Extreme males - balanced females: sharing behavior in Korea

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine sharing behavior among male and female subjects in Korea who had been exposed to sensitive variables derived from the Korean cultural context. Design/methodology/approach - Experimental research methodology was applied based on the ultimatum game and a modified variant. The subject pool consisted of participants (N = 300) from five universities based in Seoul and its vicinity as well as Busan in South Korea. Findings - Significant differences in sharing behavior between men and women were observed. Men significantly altered behavior from egoistic to overly altruistic when exposed to the cultural variables, whereas women did not alter their behavior and maintained a fair and balanced behavior independent of the game condition. Practical implications - Results positively contribute to the current debate on gender-diversified top management teams and have implications for firms that could benefit from a greater variety of problem-solving approaches to increase the overall quality of decision-making. Originality/value - Analyzing sharing behavior using sensitive contextual variables in an experimental framework is a new approach in gender studies. Based on this approach, novel and significant context-dependent traits of divergent decision-making behavior among men and women were found.