TALKING HEADS - STEREOTYPES, STATUS, SEX-ROLES AND SATISFACTION OF FEMALE AND MALE AUDITORS

Theorizing that organizations re-produce themselves in their owns images, where organizational power resides with ''mostly masculine men'', researchers posit that both male and female employees will inevitably reject, ''feminine'' stereotypes and adopt ''masculine'' stereotypes as conditions of moving up the corporate hierarchy. Identifying behavior as masculine or feminine is a historical and culturally determined activity, promoting and maintaining stereotypes. In this paper, we study the identities imposed on audit specialists, referred to as stereotypical sex role characteristics, over a period of five years in order to discover if different profiles exist for: (1) auditors in partnership positions and auditors in staff positions; (2) auditors who experience high job satisfaction levels and those with low job satisfaction levels; and (3) auditors who remain with their firm of employment and those who find new positions. The analysis reveals that a high stereotypical masculine sex-role orientation was significantly (positively) related to higher occupational status and job satisfaction, and lower turnover. Such results illustrate that behavior is culturally restricted as to what is considered socially appropriate, with inevitably limiting and negative consequences on organizational, personal, and social life.