Gendered scripts: studying hidden assumptions in business contexts

Purpose – The paper's aim is to make the a priori gender scripts visible in order to discuss their role in decision‐making processes in business contexts. Design/methodology/approach – In order to get access to hidden and unconscious gender scripts, an innovative qualitative method, called mind‐scripting, was applied. Mind‐scripting is a discursive method based on “memory work” and allows for analyzing and deconstructing implicit assumptions in social interactions. Findings – The selected results show on the one side that people are steadily using their hidden assumptions and scripts to make sense out of specific social situations. On the other side it could be shown that the application of sex‐based stereotypes does not depend on the sex of the person alone, but depends strongly on the gendered construction of the interaction. In the case of bargaining it could be shown that bargaining is (still) a rather masculine construction with respect to manly connoted scripts and schemata. Social implications – The paper gives a substantial incentive to change the perspective of bargaining research related to gender issues: instead of simply searching for sex differences or for sex‐based stereotypes it is necessary to have a closer look at the gendered constructions of the according social interactions. Originality/value – The method of mind‐scripting is used to analyze gender scripts in a bargaining context. Furthermore, the paper is the first which deals with a combination of gendered scripts and schemata and sex‐related stereotypes in this way.