Gender and negotiation initiation during Covid-19: studying negotiations over salary, work-role and work-home balance and the pandemic's perceived effects

Abstract

PurposeThe study tested the effects of gender on negotiation initiation in three topics: salary, work-role and work-home balance; and on employee's perceptions of Covid-19 as inhibiting or enhancing negotiation initiation in these topics.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed a mixed-methods approach in a sample of 387 Israeli employees (189 female). Analyses of variance tested for gender differences in negotiation initiation and in Covid-19's perceived effects. Participants' additional written explanations, specifying how the pandemic inhibited or enhanced negotiation initiation, were inductively analyzed.FindingsCompared to male, female employees were less inclined to initiate negotiation in all three topics, and more likely to perceive Covid-19 as inhibiting salary and work-role negotiations. Qualitative explanations demonstrated gender-role-consistent motives for avoiding or initiating salary negotiations during Covid-19. They also suggested that the pandemic increased the legitimacy and significance of work-home balance negotiations, across gender.Originality/valueThe study provides new evidence on gender differences in negotiation initiation, particularly over work-role and work-home balance, and is among the first to test these differences in Israel. Moreover, it sheds light on the effects that Covid-19, as a world-wide crisis, had on employees' negotiations in general, and gender equality in employees' negotiations in particular.