When the Sales Manager is a Woman: An Exploration into the Relationship Between Salespeople's Gender and their Responses to Leadership Styles

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study comparing the responsiveness of male versus female salespersons to differing leadership styles of female sales managers. Responding triads, made up of one female sales manager and two subordinate salespersons (one male and one female), completed questionnaires assessing the managers' leadership style, the salespersons' satisfaction with supervision, and the salespersons' selling performance. Partial correlational analysis revealed gender differences in the way satisfaction with supervision and performance effectiveness related to the female managers' leadership styles. Male sales force members were most responsive to leaders who displayed individualized consideration and used a transactional style (contingent rewards or management by exception). Saleswomen preferred charismatic leaders and those who were capable of intellectually stimulating methods. The results are discussed and recommendations made for future research.     

Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective? Male Subordinates' Devaluation of Female Transformational Leaders1

This study investigated the impact of the gender composition of the leader–subordinate dyad on the relationship between leaders' transformational leadership behavior and their subordinates' ratings of the leaders' effectiveness. There were 109 dyads of leaders (58 male, 51 female) paired with a subordinate who was either the same or a different gender from themselves. The relationship between a leader's self‐report on transformational leadership and their subordinates' evaluation of their performance was significantly less positive for female leaders with male subordinates than for female leaders with female subordinates. The male and female subordinates of male leaders rated their performance as equally effective, regardless of their levels of transformational leadership.     

Gender makes the difference: The moderating role of leader gender on the relationship between leadership styles and subordinate performance

Using a predominantly male research and development (R&D) sample and a predominantly female customer service personnel sample, we investigated how authoritarian and benevolent leadership styles interact with leader gender to influence subordinate performance (i.e., task performance, citizenship behavior, and creativity). Our research extends role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) by adopting  and  attribution principles to offer a more comprehensive framework for explaining how leader gender affects the impact of leadership styles on subordinate performance. Our results suggest that the negative relationship between authoritarian leadership and subordinate performance is stronger for female than for male leaders and that the positive relationship between benevolent leadership and subordinate performance is stronger for male than for female leaders. Accordingly, in addition to leaders’ engaging in gender-role congruent behaviors, a useful strategy is to adopt behaviors that are perceived as a positive deviation from their gender role.     

Sex of leader,leader behavior,and subordinate satisfaction

A 2×2×2 factorial design was employed to examine the influence of instructed leadership style, sex of leader, and sex of followers on leader behavior, subordinate satisfaction, and productivity in a simple task. In general, male and female leaders were equally able and equally willing to display autocratic and democratic leadership styles if so instructed. Similarly, leader sex did not have a significant influence on subordinate satisfaction or productivity either by itself or in interaction with leadership style or follower sex.     

Status Incongruence and Supervisor Gender as Moderators of the Transformational Leadership to Subordinate Affective Organizational Commitment Relationship

Grounded in role congruity theory, we examine how status incongruence (when the subordinate is older, has more education, work experience, and/or organizational tenure than the supervisor) in subordinate–supervisor dyads affects transformational leaders’ ability to foster affective organizational commitment among their subordinates. Across two field studies, our findings show that the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinate affective organizational commitment is less positive when status incongruence is high. Furthermore, in both field studies we found a 3‐way interaction among transformational leadership, status incongruence, and supervisor gender predicting subordinate affective organizational commitment. Specifically, in Study 1 (pink‐collar employees in Turkey), low status incongruence strengthened the positive relationship between transformational leadership and subordinate affective organizational commitment for male leaders. In Study 2 (pink‐collar employees in the United States), low status incongruence strengthened the positive relationship between transformational leadership and subordinate affective organizational commitment for female leaders. Furthermore, Study 2 also revealed that collective identity was a mediator of both the significant 2‐ and 3‐way interaction effects on subordinate affective organizational commitment.     

Sex and leadership styles: a meta-analysis of research published in the 1990s

Empirical research on sex differences in leadership styles, published between 1987 and 2000 in peer-reviewed journals, is reviewed by means of a meta-analysis. The leadership styles examined are interpersonal, task-oriented, democratic versus autocratic, and transformational and transactional leadership. Analysis showed that evidence for sex differences in leadership behavior is mixed, demonstrating that women tend to use more democratic and transformational leadership styles than men do, whereas no sex differences are found on the other leadership styles. Sex differences in leadership styles are contingent upon the context in which male and female leaders work, as both the type of organization in which the leader works and the setting of the study turn out to be moderators of sex differences in leadership styles.     

Equity vs equality: Sex differences in leadership

The present study investigated differences between male and female leaders' responses to poorly performing subordinates. Ninety-four male and 94 female leaders were presented with a vignette describing an incident of poor performance that occurred in a distribution center. The subordinate in the vignette was either male or female, likable or dislikable, and performed poorly due to internal or external factors. Leaders studied the vignette and then rated the appropriateness of a series of corrective actions. Analyses indicated that the corrective actions of female leaders were more affected by the likableness and sex of the subordinate than were the corrective actions of male leaders. The results support the proposition that male leaders tend to respond to subordinates based upon a norm of equity, while female leaders respond to subordinates based upon a combination of equity and equality. Implications of the findings for management training and organizational effectiveness are discussed.     

领导者性别身份的评价差异：基于内隐领导理论的实证分析

本研究基于内隐领导理论,运用配对问卷法,探究领导者性别身份的三种评价差异：自我评价与下属评价的差异,男性领导与女性领导的下属评价差异,男性下属与女性下属的评价差异。结果显示,与领导者自评的性别身份相比,下属易高估领导者的男性化;且下属评价男性领导的男性化显著高于女性化,而评价女性领导时两者并不存在显著差异。此外,男性下属对领导男性化的评价高于女性下属的评价。     

Gender,Leadership Orientation,and Effectiveness: Testing the Theoretical Models of Bolman & Deal and Quinn

This study examined the differences in gender between a “balanced” or “unbalanced” orientation of leadership, leadership characteristics, and the perceived effectiveness of educational leaders through subordinate responses in the context of Bolman and Deal's (1991, 1997) four-frame leadership theory and Quinn's (1988) competing values model. The findings suggest that any differences in the perceived effectiveness of educational leaders in the three leadership type groups are equally true for male and female leaders, and that male and female educational leaders were perceived to be equally effective in their respective organizations despite the stereotypical connotations asserted in previous research. In addition, no significant differences were found between men and women in their leadership characteristics, which stands in contrast to extant research-supported evidence. This study analyzed the ratings of 57 leaders (males = 31; females = 26) by 472 subordinate participants (males = 234; females = 238) from lower, middle, and upper management levels in secondary and postsecondary institutions. Approximately 60% of the participants and one third of the educational leaders were African Americans.     

The communality-bonus effect for male transformational leaders – leadership style,gender, and promotability

Women have made considerable inroads into the workforce but remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Even though studies show that men and women hardly differ in their leadership behaviours, we argue that male and female leaders are evaluated differentially contingent on the gender-congruence of their leadership style. Drawing arguments from expectancy violation theory, we investigate evaluations of men and women who show transformational leadership (a style consisting of communal behaviours in line with stereotypes about women) and autocratic leadership (a style consisting of agentic behaviours in line with stereotypes about men). We employed a three-study research design combining two experimental studies and a two-wave field study with business leaders (overall N = 344). Overall transformational leadership resulted in higher evaluations of promotability due to higher perceptions of leaders’ communality and leadership effectiveness. Importantly, these effects were stronger for men, and men showing transformational leadership were evaluated to be more promotable than women. This implies a communality-bonus effect for male transformational leaders. There was no difference in promotability evaluations for women versus men showing autocratic leadership. This effect was mediated by agency and effectiveness perceptions for women but not for men. Implications are discussed.     

Transformational,transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: a meta-analysis comparing women and men

A meta-analysis of 45 studies of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles found that female leaders were more transformational than male leaders and also engaged in more of the contingent reward behaviors that are a component of transactional leadership. Male leaders were generally more likely to manifest the other aspects of transactional leadership (active and passive management by exception) and laissez-faire leadership. Although these differences between male and female leaders were small, the implications of these findings are encouraging for female leadership because other research has established that all of the aspects of leadership style on which women exceeded men relate positively to leaders' effectiveness whereas all of the aspects on which men exceeded women have negative or null relations to effectiveness.     

Female Leadership and Role Congruity within the Clergy: Communal Leaders Experience No Gender Differences Yet Agentic Women Continue to Suffer Backlash

Role congruity theory predicts that female leaders will experience prejudice because the role of leader aligns more closely with the stereotypic male gender role than it does with the stereotypic female role. Yet the theory also states that the context of leadership matters. Female leaders in communal contexts often do not experience prejudice because the communal role is congruent to the female role. The purpose of my study is to examine female leadership within the context of the religious congregation and the profession of the clergy. Using multilevel models to analyze Wave 2 of the U.S. Congregational Life Survey (50,595 congregants in 255 congregations), I tested two competing hypotheses about whether the role of clergyperson is congruous or incongruous for women based on congregants’ perceptions of their leaders. I also hypothesized that female clergy using a more masculine leadership style would experience more prejudice. Results offer support for the hypothesis that female clergy experience role congruity, yet, I also found that they experience prejudice if they use a more masculine leadership style. These findings have implications that suggest that, even though there are behavioral restrictions for women, the profession of clergy is an amenable profession for female leaders.     

Females in charge: Effects of sex of subordinate and romantic attachment status upon self-ratings of dominance

Female, male, and mixed-sex dyads in which one member was assigned the leader role interacted and rated their own dominance throughout the interaction. The effects of gender and romantic attachment status (whether one has an exclusive dating partner or is “unattached” and free to go out with someone new) upon these self-ratings of dominance within the interaction were examined. The results showed that both leaders and subordinates perceived female leaders to be less dominant than male leaders. In addition, members of mixed-sex pairs rated themselves as less dominant than did those in same-sex pairs. Female leaders paired with males rated themselves least dominant and unattached female leaders interacting with males rated themselves least dominant of all. Female subordinates rated themselves as less dominant when with male leaders than when with female leaders, while the effect of the gender of the leader was insignificant for male subordinates. The results are discussed as evidence of a role conflict created by the contradictory roles of “dominant” leader and “subordinate” female, roles described by the sex role stereotypes prevalent in our culture.     

Male or Female Athletic Director? Exploring Perceptions of Leader Effectiveness and a (Potential) Female Leadership Advantage with Intercollegiate Athletic Directors

We investigated whether transformational leadership was associated with more positive perceptions of outcomes among intercollegiate athletic directors in the U.S. Also, we examined whether leader gender influenced perceptions of participants, and if there was an interaction between leadership style and leader gender in predicting organizational outcomes. Division I and II male participants (n?=?99) evaluated either a male or female transactional or transformational leader on extra effort, satisfaction, and effectiveness. MANOVA and post hoc analyses were used in our evaluation. Findings indicated transformational leadership was related to more positive organizational outcomes, that there was no difference between male and female leaders on attaining these outcomes, and that there was no interaction between leadership style and leader gender.     

Sex and least preferred co-worker score effects in leadership behavior

This study investigated the subordinate liking and the leadership style of male and female managers in a simulated business activity. Sixty-seven female and 290 male undergraduate and graduate business students participated in this study. Female managers, on average, were not less well liked, nor were they more accommodative than male managers. Among managers classified as distinctly accommodative, females were not better liked than males; among managers classified as distinctly directive, females were significantly better liked than males. Under pressure to act in a directive manner, males tended to make use of their secondary leadership style as defined by F. E. Fiedler (1972), while females did not.     

Effects of Leader Style, Leader Sex, and Subordinate Personality on Leader Evaluations and Future Subordinate Motivation

Past research has shown that when leader styles were dichotomized as autocratic versus democratic, female leaders were evaluated more harshly for using autocratic styles than their male counterparts (Eagly, Makhijani, & Klonsky, 1992). The present study investigated whether or not the personality characteristic of Agreeableness interacted with leader gender and leader style (autocratic versus democratic) to affect subordinate reactions to the leader. A 2 (autocratic versus democratic leader style) × 2 (male versus female leader) × 2 (high versus low subordinate Agreeableness) factorial design was used with leader evaluation, future effort, and future interest as dependent variables. A three-way interaction was predicted for these variables such that leaders would be penalized most for behavior that was inconsistent with gender roles by participants low in agreeableness. Participants were 165 undergraduates at a large midwestern urban university. Results generally supported the hypothesized three-way interaction for the effort and interest variables. Overall, the results partially supported the notion that disagreeable participants would rate gender inconsistent behavior more harshly.     

Factors Affecting Employer Preference for Female Managerial Applicants

This study examines aspects of job interview behavior that influence employer preference for a female applicant for a managerial position in the human service field. The authors used an analogue methodology simulating videotaped job interview vignettes to present a female applicant exhibiting varying leadership and personality styles, ranging from a “warm” cooperative style to a “cold” task-oriented style. Employers in the human services field rated their preference for the simulated applicants. There were significant differences in preference for the various types of applicants; the most preferred were those who combined warmth with goal-oriented leadership skills.     

The language of online leadership: gender and youth engagement on the internet

This study examines the JUNIOR SUMMIT online community, which consisted of 3,062 adolescents representing 139 countries, varying SES, and a range of experience with computers. The online forum culminated in the election of 100 delegates. By analyzing the messages posted before results of the election were announced, we explore whether language use predicts who was elected as a leader, as well as gender differences in leadership style. Results indicate that the young online leaders do not adhere to adult leadership styles of contributing many ideas, sticking to task, and using powerful language. On the contrary, while the young people elected as delegates do contribute more, their linguistic style is likely to keep the goals and needs of the group as central--by referring to the group rather than to themselves, and by synthesizing the posts of others rather than solely contributing their own ideas. Furthermore, both boy and girl leaders follow this pattern of interpersonal language use. These results reassure us that young people can be civically engaged and community minded, while indicating that these concepts themselves may change through contact with the next generation.     

Gender differences in evaluation of performance and leadership ability: Autocratic vs. democratic managers

This laboratory experiment involved 290 undergraduate seniors (130 females and 160 males) who were taking the capstone course in business policy in the college of business at a large university. The population of business seniors from which the random sample was drawn consisted of approximately 3.7% African Americans, 7% Asians, 1% Hispanics, and 88.3% white Americans. The study investigated the impact of autocratic and democratic leadership styles on the perception of how well male and female managers perform as well as the leadership ability attributions made to them. It was found that, in general, democratic managers are perceived to be much higher performers, and superior leaders when compared to autocratic managers. There was some support for the gender contrast effect in that the autocratic female managers were perceived to be higher performers than autocratic male managers. Further, the study found support for the perceptual similarity thesis. Male subjects tended to evaluate other male managers higher while female subjects were partial to female managers in their evaluations. In particular, female subjects gave autocratic male managers very low evaluations on performance and judged them to be inferior leaders. The female subjects, however, gave female autocratic managers substantially higher evaluations in terms of both performance and leadership ability.