Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142;
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Mar 3;117(9):4590-4600. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1918896117. Epub 2020 Feb 18.
Well-educated and prosperous, Asians are called the "model minority" in the United States. However, they appear disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions, a problem known as the "bamboo ceiling." It remains unclear why this problem exists and whether it applies to all Asians or only particular Asian subgroups. To investigate the mechanisms and scope of the problem, we compared the leadership attainment of the two largest Asian subgroups in the United States: East Asians (e.g., Chinese) and South Asians (e.g., Indians). Across nine studies ( = 11,030) using mixed methods (archival analyses of chief executive officers, field surveys in large US companies, student leader nominations and elections, and experiments), East Asians were less likely than South Asians and whites to attain leadership positions, whereas South Asians were more likely than whites to do so. To understand why the bamboo ceiling exists for East Asians but not South Asians, we examined three categories of mechanisms-prejudice (intergroup), motivation (intrapersonal), and assertiveness (interpersonal)-while controlling for demographics (e.g., birth country, English fluency, education, socioeconomic status). Analyses revealed that East Asians faced less prejudice than South Asians and were equally motivated by work and leadership as South Asians. However, East Asians were lower in assertiveness, which consistently mediated the leadership attainment gap between East Asians and South Asians. These results suggest that East Asians hit the bamboo ceiling because their low assertiveness is incongruent with American norms concerning how leaders should communicate. The bamboo ceiling is not an Asian issue, but an issue of cultural fit.
受教育程度高、生活富足的亚洲人被称为美国的“模范少数族裔”。然而，他们在领导层中的代表性明显不足，这是一个被称为“竹天花板”的问题。目前尚不清楚为什么会存在这个问题，以及它是否适用于所有亚洲人，还是仅适用于特定的亚洲群体。为了探究这个问题的机制和范围，我们比较了美国两个最大的亚洲群体——东亚人（如中国人）和南亚人（如印度人）的领导层成就。在九项研究中（= 11030），我们使用了混合方法（对首席执行官的档案分析、对大型美国公司的实地调查、学生领袖的提名和选举，以及实验），结果显示，东亚人获得领导职位的可能性低于南亚人和白人，而南亚人获得领导职位的可能性高于白人。为了理解为什么“竹天花板”只存在于东亚人身上，而不存在于南亚人身上，我们考察了三类机制——偏见（群体间）、动机（个体内）和自信（人际间），同时控制了人口统计学因素（如出生国家、英语流利程度、教育程度、社会经济地位等）。分析结果表明，东亚人面临的偏见比南亚人少，而且与南亚人一样，工作和领导能力同样是他们的动力。然而，东亚人在自信方面较低，这始终是导致东亚人和南亚人领导成就差距的原因。这些结果表明，东亚人遭遇“竹天花板”是因为他们的低自信与美国关于领导者应如何沟通的规范不一致。“竹天花板”不是一个亚洲问题，而是一个文化契合的问题。
