How patient-centered do female physicians need to be? Analogue patients' satisfaction with male and female physicians' identical behaviors (Published online: 30 Aug 2014)

Previous research suggests that female physicians may not receive appropriate credit in patients' eyes for their patient-centered skills compared to their male counterparts. An experiment was conducted to determine whether a performance of higher (versus lower) verbal patient-centeredness would result in a greater difference in analogue patient satisfaction for male than female physicians. Two male and two female actors portrayed physicians speaking to a patient using high or low patient-centered scripts while not varying their nonverbal cues. One hundred ninety-two students served as analogue patients by assuming the patient role while watching one of the videos and rating their satisfaction and other evaluative responses to the physician. Greater verbal patient-centeredness had a stronger positive effect on satisfaction and evaluations for male than for female physicians. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that the different associations between patient-centeredness and patients' satisfaction for male versus female physicians occur because of the overlap between stereotypical female behavior and behaviors that comprise patient-centered medical care. If this is the case, high verbal patient-centered behavior by female physicians is not recognized as a marker of clinical competence, as it is for male physicians, but is rather seen as expected female behavior.

Workgroup climates and employees' counterproductive work behaviors: A social-cognitive perspective

This research examines employees' anticipation of social and self-sanctions as a self-regulatory mechanism linking workgroup climates and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) and personality as a limit to these effects. A cross-level study with 158 employees from 26 workgroups demonstrated that in groups with a high compliance climate-a climate emphasizing the importance of complying with organizational rules-employees anticipate more social and self-sanctions, leading those low in conscientiousness and low in agreeableness to engage less frequently in CWBs. In contrast, a high relational climate-a climate emphasizing the importance of positive social relations over self-interest-indirectly unbridles the CWBs of these employees by alleviating the social and self-sanctions they anticipate for CWBs. Climates did not have indirect effects for employees high in agreeableness and high in conscientiousness. These findings elucidate why workgroup climates do not affect the CWBs of all members in the same way.