Evaluating the Likelihood of the Glass Cliff Phenomenon for Female CEOs in College and Universities

The glass cliff phenomenon (GCP) maintains that women are more likely to lead risky organizations than men. Quantitative measures of risk for assessing a possible GCP exist for leaders in the business sector, but no quantitative measures exist for college or university leadership. This article tests one variable of risk for college and university institutions, the financial responsibility composite score (FRCS), to see if it measures the GCP in college or university chief executive officer (CEO) hires. Using an ex post facto causal-comparative design, gender and FRCS in private American colleges and universities were analyzed using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data. Purposive sampling randomly paired institutions with female CEOs with similar institutions with male CEOs. Using the U.S. Department of Education's FRCS database, the researcher reviewed patterns in FRCS before and after CEO hires over three studies. No statistically significant results were observed, demonstrating that there is no indication that female CEOs are hired into riskier colleges or universities when utilizing FRCS. Future studies should further investigate the GCP using alternative measures of risk.