Masculinity at the Negotiation Table: A Theory of Men's Negotiation Behaviors and Outcomes

A pervasive phenomenon in the workplace is that men appear eager to show how “tough” they are as negotiators. We introduce the Masculinity Effects in Negotiations model to explain men’s negotiation behaviors and outcomes. According to the model, men perceive negotiating as an activity through which they can signal their masculinity and pursue social status, but they also recognize that their masculinity might be questioned and that they might lose social status. As a result, men can become enthusiastic but also anxious about negotiations and these emotions lead them to display a number of agentic negotiation behaviors to protect and underscore their masculinity and their social status. Depending on their own and their counterpart’s behavior, men then either succeed or fail to obtain favorable economic negotiation outcomes, which influence their subsequent emotions (e.g., pride or shame). With our model, we advance a novel explanation for gender differences in negotiations and expand the understanding of men’s workplace behaviors and outcomes (e.g., their pay, position, and reputation).