The assistant professor of international business shared research on women leaders and organizational performance.
Carri Tolmie, assistant professor of international business in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, presented her research on the perception of women as managers and the need to build greater trust in leadership and organizations during the 2019 Academy of Marketing Science conference in Vancouver, Canada.
The paper “Women Leaders and Firm Performance: Unpacking the Effect of Gender and Trust,” co-authored with Kevin Lehnert, and Carol Sánchez, both at Grand Valley State University, explores the role of gender and its influence on the relationship between trust and organizational performance, as well as on the perception of women as managers.
Understanding how differently men perceive women, compared with how women perceive women, are key to achieving the levels of trust, confidence, and support for the organization’s strategic initiatives, the authors write. They argue that the more positive the perception of women as managers, the stronger the relationship between trust and organizational performance.
Their research indicates organizational trust does lead to stronger perceived performance, and this relationship is mediated by the employee’s perception of women as managers. Interestingly, the authors find this mediation only holds for male employees, with female employees having a direct relationship between trust and performance.
During the conference, Tolmie also served as chair for the Insights into Perceived Value session.
Tolmie earned her doctoral degree in international business and marketing from Saint Louis University. Her research focuses on corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability and ethics, in particular how these concepts are influenced by culture, consumer perceptions and identification. She joined Elon in 2013 and teaches courses in international business, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as sustainable development, global marketing and business strategy.