Running head: IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
1
It’s About Respect:
Gender-Professional Identity Integration Affects Male Nurses’ Job Attitudes
Aaron S. Wallen
Columbia University
Shira Mor
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Beth A. Devine
INSEAD
Author Note
Aaron S. Wallen, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University; Shira Mor,
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Beth A. Devine,
Organisational Behaviour Area, INSEAD.
This research was funded by Columbia Business School. We thank Michael W. Morris
for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. We are grateful to William T. Lecher for
facilitating access to the American Assembly for Men in Nursing’s membership. Finally, we
thank Verónica Benet-Martínez for her helpful suggestion regarding our sample, as well as
Barbara A. Devine for her insights on the nursing field.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Aaron S. Wallen,
Management Division, Columbia Business School, 3022 Broadway, Uris Hall, Room 316C, New
York, NY 10027. E-mail: aw2328@columbia.edu
© 2014 American Psychological Association. This article may not exactly replicate the final version
published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
Online first publication, February 10, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033714
Running head: IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
2
Abstract
Men who work in female-dominated jobs may perceive either overlap or incongruity between
their gender and professional identities, yet little research has examined the effects of such
perceptions for these men. The present research explores the impact of gender-professional
identity integration (GPII), a measure of how much two identities overlap, on job satisfaction and
organizational commitment, as well as on likelihood to pursue externally visible credentials, for
male nurses. Analyses of data collected from 178 male nurses demonstrated that GPII
significantly predicted job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and that perceived
respect of nursing partially mediated this relationship. Evidence for the association between
GPII and externally visible credentials was mixed, and perceived respect of nursing did not
mediate this relationship. We discuss implications of these findings for men in nursing,
including the importance of perceived respect of one’s occupation for formation of positive job
attitudes.
Keywords: gender, identity, respect, job satisfaction, organizational commitment
© 2014 American Psychological Association. This article may not exactly replicate the final version
published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
Online first publication, February 10, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033714
IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
3
It’s About Respect: Gender-Professional Identity Integration Affects Male Nurses’ Job Attitudes
Men who work in female-dominated occupations face potentially conflicting social
expectations. People believe men ought to be agentic—dominant, independent and assertive
(Carli & Eagly, 2011; Eagly, 1987). Conversely, people expect workers in female-dominated
fields to display communal skills (e.g. being nice, caring, helpful, and concerned for others’
welfare; Cejka & Eagly, 1999; Eagly, 1987; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011). A
female-dominated profession like nursing, for instance, carries such strong expectations of
communality that the United States Federal Government includes words like “care”, “nurture”,
and “sensitivity to patients’ needs” in its description of nursing (U.S. Department of Labor,
2009). Accordingly, professional and gender identities for men in nursing involve different,
potentially incongruent, expectations: one agentic and the other communal.
Identity integration is one psychological factor that may explain male nurses’ ability to
navigate seemingly incompatible gender and professional roles. Identity integration measures
the degree to which two social identities are represented as compatible and overlapping, as
opposed to conflicting and divided (Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005; Benet-Martinez, Leu,
Lee, & Morris, 2002; Cheng, Sanchez-Burks, & Lee, 2008; Haritatos & Benet-Martinez, 2002;
Mok & Morris, 2012a; Sacharin, Lee, & Gonzalez, 2009). Simply stated, identity integration
captures the extent to which two identities can “mix” together or combine. For example, a male
nurse has both gender (male) and professional (nurse) identities, and he might view these
identities as more or less integrated. If he perceived his gender and professional identities as
highly integrated, he may feel that being a nurse involved caring for patients, expressing
sympathy for their suffering, and treating them kindly, and that being a man involved the same
caring, sympathy, and kindness. If he perceived his gender and professional identities as lacking
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integration, he might also think that being a nurse involved caring, sympathy and kindness, but
that being a man did not—and perhaps should not—include such characteristics.
Identity integration has been studied in three contexts: bi-cultural identity integration
(e.g., Chinese identity and American identity for Chinese-Americans), gender-professional
identity integration (e.g., female identity and lawyer identity), and multiracial identity
integration; however, identity integration can involve any two identities. Scholars have argued
that high identity integration enables an individual to access schemas and traits associated with
both identities simultaneously, within the same situation. Higher identity integration seems to
afford advantages with regard to synthesizing ideas associated with different parts of one’s life
and advantages in meshing with one’s current context (Cheng et al., 2008; Mok & Morris, 2010).
In the present paper we explore the associations between male nurses’ genderprofessional identity integration and two job attitudes, job satisfaction and affective
organizational commitment, as well as between gender-professional identity integration and the
likelihood of possessing externally visible credentials. By studying men in a female gendertyped occupation we extend research on gender-professional identity integration, which has
focused on women in male gender-typed professions (Cheng et al., 2008; Sacharin et al., 2009).
Although gender-professional identity integration has important implications for women in maledominated professions, it is unclear what implications, if any, it has for men in female-dominated
professions. By measuring male nurses’ gender-professional identity integration and its
correlates, we hope to demonstrate that gender-professional identity integration matters for men
too, particularly in female-dominated fields like nursing. Furthermore, we anticipate that, by
documenting relationships between male nurses’ gender-professional identity integration and job
IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
attitudes, organizations will be alerted to an important correlate of job satisfaction and
organizational commitment for men in nursing and other female-dominated domains.
Our intuition regarding the relationship between gender-professional identity integration
and job satisfaction follows from work suggesting that perceived fit influences job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction has been defined as the “positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of
one’s job or job experiences” (Locke, 1976, p. 1300). Part of appraising one’s job involves
judging the compatibility—the perceived fit—between self and job. Indeed, organizational
research has documented that higher perceived person-environment fit predicts higher job
satisfaction (see Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005 for a review). Another part of
appraising one’s job, particularly for people in occupations dominated by another gender, may
rely on judgments of identity fit, for instance, whether a male nurse feels his nurse identity
meshes with his male identity. We expect that the degree of fit between the two identities—
gender-professional identity integration—affects job satisfaction as well. More specifically, we
hypothesize that gender-professional identity integration and job satisfaction are positively
related: the more that male nurses judge their male and nurse identities as integrated and
compatible, that is the greater their gender-professional identity integration, the greater their job
satisfaction is as well.
In addition to the relationship between gender-professional identity integration and job
satisfaction, we anticipate a relationship between gender-professional identity integration and
organizational commitment. Several studies examining degree of overlap between professional
boundaries and gender identity have demonstrated that commitment, as measured by lowered
intention to quit a profession, increases when professional boundaries are expanded to
encompass gender identities (see Darling, Molina, Sanders, Lee, & Zhao, 2008 for a review).
5
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Because gender-professional identity integration measures the overlap between gender and
professional identities, we expect it to relate to organizational commitment as well. In particular,
we think gender-professional identity integration will relate to affective commitment, one of
three components of organizational commitment (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1991).
Affective commitment refers to remaining with an organization because of attachment to, and
identification with, the organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990). Affective commitment results from
evaluations of a specific job and organization, and we think this type of commitment is more
relevant to gender-professional identity integration than other types of commitment. Following
from the idea that commitment increases when gender identities and professional boundaries
overlap, we hypothesize that gender-professional identity integration and affective commitment
are positive related; male nurses who view their male and nurse identities as compatible and
overlapping will have higher affective commitment.
One factor that may explain the relationship between identity integration and job attitudes
is the extent to which male nurses think others respect nursing as a profession. Extrapolating
from multiracial identity integration literature, which reports higher multiracial identity
integration correlates with feelings of pride regarding one’s own multiracial identity (Cheng &
Lee, 2009), we expect a parallel relationship between male nurses’ gender professional identity
integration and how much they think key stakeholders respect nursing. Furthermore, there is
precedent from the occupational prestige literature for the idea that perceived respect affects job
attitudes in work contexts. For instance, prior research has found associations between
occupational prestige and job satisfaction (King, Murray, & Atkinson, 1982), and organizational
prestige and organizational commitment (Fuller, Hester, Barnett, Frey, & Relyea, 2006; Mayer &
Schoorman, 1998).
IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
To summarize the model we propose: we suggest that male nurses’ gender-professional
identity integration will affect judgments about how much others respect nursing and that such
judgments will in turn affect job attitudes. More specifically, we hypothesize that perceived
respect of nursing explains, or mediates, the relationship between gender-professional identity
integration and job satisfaction, as well as the relationship between gender-professional identity
integration and affective organizational commitment. Thus, as gender-professional identity
integration increases so do male nurses’ perceptions of how much others respect nursing, and as
these perceptions increase job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment also
increase.
Lower gender-professional identity integration means less perceived compatibility
and overlap between male and nurse identities, and consequently male nurses may
attempt to find means to integrate their identities. One way they might attempt to bridge
the gap is to reframe their nurse identities in a way that makes them more consistent with
their male identities. This could be accomplished by highlighting a more agentic aspect
of their careers. Because striving for and displaying mastery is consistent with an agency
perspective (Bakan, 1966), we propose that the pursuit of externally visible credentials—
markers of attained mastery—could help accomplish this reframing. Therefore, we
hypothesize that gender-professional identity integration and likelihood of possessing
externally visible credentials are inversely related; as gender-professional identity
integration increases, likelihood of possessing externally visible credentials decreases.
Furthermore, perceptions that others view nursing as unworthy of much respect might
explain pursuit of externally visible credentials. Such credentials could mitigate
anticipated stigma associated with membership in a low status group. Accordingly, we
7
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hypothesize that the relationship between gender-professional identity integration and
externally visible credentials is mediated by perceived respect of nursing.
Method
Participants and Sampling Procedure
We sampled from the American Assembly for Men in Nursing (AAMN). The AAMN is
a national organization formed with the purpose of creating a forum for men in nursing (AAMN,
2011). Membership is open to all types of nurses, both men and women, but the most common
type of member is a male registered nurse who works in a hospital (Lecher, 2010). At the time
of data collection (August, 2010), AAMN had 576 members, representing less than 1% of men in
nursing nationally (Lecher, 2010). AAMN contacted its membership on our behalf, both through
electronic mailings and through its website, to solicit participation in our web-based survey. We
obtained usable data from 216 AAMN members (38%), and excluded 63 respondents who
provided incomplete or suspicious data. For instance, we excluded responses in which the start
and end times did not indicate a careful reading of survey materials. This interval was
determined prior to conducting statistical analyses. Other respondents failed to answer items
placed in the survey to check whether participants were reading each item thoughtfully. Of the
216 usable responses, 27 participants indicated they were female, and 6 participants did not
respond to the gender item. Therefore, we excluded them from the dataset. Additionally, 5
participants indicated they were primarily employed as academics. We excluded these
participants because, unlike nursing, women do not hold the majority of jobs in academia, nor is
it likely that such men would find inconsistencies between job requirements and male gender
stereotypes. The sample we used in all subsequent analyses consisted of 178 male nurses.
Respondents’ mean age was 38.0 years (SD = 11.8), with a range from 22 to 67 years. The vast
IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
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majority of participants worked full-time (n = 162, 91%). Type of employer varied across
participants. Most participants worked in hospitals (n = 145, 82%). Other participants worked
in private practice settings (n = 10, 6%) or as school nurses (n = 3, 2%). The remaining
participants (10%) identified their employers as “other”, and this included “psychiatric long term
inpatient”, “assisted living”, and “community mental health”. Most participants were trained as
registered nurses (RN; n = 106, 60%). Other participants were trained as advanced practice
nurses (APN; n = 36, 21%), or licensed practical or licensed vocational nurses (LPN or LVN; n =
24, 14%). The remaining participants (n = 12, 7%) indicated their training did not fall within one
of these categories.
Other than with respect to gender (due to exclusion of female participants from further
analysis), we have no reason to believe that this sample differs in any meaningful way from the
broader AAMN membership with the exception of training. Of the 576 members in 2010, 42%
were Registered Nurses (versus 60% in our sample), 36% were nursing students (2% in our
sample), 9% were transitional/first-year RNs (1% in our sample), and 2% were Licensed
Practical (LPN) or Licensed Vocational (LVN) Nurses (14% in our sample) (Lecher, 2010).
Participants were asked to complete a short web survey on “the work experiences of
nurses” in return for monetary compensation. The survey included the main study measures,
filler items and a short demographic questionnaire at the end. After participants received
remuneration, we removed their email addresses from the dataset.
Nursing as a Female-dominated Job
We chose nursing as a focal female-dominated profession because the majority of nurses
are women: as of 2008, 93.4% of all registered nurses in the United States were women (U.S.
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Department of Health and Human Services, 2010), and the skills required of job-holders are
consistent with female gender stereotypes.
Predictor
Gender and professional identity integration. We based our measure of gender and
professional identity integration (GPII) for nursing on previous measures of GPII that were
administered to women in traditional male occupations, such as business, engineering, and law
(see Cheng et al., 2008; Mok & Morris, 2012a; Sacharin et al., 2009). Although previously
published measures of GPII differ from one another, they were all adapted directly from a similar
scale designed to measure bicultural identity integration (BII; see Benet-Martinez & Haritatos,
2005; Haritatos & Benet-Martinez, 2002). Cheng (personal communication, February 24th,
2009) later modified the BII to create a new version of the GPII measure, which we used in this
study. An important change from the BII to the revised GPII scale is the substitution of “nurse”
and “man” for the BII’s “Chinese” and “American”. Additionally, the language was changed
such that it made sense in the context of gender and professional identity comparisons, rather
than cultural comparisons. Mor and coauthors (2013) administered this eight-item version,
which we employed in our study, and they reported improved internal consistency (Cronbach's
alpha = .84 and .90 when administered to two different samples).
Participants were asked to complete eight 5-point Likert scale items (1 = “strongly
disagree”, 5 = “strongly agree”) designed to address the construct of gender and professional
identity integration. Example items include “My ideals as a man differ from my ideals as a
nurse”, “I feel conflicted between my identity as a man and my identity as a nurse”, and “I do not
feel any tension between my goals as a man and my goals as a nurse.” Responses were reverse-
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coded as appropriate so that high scores corresponded to greater integration. We averaged the
eight items together to form a single composite scale (Cronbach’s alpha =.79).
Covariate
Training. We included a single-item measure of nurse training level: “What is your
current title?” Response options were: “LPN or LVN – Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurse”,
“RN – Registered Nurse”; “APN – Advanced Practice Nurse (This category includes certified
nurse midwife [CNM], nurse practitioner [NP], clinical nurse specialist [CNS] or certified
registered nurse anesthetist [CRNA])”, and “Other”.
Outcome Measures
Perceived respect of nursing. We constructed a scale measure of perceived respect by
averaging responses to three items. All three items featured the same root, “To what extent are
nurses respected by…” with the sentence completed by either “other nurses?”, “patients?”, or
“doctors?”. Responses were scored using a 7-point scale (1 = “not respected at all”, 7 = “very
highly respected”; Cronbach’s alpha = .72). This measure of perceived respect of nursing is
consistent with recently published measures of organizational prestige (Iatridis, 2012; Mayer &
Schoorman, 1998), which are associated with job attitudes.
Job satisfaction. We measured job satisfaction with a single item scored on a 7-point
scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied): “Overall, how satisfied are you with your
job?”. Single-item measures of job satisfaction correlate highly with composite scale measures
of job satisfaction (Wanous, Reichers, & Hudy, 1997), and have strong construct validity
(Dolbier, Webster, McCalister, Mallon, & Steinhardt, 2005). Additionally, an analysis by Nagy
(2002) indicated that a single-item measure of job satisfaction provides some benefits in terms of
face validity and explanatory power over scale measures
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Organizational commitment. We measured affective organizational commitment using
one component of Meyer and Allen’s three-component model (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Meyer &
Allen, 1991). The three-component model of organizational commitment has moderate to strong
relationships with a host of important job attitude measures (Meyer & Allen, 1996), indicating
evidence of construct validity. The affective commitment scale consisted of eight 7-point items
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Where necessary we reverse coded items
worded in the negative when forming composites. By averaging the eight items corresponding
to the scale, we computed a composite scale (Cronbach’s alpha = .82).
Self-reported externally visible credentials. We included two single-item measures to
assess whether participants sought externally visible credentials. These items asked respondents
to indicate (yes or no) whether they had sought national certifications or certification in
Advanced Cardiac Life Support. Nursing certifications are nationally standardized, non-degree
training courses in specialty areas of healthcare. Obtaining a certificate signifies that a nurse has
gained advanced knowledge, may make them more attractive to potential employers and can
sometimes result in a small pay raise. Many of our participants held national certifications
(N = 112, 63%) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification (N = 101, 57%).
Results
Descriptive Statistics and Correlations among Dependent Measures
As a check for univariate normality, we computed descriptive statistics (means, standard
deviations, modes, measures of skewness and kurtosis) for each of our continuous variables; the
variables met the assumptions of normality. In Table 1 we report descriptive statistics and
intercorrelations for the study variables.
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Data Analysis Procedures
We used both multiple regression analysis and binary logistic analysis to test our
hypotheses for continuous and binary variables respectively. To test for mediation, we used
Baron and Kenny’s (1986) steps method as well as a bootstrapping test with 1000 bootstrap
resamples using percentile bootstraps (Hayes, 2009; Preacher & Hayes, 2008a, 2008b). We
included a single covariate, training type, for all regression and bootstrapped models. Therefore,
all regression results should be interpreted with the caveat that we statistically controlled for
training type. When we excluded the training covariate from our models the magnitudes of
relationships, and the levels of statistical significance, did not change by any notable amount.
One exception is the result for the ACLS Certificate variable, described subsequently.
Direct Effects of GPII on Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment
Our first hypothesis predicted that GPII and job satisfaction would be positively related.
Multiple regression analysis revealed that GPII was a significant positive predictor of the job
satisfaction measure, β = .32, t (173) = 4.18, p < .001. Next, we predicted male nurses’ gender
profession identity integration would be positively related to affective commitment. Consistent
with our hypothesis, GPII was a significant predictor of affective commitment, β =.34, t (173) =
4.43, p <. 001.
Perceived Respect as a Mediator of the Relationship between GPII and Job Attitudes
We predicted that the relationship between GPII and job satisfaction would be mediated
by perceived respect of nursing (see Figure 1). To test this prediction, we first examined the
relationship between GPII and perceived respect of nursing (the mediator). Our analysis
revealed that as GPII increased perceived respect of nursing increased, β = .27, t (172) = 3.46, p
< .001. Next, we entered both GPII and perceived respect of nursing as predictors of job
IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
14
satisfaction and found that perceived respect of nursing remained a significant predictor of job
satisfaction, β = .49, t (172) = 7.45, p < .001, while the relationship between GPII and job
satisfaction was reduced, β = .19, t (172) = 2.74, p < .01, suggesting partial mediation. A
bootstrapping test confirmed a positive indirect effect of GPII on job satisfaction via perceived
respect of nursing, mean indirect effect = 0.29, 95% CI [.12, 0.51]. These results suggest that
perceived respect of nursing partially explains the positive relationship between GPII and job
satisfaction.
To test the hypothesis that the relationship between GPII and affective commitment
would be partially explained by perceived respect of nursing, GPII and perceived respect of
nursing were entered as predictors of affective commitment. Results indicated that perceived
respect of nursing remained a significant predictor of affective commitment (β = .30, t (172) =
4.15, p < .001), while the relationship between GPII and affective commitment was reduced (β =
.26, t (172) = 3.43, p < .001) suggesting partial mediation. A bootstrapping test confirmed a
positive indirect effect of GPII on job satisfaction via perceived respect of nursing (mean indirect
effect = 0.12, 95% CI [0.04, 0.22]). The results are presented in Figure 2.
Externally Visible Credentials
To test the hypothesis that the likelihood of possessing externally visible credentials
decreases for male nurses with higher GPII scores, we used binary logistic regression analysis to
test our binary outcome measures of externally visible credentials: possession of national
certifications and possession of ACLS certification. The results revealed that the log of the odds
of holding national certifications was negatively related to GPII, B = -.64, p < .05, Wald χ² (1) =
6.18; odds ratio (OR) = 0.53. For every one-point decrease in GPII the likelihood of a nurse
having obtained a national certification increased by 89% (1/.53=1.89). In other words, the
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higher their GPII, the less likely male nurses were to pursue national certifications. Similarly,
the log of the odds of holding ACLS certification was also negatively related to GPII, B = -.47, p
= .06, Wald χ² (1) = 3.48; OR = 0.63, however this effect was not statistically significant when
we controlled for the training covariate. When we omitted the training covariate, however, the
result was as follows: B = -.61, p < .01, Wald χ² (1) = 6.96; OR = 0.54. The overall trend
suggests that the higher male nurses’ GPII, the less likely they were to pursue ACLS
certification. These results partially support our notion that GPII and externally visible
credentials are negatively related.
Next, we examined our hypothesis that perceived respect of nursing could explain the
negative relationship between GPII and externally visible credentials. For national certificates,
when GPII and perceived respect of nursing were entered as predictors in the model, perceived
respect of nursing did not have a significant effect on national certifications (B =.12, p = .48,
Wald χ² (1) = .50; OR = 1.14), and the relationship between GPII and national certifications
remained statistically significant (B =-.69, p < .01, Wald χ² (1) = 6.62; OR = .50) indicating no
mediation effect. A bootstrapping test further confirmed the lack of an indirect effect between
GPII on national certifications via perceived respect of nursing (Mean indirect effect =.05, 95%
CI [-0.11, 0.21]). For ACLS certification, when GPII and perceived respect of nursing were
entered as predictors, perceived respect did not have a significant effect on ACLS Certification
(B =-.05, p =.78, Wald χ² (1) = .08; OR = .96), and the relationship between GPII and ACLS
Certification remained equivalent to the observed effect without respect entered into the model
(B =-.45, p = .08, Wald χ² (1) = 2.98; OR = .64) indicating no mediation. A bootstrapping test
further confirmed the lack of an indirect effect between GPII on ACLS certification via
perceived respect of nursing (Mean indirect effect = -.02, 95% CI [-0.19, 0.15]). Based on these
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16
results, we cannot conclude that perceived respect of nursing mediates the relationship between
GPII and possession of externally visible credentials.
Discussion
The present study provides empirical support for several of the hypotheses. Genderprofessional identity integration was positively related to two job attitudes, job satisfaction and
affective commitment; as integration increased, job satisfaction and affective commitment
increased. We had anticipated a relationship between gender-professional identity integration
and job satisfaction based on prior research suggesting fit affects satisfaction. We posited that
gender-professional identity integration was a measure of fit between two identities, male and
nurse, and that identity fit would relate to job satisfaction just as person-environment fit relates to
job satisfaction (see Kristof-Brown et al., 2005). The data are consistent with this reasoning. In
addition, we predicted an association between gender-professional identity integration and
affective organizational commitment. This followed from evidence that intention to quit a job
decreases when a job’s professional boundaries overlap with gender identity (see Darling et al.,
2008). Our results also suggest that male nurses’ perceived overlap between professional and
gender boundaries correlate with affective commitment.
Furthermore, we demonstrated perceived respect of nursing partially mediates the
relationship between integration and both satisfaction and commitment. When we included
perceived respect of nursing in our models, the relationships between gender-professional
identity integration and job satisfaction and gender-professional identity integration and affective
commitment were significantly reduced. In building our prediction, we extrapolated from past
research, which suggested that multiracial identity integration is associated with pride towards
one’s own multiracial identity (Cheng & Lee, 2009). We suggested that a similar process would
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occur with gender-professional identity integration: higher integration would relate to male
nurses’ increased perceived respect of nursing by key stakeholders (e.g., other nurses, doctors,
and patients). We suggested that perceived respect of nursing, in turn, would relate to job
attitudes like job satisfaction and organizational commitment. We built this prediction from
research documenting associations between occupational prestige and job satisfaction (King et
al., 1982) and organizational prestige and commitment (Fuller et al., 2006; Mayer & Schoorman,
1998). Our results indicate perceived respect of nursing helps to explain the relationship
between gender-professional identity integration and job attitudes, and suggest that an underlying
reason why gender-professional identity integration affects job satisfaction and affective
commitment is perceived respect.
We also predicted that as gender-professional identity integration was negatively
associated with pursuit of externally visible credentials in the form of national certificates and
the Advanced Cardiac Life Support certificate. Our hypotheses were partially supported by the
data. Although gender-professional identity integration negatively predicted likelihood of
possessing a national certificate, it did not significantly predict the likelihood of possessing an
Advanced Cardiac Life Support certificate. However, perceived respect of nursing did not
explain the relationship between gender-professional identity integration and either form of
externally visible credential. Our prediction was based on the idea that credentials help to signal
professional mastery, and thus act to restore agency, and that this counteracts perceived deficits
in status. The data do not support this explanation. Future research should more directly
measure whether men in female-dominated fields treat externally visible credentials as a means
to restore agency and make up for perceived lack of respect by others. One reason why we did
not find evidence that perceived respect of nursing mediated the relationship between gender-
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professional identity integration and possession of externally recognizable credentials is that
such credentials bring pay increases and increased attractiveness of nurses to future employers.
Male nurses may have pursued externally recognizable credentials for such rational economic
reasons. Thus, these measures probably could not purely reflect desire to restore agency or
enhance perceived respect.
Limitations
Although our results supported several of our hypotheses, they need to be evaluated with
certain study limitations in mind. First, all data were obtained from a single survey instrument,
making common method bias a concern (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). We
lessened the possibility of common method bias by increasing the physical distance between our
key measures on the survey. We included a small number of measures not pertinent to our
research questions as “filler” material to help eliminate common source biases such as
consistency. Similarly, we intended the addition of filler material to help hide our research
hypotheses and thus eliminate the potential for social desirability effects. Although Podsakoff
and her coauthors stress the dangers of common method biases in self-report questionnaires,
Conway and Lance (2010) argue that self-reports are as valid as observer reports in
organizational behavior research. We believe that the self-reports used in our study are more
appropriate than peer reports because observers are less capable of recognizing how individuals
perceive their multiple social identities.
Additionally, although the sample mirrors the membership of AAMN and American male
nurses in general (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010), we do not have a truly
random sample of male nurses. Male nurses who join AAMN may differ from male nurses in
general. They invest money and time into being AAMN members, possibly implying an
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especially strong interest in nursing as a career, a need to affiliate with other male nurses, or
simply having colleagues who encouraged them to join. Furthermore, the distribution of training
types in our sample affects our ability to generalize to the AAMN membership.
A final limitation of our study is our use of a cross-sectional design. Most researchers
have treated gender-professional identity integration as a stable individual difference measure.
However, recent work suggests bicultural identity integration can increase by inducing a global
processing style (Mok & Morris, 2012b). Perhaps levels of gender-professional identity
integration can change over time in response to various factors as well. Likewise, maybe the
relationship between gender-professional identity integration and job attitudes is not constant
over time. Our design cannot measure such changes, and future work should consider what, if
any, implications changes to gender-professional identity integration might have on job attitudes.
Practical Implications
Our results suggest that the extent to which male nurses perceive others respect nursing
plays an integral role in determining their job satisfaction and affective commitment. Hospitals
and other organizations can encourage perceived respect by offering interventions that cultivate
feelings of increased occupational status among nurses, and male nurses in particular. An
example of such an intervention would be sharing of positive feedback from doctors or patients
with nurses, to ensure nurses understand they are a valued and respected profession within
healthcare. This would help contradict the idea that they are “less than” doctors. Also, nursing
students could view one of many examples in which a nurse helped save a life through his
intervention, perhaps accompanied by a doctor’s appreciative description of the nurse’s role.
Another option would involve changing the portrayal of male nurses in the media. In the popular
film Meet the Parents, for instance, characters react with knowing smirks, uncontrollable
IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
20
laughter, and outright disbelief when they learn a key male character works as a nurse.
Counterexamples could include male nurse characters who are shown deference and treated with
awe by others, rather than as the butt of jokes.
Our results also suggest that interventions aimed at increasing male nurses’ gender and
professional identities might have positive effects on their professional outcomes. Although it is
unclear whether gender-professional identity integration is malleable in the same way that
bicultural integration is malleable, health care organizations training and recruiting nurses can
highlight the overlap between nursing and expectations about male gender norms. Other
possible interventions may focus on the language used in job advertisements and internal
communications. Although we cannot make causal conclusions based on our study, increasing
an employee’s gender-professional identity integration may enhance his job satisfaction and
commitment, and might make financial sense when compared with increasing compensation to
achieve the same ends.
Men in female-dominated professions face job and career-related challenges. Our
research provides new insight into one of these challenges: the apparent incompatibility between
the agentic expectations people have for men, and the communal skills people think necessary
for such jobs. Our research may suggest that how men in female-dominated jobs view their
gender and professional identities—as compatible and overlapping, or conflicting and divided—
affects their ability to navigate these different expectations, and thus their gender-professional
identity integration deserves increased attention.
IT’S ABOUT RESPECT
21
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Table 1. Descriptives and Intercorrelations of Study Measures
M
SD
1. GPIIa
3.36
0.68
2. Perceived respect of nursingb
5.19
1.04
0.32***
3. Job satisfactionb
5.00
1.49
0.35***
0.55***
4. Affective commitmentb
4.36
1.01
0.37***
0.40***
0.61***
5. National certificationc
0.63
0.48
-0.21**
-0.01
0.08
0.01
6. Certification in advanced cardiac life supportc
0.57
0.50
-0.20**
-0.10
-0.05
-0.17*
Note. N=178.
*
p<.05. **p<.01. ***p<.001.
a
5-pt scale; b7-pt-scale; cDichotomous variable.
1
2
3
4
5
0.10
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Figure 1. Results showing perceived respect of nursing partially mediates the association
between GPII and job satisfaction. The path from perceived respect to the item also controlled
for GPII (Baron & Kenny, 1986). Standardized coefficients are shown. Training type is a
covariate, but is not depicted in the figure. The number in parenthesis indicates the standardized
beta value after including the mediator in the model. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
β= .27***
GenderProfessional
Identity
Integration
Perceived
Respect of
Nursing
β = .49***
Job
Satisfaction
β= .32***
(.19**)
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Figure 2. Results showing perceived respect of nursing partially mediates the association between
GPII and affective commitment. The path from perceived respect of nursing to affective
commitment also controlled for GPII (Baron & Kenny, 1986). Standardized coefficients using
multiple regression analysis. Training type is a covariate, but is not depicted in the figure. The
number in parenthesis indicates the standardized beta value after including the mediator in the
model. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
β= .32***
GenderProfessional
Identity
Integration
Perceived
Respect of
Nursing
β = .30***
Affective
Commitment
β= .34***
(.26***)