Children from affluent families are more likely to grow up to occupy formal leadership positions by their mid-20s than those from families facing adversity, a new Concordia-led study shows.
However, the pathways to professional success for each group are significantly different. Affluent children are more likely to benefit from job opportunities through family or friendship connections. They can also build up their careers thanks to a persistent level of support throughout their lives.
Steve Granger: "Growing up in socioeconomic adversity is a different experience in a very qualitative sense than growing up in the opposite."
Children in adverse circumstances often lack those support structures. More importantly, they encounter additional barriers that can limit their professional opportunities, such as chronic stress and limited access to developmental resources.
"Growing up in socioeconomic adversity is a very different experience in a qualitative sense than growing up in the opposite," says lead author Steve Granger, an assistant professor in the Department of Management at the John Molson School of Business.
"Affluence means having the means to participate in hobbies, travel and attend a good school. These opportunities can help individuals build their social capital that is, the resources and opportunities we acquire through our social networks. The opposite environment results in a stark difference in our ability to develop such capital."
The study was published in the Journal of Business and Psychology. It was co-authored by Julian Barling at Queen's University and Nick Turner at the University of Calgary.
Nepotism helps, barriers hinder
The researchers used data from the British Cohort Study, a longitudinal study of thousands of British children born in the same week in 1970. Following almost 6,800 children from birth to 1996, they used family employment history to see if the children maintained the same socioeconomic status (SES) throughout the same period.
Granger notes that the authors wanted to move away from the concept of affluence and adversity as opposite ends of a spectrum. Rather, they wanted to consider how different developmental experiences compound over time, resulting in unequal realities.
At age 16, study participants were asked if they had ever gotten jobs thanks to their family connections or missed an opportunity due to financial constraints. At 26, they were asked if they held a supervisory or managerial role at work.
The researchers found that children from affluent backgrounds, but not adverse backgrounds, were more likely to benefit from nepotistic opportunities that helped them achieve leadership positions. Their findings indicate the accumulating benefits of social capital advantages.
However, the study found no clear evidence that missed opportunities due to childhood financial hardship affected whether participants became leaders. Other factors affected this relationship.
"Early exposure to adversity whether dysfunction in the home, job insecurity, constantly moving or other examples of economic stress can deprive children of essential resources like stable family environments and quality parenting. These experiences impede their development throughout childhood and adolescence, and can perpetuate their disadvantages into adulthood," Granger says.
The authors suggest that giving disadvantaged kids resources to build skills and professional networks could help them reach leadership roles in adulthood. However, they also urge companies and other organizations to rethink the ways they identify and cultivate future leaders.
Read the cited paper: "Pathways of Affluence and Adversity: Persistent Early Life Socioeconomic Status Shapes Leadership Emergence via Social Capital"
