Women working in heavily male-dominated financial services settings reported less comfort admitting mistakes and less confidence that errors would be treated as learning opportunities, according to research published on 8 October.
The London School of Economics and Political Science study analysed responses from 1,485 UK financial services professionals. It examined perceptions of a hypothetical mistake, not observed incidents or disciplinary decisions.
The results point to a concern for employers: employees can have similar expectations of penalties while feeling differently about whether it is safe to acknowledge an error.
The gap was wider where most colleagues were men
Among respondents whose working environments were at least 75% male, women gave their comfort in admitting mistakes an average score of 5.46 out of seven. Men in comparable settings scored 5.94.
Women also scored the likelihood of mistakes being treated as learning opportunities at 4.20, compared with 4.54 for men. Women’s perceptions were more positive in settings with a lower proportion of male colleagues; men’s responses varied comparatively little with workplace composition.
Grace Lordan and Paris Will conducted the research. In the publisher’s accompanying announcement, Lordan said: “But formal rules aren’t culture.”
After accounting for factors including seniority and working hours, the researchers found no statistically significant gender difference in expected penalisation. A lack of a statistically significant difference does not establish that men and women face identical consequences in practice.
Respondents were asked whether they expected to be penalised, without separating formal sanctions from informal reactions. The researchers suggest that some may have interpreted the question as referring to official consequences. Concerns about reputation or colleagues’ judgements could still affect willingness to speak up.
What is psychological safety?
Psychological safety is a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. At work, that can include asking for help, raising a concern or admitting a mistake without fear of humiliation.
Amy Edmondson’s 1999 research on 51 manufacturing teams linked psychological safety with learning behaviour. Employees need to be able to discuss problems before colleagues can examine them and decide what to do differently.
Safety to speak openly does not remove responsibility for the quality of someone’s work. Managers can investigate an error, correct it and hold people accountable while avoiding humiliation or assumptions about their ability.
The finance study measured three specific perceptions about mistakes, rather than a full psychological safety assessment. Its results should not be read as a score for the entire culture of participating employers.
Survey limitations and employers’ response
The online survey took place in September 2020 and was distributed through Women in Banking and Finance. Of the respondents, 1,205 were women and 280 were men. Participation was voluntary, so the sample was not representative of the whole industry.
Participants imagined an error with moderate consequences. Different respondents may have pictured different situations, and the survey captured their views at one point in time. It cannot establish that a workplace’s gender composition caused the responses.
The authors propose leaders discussing their own mistakes and providing peer networks where employees can talk through problems. Those measures were recommendations, not interventions tested in this study.
The researchers also raise possible consequences for learning and career progression when employees become reluctant to attempt demanding work. They did not measure concealed errors, lost promotions or company performance.
For employers, reviewing disciplinary policies addresses only part of the issue. They also need to understand whether staff expect an ordinary mistake to bring constructive feedback or lasting damage to their professional standing.
