyone, Vigg-O-trons and
humans, roar with laughter. When you leave the
conference room, one of your colleagues says quietly
in your ear: “If you’re smart, you’ll forget about that
kind of behaviour”.
You have just begun your first job and you are
determined to make it to the top! During your first
weeks on the job, you hear that one of your human
colleagues who has been one of the top performers
in your department over the past years has recently
been promoted in part because of his forceful and
aggressive attitude. It is now clear to you, if you want
to be respected on your job, you will have to behave
more like this colleague. In the following weeks, you
decide to give it all you have: you are assertive and
dominant, and you display confidence and ambition.
With this kind of attitude you WILL make it. Indeed,
this morning during the team meeting while you are
forcefully discussing how to solve the problem at
hand, your superior interrupts: “Hey human, I like
how you think. Good job.” Everyone, Vigg-O-trons
and humans, nods in approval. When you leave the
conference room, one of your colleagues says quietly
in your ear: “If you’re smart, you’ll keep showing that
kind of behaviour”.
25
Adapted from Hillman, J., & Martin, R. A. (2002). Lessons about gay and lesbian lives: A spaceship exercise.
Teaching of Psychology, 29 (4), 308-11.
- Page 41 of 50 -
Appendix E – Gender quiz from the awareness training for the
general athletics population.
Women in positions of power in Europe.
Athletics
Q:
A:
In 2008, what percentage of registered athletes in Europe were female?
In 2008, women represented nearly half (48.45%) of the registered athletes in
Europe. (Source: IAAF).
Politics
Q:
A:
In 2009, out of the 27 member countries of the European Union, how many had a
female head of state?
Only 5 of the 27 member countries of the European Union had a female head of state
in 2009. (Source: Catalyst.org)
Athletics
Q:
A:
In 2008, what proportion of the various committees in the 50 European Athletics
Member Federations were chaired by a woman (in percentage)?
In 2008, women chaired 15.9% of committees in the sport of athletics in Europe. One
quarter of those chaired a women’s committee. (Source IAAF)
Corporations
Q:
A:
How many women are currently CEOs of the 500 largest companies in Europe?
Only nine women are currently CEOs of companies listed in the Financial Times
Europe 500. (footnote: http://www.catalyst.org/publication/285/women-in-europe)
The situation of women in positions of power is such because…
TRUE OR FALSE
The reason why there are so few women in leadership positions in Europe is because…
1. Women are more emotional than men are and emotions get in the way of efficient
leadership.
FALSE: The difference between men and women in terms of emotional stability is
negligible and cannot explain the lack of women in leadership. (footnote
reference: Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001)
- Page 42 of 50 -
2. Women are in general less educated than men. Therefore it is only natural that there
are more men than women who are recruited for positions of power.
FALSE: In 2008 in Europe, 81.3% of females aged 20 to 24 had completed at least
upper secondary education compared with 75.6% of males. In 2006, 55.1% of
students enrolled in tertiary schools were women. (footnote source: Eurostat)
3. Leaders should have tough-guy characteristics (that is, achievement-oriented,
assertive, ambitious, and dominant). Women who behave in tough-guy ways are
disliked because they don’t behave in a way we usually think women should behave.
As a consequence, women are not promoted as often as men are.
TRUE: Women who act in tough-guy ways challenge the commonly shared
conception of how women should behave and we don’t like when something
goes against our preconceived ideas. So, a woman who is not acting like a
(typical) woman will usually be disliked which penalizes them when they seek
to occupy a leadership position.
- Page 43 of 50 -
Appendix F – Diversity quiz from the awareness training for the
general athletics population.
Diversity in Europe
Athletics
Q:
A:
How many Member Federations does European Athletics have?
European Athletics has 50 Member Federations (Source: http://www.europeanathletics.org/european-athletics-member-federations-new.html)
Politics
Q:
A:
How many ethnic groups live in Europe?
Researchers have reported that 87 distinct "peoples of Europe" cohabit together
across European countries (Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Europe)
Athletics
Q:
A:
How old is the oldest man to have taken part in an official athletics competition?
John Whittemore threw the javelin and discus at the age of 104! (Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whittemore)
Corporations
Q:
A:
Which percentage of Europe's leading companies mention "diversity" in their annual
reports?
An astounding 76 percent of Europe's leading blue-chip companies mention
"diversity" in their annual reports A new survey, notes that "diversity is now a
strategic success factor" that "leading companies can no longer overlook." (Source:
http://www.diversityinc.com/article/5829/Are-Top-Companies-in-EuropeCommunicating-Diversity)
The effect of diversity is…
TRUE OR FALSE
Diversity can have an important effect on organizations of all sorts. Indeed …
1. A team composed of homogeneous members (i.e., similar in terms of background,
age, race, and so on) will usually make better decisions than a team composed of
very diverse members.
- Page 44 of 50 -
FALSE: Heterogeneous groups benefit from a greater variety of opinions and are
therefore more likely to take into account different facets of a problem and,
ultimately, make better decisions. (footnote reference: Janis, 1972)
2. Teams whose members are diverse in terms of personality traits, values, and
attitudes are more effective than teams whose members are diverse in terms of race
or age (or any other characteristics which can be perceived upfront).
FALSE: As individuals work together and get to know each other, the impact of visible
differences between team members (such as, e.g., race or age) decreases.
However, differences in job-related beliefs, attitudes, and values will continue
to be a source of friction and conflict. (footnote reference: Harrison, Price,
Gavin, & Florey, 2002)
3. In the end, every one has the same chances. It’s just up to you to try to make it
happen.
FALSE: The expectations we have of others influences our judgement. If we like
someone, we will immediately be more helpful with this person than if we
don’t like him or her—even if you just met this person a second ago! If a
group of people is associated with not so positive expectations, members of
this group will have to work harder to overcome these expectations.
- Page 45 of 50 -
Appendix G – Volcano forces change to CEO Conference plans
- Page 46 of 50 -
Appendix H – Future Women Leaders Seminar Programme
Closing the Leadership Gender Gap in European Athletics
Future Women Leaders Seminar
Evian/FRA, 16 - 21 January 2011
Programme
Sunday – 16 January
All Day:
Arrival and Check-in
12:00-13:00
Lunch
Evening:
Welcome Dinner
Monday – 17 January
09:00-09:05
Welcome (Marcel Ferrari, Vice President, Fédération Française d’Athlétisme)
09:05-10:00
Introduction (Bill Glad, Development Manager, European Athletics, and Dr Philippe
Jacquart, Closing the Leadership Gender Gap Project Manager)
10:00-10:30
Coffee Break
10:30-12:00
Developing Women Leaders in Athletics – The Rhône-Alpes Programme (Anne Roger,
Council Member, Ligue d'Athlétisme Rhône-Alpes and Member of the Center of
Research and Innovation in Sport - University of Lyon 1)
12:00-13:30
Lunch
13:30-15:15
Workshop Session I
Group A: Leadership & Influence) – Part 1 (John Antonakis, Professor, University of
Lausanne)
Group B: Intrapreneurship (Dr Jane Khayesi, University of Lausanne)
15:15-15:30
Coffee Break
15:30-17:30
Workshop Session II
Group A: Leadership & Influence – Part 2 (Antonakis)
Group B: Leader Decision Making – Part 1 (Jacquart)
- Page 47 of 50 -
19:00-20:00
Dinner
20:30-21:00
Case Study Presentation I
Tuesday – 18 January
8:30-10:15
Workshop Session III
Group B: Leader Decision Making – Part 2 (Jacquart)
10:15-10:30
Coffee Break
10:30-12:30
Workshop Session IV
Group B: Gender Awareness (Marika Fenley, University of Lausanne)
12:30-13:30
Lunch
13:30-15:15
Workshop Session V
Group A: Gender Awareness (Fenley)
Group B: Leadership & Influence – Part 1 (Antonakis)
15:15-15:30
Coffee Break
15:30-17:30
Workshop Session VI
Group A: Leader Decision Making – Part 1 (Jacquart)
19:00-20:00
Dinner
20:30-21:00
Case Study Presentation II
Wednesday – 19 January
8:30-10:15
Workshop Session VII
Group A: Leader Decision Making – Part 2 (Jacquart)
10:15-10:30
Coffee Break
10:30-12:30
Workshop Session VIII
Group A: Intrapreneurship (Khayesi)
12:30-14:00
Lunch
14:00-16:00
Sports Activity
19:00-20:00
Dinner
20:30-21:00
Case Study Presentation III
- Page 48 of 50 -
Thursday – 20 January (Day at Olympic Museum)
08:20-09:15
Ferry from Evian to Lausanne
Walk to Olympic Museum
9:15-10:00
European Athletics: Structure, Strategy and Programmes (Christian Milz, Director
General, European Athletics)
10:00-10:30
European Athletics’ Strategy for Developing Women Leaders (Dr Sylvia Barlag, Vice
President, Atletikunie and Council Member, European Athletics)
10:30-10:45
Coffee Break
10:45-11:15
My Life in Athletics and the European Athletics Women’s Leadership Awards (Thordís
Gísladóttir, Assistant Professor, Reykjavik University and Winner of 2009 European
Athletics Women’s Leadership Award)
11:15-11:45
The Barcelona 2010 Experience (Monica Barra, General Coordinator, 2010 European
Championships in Athletics)
11:45-12:15
Q&A’s (Barlag, Gísladóttir, and Barra)
12:30-13:30
Lunch
13:30-14:15
Women’s Leadership Project in Cycling (Andrea Marcellini Mendonça, Coordinator of
Cycling for All, Masters and Sustainable Development, Union Cycliste Internationale
The International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG)
Nicole Gruber, Commercial Manager, Union Cycliste Internationale
15:00-15:45
Q&A’s (Marcellini Mendonça and Gruber) and Open Discussion
15:45-16:30
Coffee Break
16:00-18:00
Olympic Museum Visit
18:30-21:30
Return to Evian and Dinner
Friday – 21 January
9:00-10:00
Group Exercises – Part I (Fenley, Jacquart and Khayesi)
10:00-10:30
Coffee Break
10:30-12:30
Group Exercises – Part II (Fenley, Jacquart and Khayesi)
12:30-14:00
Lunch
14:00-15:00
Discussion: What do we do from here? (Glad and Barlag)
15:00-15:30
Coffee Break
15:30-17:00
Final Review & Wrap-Up
18:00-19:00
Cocktail
- Page 49 of 50 -
19:00
Bus leaves for dinner
Evening:
Group Dinner
Saturday – 22 January
All day:
Departures
January 2011
- Page 50 of 50 -

Closing the Leadership Gender Gap in European Athletics FINAL

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