Gender-Related Stereotypes of Transformational and Transactional Leadership

This study investigated gender differences in transformational and transactional leadership, and gender-related stereotypes for these forms of leadership. Results indicated that there were no differences in the way the primarily Caucasian subordinates evaluated their actual male and female managers. There were, however, differences in ratings of stereotypic male versus stereotypic female leaders on transformational and transactional leadership, but only by female respondents. Finally, congruence between ratings of actual managers and ratings of stereotypic managers was found primarily for male respondents. Results suggest that stereotypes may be one explanation for gender differences found in prior research on transformational and transactional leadership.     

Gender‐typing of leadership: Evaluations of real and ideal managers

This research focuses on female underrepresentation in managerial positions. Specifically, two studies examine gender‐typing for managerial roles in Spain using ratings for real and ideal managers. In addition, we analyse the existence of same‐gender bias on evaluations of the behavior of actual leaders. In the first study, 195 Spanish workers evaluate the extent to which gender‐stereotypical traits are important for becoming a successful middle manager in three conditions (female managers, male managers, and managers in general). In the second study, we explore the degree to which the behavior of real Spanish managers is gender‐typed and the existence of same‐gender bias on leadership styles – transformational, transactional and avoidant/passive – and on leadership outcomes – effectiveness, extra effort and satisfaction – from the perspective of subordinates (N = 605). Overall, the results demonstrate that masculine characteristics were rated as more important than feminine characteristics for managerial positions, and they were more often assigned to male managers than to female managers. Unexpectedly, this manager‐male association is stronger among female participants than among male participants. Our findings also demonstrate that women subordinates evaluate their same‐sex supervisors more favorably in transformational leadership, effectiveness, and extra effort. The negative consequences derived from gender‐typing managerial positions are highlighted according to the role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. The positive effects of in‐group female bias on behavior ratings are also noted. The mixed implications of these results for women's advancement to leadership positions are discussed.     

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.     

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 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.     

Women in a Man's World: Gender Differences in Leadership at the Military Academy

This study responds to a deficiency of research on military leadership gender differences in spite of widespread interest in women in the military in policymaking and academic circles of various fields. Although scholarship in the field of women's leadership in recent years has asserted that there are stylistic differences between male and female leaders, there were few major differences in this study of 12 specific areas of leadership rated by 3 types of raters. Of the 36 possible occurrences of a statistically significant gender difference, only 6 manifested themselves in the cadet leader ratings. As a whole, evidence supports minimal gender differences in leadership performance or style in the West Point Class of 1998.     

Gender ratio,societal culture,and male and female leadership

Top management teams are worldwide largely composed of men, with relatively few female members. The gender ratio in top management is indicative of the position of women in management within the organization, as well as related to leadership behaviours of male and female managers. In the present study, the relative importance of societal culture, organizational, and individual characteristics in explaining leadership behaviours and the associations of gender and gender ratio with leadership behaviours are studied. Hypotheses are tested with multi‐level analyses using a dataset with information from subordinates rating leadership behaviours of 12,546 managers in 437 organizations in 32 countries. The results show that in a three‐level model (i.e., societal, organizational, and individual level) to explain leadership behaviours, differences in leadership behaviours are predominantly explained by individual differences, followed by organizational and societal differences. Further, after controlling for societal influences, a higher gender ratio (relatively more female managers), was positively associated with consideration and negatively related to initiating structure. Moreover, for male managers, there was a negative association between gender ratio and initiating structure, indicating that male managers in organizations with more female managers tend to engage less in initiating structure, whereas the leadership behaviours of female managers were not associated with the gender ratio.     

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.     

Female first,leader second? Gender bias in the encoding of leadership behavior

In the current paper we investigate whether gender affects the encoding of leadership behavior. In three studies we found evidence that perceivers had difficulty encoding leadership behaviors into their underlying prototypical leadership traits when the behavior implied an agentic trait and the behavior was enacted by a female. Using a lexical decision making task, in Study 1 we demonstrated that agentic leadership traits were less accessible than communal leadership traits when the leader was female. Additionally, Study 1 also demonstrated that agentic traits were less accessible when the leader was female versus male. In Studies 2a and 2b, we replicated the differences we found for agentic leadership behaviors using perceiver’s self-ratings as the dependent variable. Results are discussed both in terms of their implications for future research on gender bias in leadership and their practical implications for eliminating gender bias against females who aspire to leadership positions.     

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.     

Promoting leadership behaviors in low performance-self-esteem women in task-oriented mixed-sex dyads1

Methods for promoting leadership behaviors in low performance-self-esteem women were explored in two studies. Female undergraduates were paired with male peers who had either very similar or much higher scores on the Performance-Self-Esteem Scale. The mixed-sex dyads in Study 1 were given either no leader, chance-based leader, or ability-based leader instructions. Study 2 included only the latter two conditions and allowed subjects preparation time between leader appointment and the dyadic interaction. All leader appointments were given to the female dyad member. Members' influence was measured by verbal interaction counts, decision outcome scores, and members' ratings. Both leader conditions were successful in promoting female leadership behavior in Study 2, as measured by verbal interactions, but neither was successful in Study 1. Results indicated that Study 2 females exercised a helpful leadership style and that Study 2 males were satisfied with their partners' role in the interaction.     

MEN,WOMEN, AND MANAGERS: ARE STEREOTYPES FINALLY CHANGING?

As the number of women in management roles increases and organizations place a greater emphasis on diversity, a subsequent change in perceptions of women as leader-like is expected. To test this notion, we examined gender and management stereotypes of male and female managers and students. Results reveal considerable change in male managers' views of women over the past 30 years, as evidenced by greater congruence between their perceptions of women and successful managers and stronger endorsement of agentic and task-oriented leadership characteristics for women. Stereotypes held by male students changed less, remaining strikingly similar to stereotypes held by male managers 15 years ago. Across samples, there was general agreement in the characteristics of managers but less agreement about the characteristics of women. We also found men somewhat less likely than women to attribute successful manager characteristics to women. Respondents with positive past experiences with female managers tended to rate women higher on management characteristics.     

AN EXAMINATION OF LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY: THE RELEVANCE OF TRAITS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Creativity is becoming a topic of ever-increasing interest to organizational managers. Thus, there is a need for a greater understanding of the dynamics between the personal and contextual factors responsible for creative performance in work settings. In particular, there is a need to identify the role of leadership for creativity. Until now, creativity studies have examined leadership and employee characteristics from a single-domain perspective. Data from 191 R&D employees of a large chemical company were used to test a multidomain, interactionist creativity model of employee characteristics, leader characteristics, and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). Results suggest that employee intrinsic motivation and cognitive style, LMX, the interactions between employee intrinsic motivation and leader intrinsic motivation, and between LMX and employee cognitive style relate to employee creative performance as measured by supervisor ratings, invention disclosure forms, or research reports. Implications for practicing managers and research on leadership and creativity are discussed.     

Is it in your face?: Exploring the effects of sexual dimorphism on perception of leadership potential

Perceptions of a leader in a work environment is important from 2 perspectives: the leader themselves and more importantly the external observer. But what information does the observer use when making these judgments of leadership potential? Many studies on role congruity have demonstrated that gender stereotyping and perceived leadership ability is strongly tied to gender role incongruity. The role of facial appearance has been associated with leadership status and potential and becomes essentially relevant in military settings. Thus, the manner in which an individual’s face is perceived and evaluated may impact perceptions of his or her leadership ability and subsequent success. The present study seeks to extend research on how sex and gender characteristics of an individual’s face may possibly influence the perception of leadership abilities in a military service academy. Findings indicated that participants preferred individuals with gender congruent faces, which may reflect a preference for physical prowess and abilities.     

Adorable woman,expert man: Changing gender images of women and men in management

In the past, leadership was perceived to be the special province of males and still females tend not to occupy top management positions. Traditional social stereotypes hold that a leader needs to have typical masculine characteristics: he needs to be competitive, aggressive, tough and successful. Due to important changes in the conception of the societal female and male gender role during the last decades it can be assumed that the classical sex role stereotypes have at least become less polarized. Obituaries concerning deceased male and female managers, published in the years 1974, 1980 and 1986 in four daily newspapers were content analysed. Terms used to describe the managers were classified into 53 categories and included in a correspondence analysis. The results show that images of male and female managers were dissimilar in 1974 and 1980 and were still different in 1986. Male managers were perceived as intelligent, knowledgeable, experienced, outstanding instructors, unselfish opinion-leaders with an enviable entrepreneurial spirit. Women, on the other hand, were described as adorable, likeable superiors in 1974 and 1980. Some years later, in 1986, they became fighting managers: their surviving colleagues described them as courageous, highly committed workers who, nevertheless are still lacking in knowledge and expertise.     

Leadership ratings for male and female military cadets

Ratings of leadership ability for 1096 male and 91 female cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) were examined for gender differences. Males were rated significantly higher than females for two of the three rating periods. Correlates of these ratings were examined in an effort to explore the meaning of such ratings for males and females. For both male and female cadets, situationally specific correlates of leadership ratings were identified. Physical ability and performance were most highly correlated with leadership ratings during summer training camp, while academic ability and performance were most highly correlated with these ratings during the academic year. These correlations were generally higher for females than for males. The value of such information to organizational newcomers and the means by which such information might be transmitted to them were discussed.     

Male and female managers' ability to read emotions: Relationships with supervisor's performance ratings and subordinates' satisfaction ratings

The present study examines the direct and indirect effect of managers' accuracy in ‘reading’ non‐verbal emotional expressions and their supervisors' performance ratings and subordinates' satisfaction with the manager. Data from working managers and their supervisors and subordinates were used to test the study's hypotheses. Although managers' accuracy was not directly related to others' ratings, a significant interactive effect was found: Female but not male managers who more accurately perceived non‐verbal emotional expressions received higher performance ratings from their supervisor and higher satisfaction ratings from their subordinates, perhaps due to gender stereotypes prescribing emotional sensitivity to female managers. Furthermore, how managers used emotional information to enhance subordinates' satisfaction varied for female and male managers. Results suggested that male managers who were more accurate at emotion perception received higher satisfaction ratings if they used the information to be more persuasive, whereas more emotionally perceptive female managers received higher satisfaction ratings when they demonstrated more supportiveness.     

Agreement in Self–Other Ratings of Leader Effectiveness: The role of demographics and personality

Personality and demographic attributes for a set of 1221 focal managers were examined as correlates of leadership effectiveness evaluations that were obtained via a 360° feedback program. Polynomial regression was used to study the congruence of self‐ratings provided by focal managers relative to the different evaluative perspectives (i.e., immediate superior, peer, and subordinate). Analyses supported the prediction that focal manager's sex and age would be associated with the ratings provided by themselves and others. Plus, the tendency to overestimate one's own leader effectiveness relative to evaluations provided by others was found to be greater for males and older managers. Focal managers who expressed greater social sensitivity were evaluated more favorably by subordinates and peers, although not by superiors. Ratings of leader effectiveness from immediate superiors were, instead, more readily predicted by judgments of the performance of the focal manager's organizational unit relative to comparable units. Results of polynomial regression analysis, however, indicated that self–other agreement was related to the focal's sex, social sensitivity, and social dominance. Implications for understanding obstacles to openness to change are discussed.