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A bed of thorns: Female leaders and the self-reinforcing cycle of illegitimacy
Abstract
In an attempt to explain why the gender gap in leadership positions persists, we propose a model centered on legitimacy. When women hold powerful positions, they have a harder time than men eliciting respect and admiration (i.e., status) from subordinates. As a result, female power-holders are seen as less legitimate than male power-holders. Unless they are able to legitimize their role, relative illegitimacy will prompt a variety of consequences such as more negative subordinate behavior and reduced cooperation when the leader is a woman. Subordinate rejection will likely put female leaders in a precarious mindset, and trigger negative responses toward subordinates; such behavior can confirm negative expectations of female leaders and further undermine female authority in a self-reinforcing cycle of illegitimacy. Leader or organizational features that enhance status attributions and/or lower subordinates' perceptions of power differentials may increase legitimacy for women in leadership roles.
... 575) In other words, women are expected to display communal traits and they are punished when they don't. Describing what this punishment can look like in organizational settings, Brescoll (2011), Rudman and Phelan (2008), Rudman et al. (2012), and Vial et al. (2016) all explored the concept of backlash effects for women leaders. ...
... Finally, Vial et al. (2016) looked at backlash as a result of low legitimacy perceptions of subordinates that are cast on women leaders due to their gender. Women are less accepted as leaders than their male peers, and Vial et al. (2016) showed that subordinates may be less likely to follow a woman leader as compared to a male. They also pointed out that women receive increased negative feedback compared to men and are less likely to receive the same jobs (Vial et al., 2016). ...
... Women are less accepted as leaders than their male peers, and Vial et al. (2016) showed that subordinates may be less likely to follow a woman leader as compared to a male. They also pointed out that women receive increased negative feedback compared to men and are less likely to receive the same jobs (Vial et al., 2016). Their low-status condition only appears to be ameliorated when they support the gender hierarchy: "But if female leaders endorse the same conservative beliefs and uphold the status quo, then they are less likely to be seen as a threat, and therefore more likely to elicit status and legitimize their power," wrote Vial et al. (2016, p. 410 Denzin's (1997) model by arguing that communal traits can also hold a transformative power for women leaders as change agents. ...
This qualitative study is an exploration of how women in higher education information technology (IT) positions navigate constructing their leadership identities. This includes the messy, personal, internal identity work that occurs prior to claiming their leadership identities on the public stage, followed by an examination of what the experience of attempting to claim and negotiate a leadership identity is like in the social context of their organizations. This educational and sociological study employs an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach with a series of three interviews per participant that allowed the researcher to deeply explore the personal identity experiences of participants. Findings reveal that women in IT experience challenges that can hinder their ability to successfully claim and establish a leadership identity. Women in IT and IT organizations will benefit from the knowledge generated in this study.
... Di Indonesia jumlah pemimpin perempuan jauh lebih sedikit di bandingkan dengan pemimpin laki-laki. mereka untuk berkarir di posisi kepemimpinan (Vial et al., 2016). Tantangan dalam mencapai keseimbangan antara karir dan tanggung jawab keluara sering kali lebih besar bagi seorang perempuan. ...
... Penelitian mengenai kinerja pemimpin perempuan menunukan bahwa rendahnya keterwakilan perempuan dalam peran peran kepemimpinan yang disebabkan oleh ketidakadilan dibandingkan dengan kemmampuan yang lebih rendah (Apperson et al., 2002;Gayatri Phadke & Sharda Ratna Sitaraman, 2016;Vial et al., 2016). Sebuah analisis menunjukan bahwa pemimpin perempuan sebenarnya dievaluasi oleh orang lain (atasan, bawahan, rekan kerja, penilai eksternal) lebih efektif dari pada pemimpin laki-laki (Eagly, A. H., & Mitchell, 2004;Eagly & Steffen, 1984;Vial et al., 2016). ...
... Penelitian mengenai kinerja pemimpin perempuan menunukan bahwa rendahnya keterwakilan perempuan dalam peran peran kepemimpinan yang disebabkan oleh ketidakadilan dibandingkan dengan kemmampuan yang lebih rendah (Apperson et al., 2002;Gayatri Phadke & Sharda Ratna Sitaraman, 2016;Vial et al., 2016). Sebuah analisis menunjukan bahwa pemimpin perempuan sebenarnya dievaluasi oleh orang lain (atasan, bawahan, rekan kerja, penilai eksternal) lebih efektif dari pada pemimpin laki-laki (Eagly, A. H., & Mitchell, 2004;Eagly & Steffen, 1984;Vial et al., 2016). ...
This article aims to examine more broadly the extent of gender inequality in processes and practices covering a wide range of areas ranging from performance evaluation, compensation, and leadership opportunities, to sexual harassment in organizations. This literature review makes it possible to review the factors that facilitate and hinder gender equality in the workplace. The review identifies gaps in the literature review provides suggestions for future research and highlights practical implications for organizations aiming to reduce gender inequality and value gender equality in organizations.
... While associated with the power-holding position of a leader (Vial et al., 2016), legitimacy is not a given but attributed, and recognized through relations with others (Maak & Pless, 2006). Women leaders' legitimacy is complicated by gender; they experience "comparative devaluation" (Ridgeway, 2001, p. 652), against persistent association of leadership with men, and are less likely to be "accepted" as leaders than men counterparts (Parks-Stamm et al., 2008). ...
... Women's legitimation is further complicated should they act counter to gendered expectations. Women failing to comply with gender norms may be penalized (Moss-Racusin et al., 2010), resulting in negative reactions and resistance to their authority (Vial et al., 2016). ...
... Women in powerful positions find it harder than men eliciting respect and achieving legitimacy as credible leaders (Vial et al., 2016). Being misrecognized in the media and by audiences can place women leaders' legitimacy at risk. ...
This paper interrogates a shift in patriarchal media discourse related to women leaders' recognition and legitimation in the UK. We conduct a multimodal discourse analysis of an online newspaper article about the UK politician and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, and analyzed public responses. Understanding the media as a means to distribute power and enable the challenging of norms, we contribute a theory of intersectional misrecognition in media's representation of women political leaders. This reveals an enduring and dynamic subordinate status of women leaders, shown specifically through the intersection of gender and class. We theorize that while women leaders continue to be misrecognized in the media, destabilizing their legitimacy, there is a demonstrable flexing of patriarchal discourse combined with stronger and accelerated resistance to ongoing sexism. We identify this resistance as productive in its call for consequences and a redistribution of cultural values, reflecting a discursive shift toward a productive resistance of resilient gender norms, evident in the intersection of gender with class. Intersectional misrecognition has value in making inequalities explicit for women leaders and where there may be productive tensions
with potential to mobilize for change.
... However, it is short-sighted to think that a token female manager (Kanter, 1977) can freely oppose the dominant group or violate existing hierarchies. Considering collisions of incongruence (Eagly and Karau, 2002) and power relationships, a token women in a male-dominated area should be wary of counterblows or being perceived 'as less legitimate than male power holders', according to Vial et al. (2016). This can be seen in Brescoll's (2011) case study, which investigated the concept of power and gender within a political setting to understand volubility in organisations. ...
... The data revealed both aligned and differing views among participants on barriers to women in the work environment. The analysis and data draw on current business positions and concepts, such as 'power in relation to gender' (Brescoll, 2011;Huse and Solberg, 2006) and 'gendered leadership experiences' (Collinson, 2011;Ford, 2006), which assume that the leader has a formal leadership role and legitimate power, as Vial et al. (2016) define it. ...
... All of the female research participants described similar misuse-of-power incidents. By contrast, only one male manager mentioned an experience of coercive power involving a person with hierarchical power (Vial et al., 2016) during his sports career. In broad terms, only the female managers working in a male-dominated areas within their work environments mentioned physical or mental power issues or 'power-over' (Melé and Rosanas, 2003) related to gender. ...
This study aims to explain the continued relative absence of female managers in top positions, within the context of the current legally binding gender-quota debate in Germany.
This study uses the concept of embedded gender images, rooted in a historical, cultural, and societal context, to explore the relationship between tokenism and gender quotas. To support this investigation, insights from research on stereotypes, barriers, and bias are incorporated into a discussion of the relationship between tokenism and gender quotas through the concept of embedded gender images.
... As status characteristics theory (Berger et al., 1977;Ridgeway, 1991) delineates, status is a position embedded in the social structure, and women are assigned with lesser amount of respect than men in our society (Lucas, 2003). Indeed, there are many empirical findings that show people do not respect women in leadership positions as much as they respect men in the same position (Eagly and Karau, 2002;Ragins and Winkel, 2011;Vial et al., 2016). Taking into account that women take up lower status and that individuals are aware of such social reality, we expected that women and men will sense their status differently even when given the same roles. ...
... In particular, as women face sociocultural barriers of constant feedback that they are not a good fit for leadership roles, they might rely on legitimacy perceptions to sense their status. In other words, women leaders are described as caught in the 'self-reinforcing cycle of illegitimacy (Vial et al., 2016)'; their low perception of legitimacy is highly likely to be contributing to low status perceptions. Based on the above, the following hypotheses are proposed: ...
... Interestingly, this was the case even when participants were provided with reasons for their assigned roles (Study 2), albeit bogus. As low legitimacy perceptions of women leaders were an important mediator between roles and status perceptions in the present study, and might lead to precarious and ineffective leadership (Vial et al., 2016), it is Perceived status of men and women according to assigned roles in Study 2. Error bars represent standard errors. Perceived legitimacy of men and women according to assigned roles in Study 2. Error bars represent standard errors. ...
The present study examined the difference between women and men in perceiving leadership roles. Two experiments, one conducted online and the other in a lab, investigated the subjective experiences of Japanese men and women when they are assigned with different roles (e.g., leader vs. subordinate). Both studies revealed that women perceived their role as less legitimate when they were assigned leader role (vs. subordinate role). In contrast, men did not differ in their perceived legitimacy according to the assigned roles. This discrepancy in legitimacy perception in response to different roles between men and women accounted for a significant variance in women’s lower sense of status when they were a leader (vs. subordinate), but not among men. Our study results illustrate the psychological barrier operating for women in organizations that are embedded in a cultural context in which women leaders are highly underrepresented.
... High stigma consciousness in women can lead to viewing feedback as biased, undermining trust in women leaders due to stereotypes (Pinel, 2004;Eagly & Carli, 2003;Vial et al., 2016). Prejudices fostered by high stigma consciousness reduce women leaders' trust (Brescoll et al., 2010). ...
... The novelty of this research is that stigma consciousness negatively moderates the relationship between women's transformational leadership and trust in leaders, which is consistent with studies on gender stereotypes in male-dominated environments (Brescoll et al., 2010;Samo et al., 2019;Vial et al., 2016). However, unlike previous research, this study shows that stigma consciousness does not significantly impact the effectiveness of women's leadership, suggesting that women's leadership remains effective despite gender stigma (Pramudita et al., 2021;Kassels et al., 2022). ...
Stigma consciousness is crucial for influencing the effectiveness of female leaders, particularly in transformational leadership. Despite the increasing representation of women in the workplace, they still face significant challenges in reaching the highest organizational positions. This study explores how stigma consciousness moderates the impact of women’s transformational leadership on trust and leader effectiveness, while trust in leaders mediates these relationships. The research model in this study was analyzed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and the AMOS 28 software. This approach allows researchers to look at multiple complex relationships at the same time and combines regression and factor analysis to obtain a full picture of how variables interact with each other. We assessed the descriptive statistics and psychometric properties of the measurement scales using SPSS 28. Data were collected from 200 team members and subordinates of female leaders at various organizations in Indonesia. The results indicate that although women’s transformational leadership significantly enhances trust in leaders and leader effectiveness, this impact is moderated by stigma consciousness levels. High stigma consciousness weakens the positive effect of women’s transformational leadership on trust in leaders, thus reducing leadership effectiveness. Conversely, lower levels of stigma consciousness reinforce this positive effect. This finding highlight stigma consciousness as a barrier to women leaders’ trust and an obstacle to achieving leadership effectiveness. Reducing stigma consciousness is essential for the effective acceptance and recognition of women’s leadership. An inclusive, supportive environment free from stigma enables women to lead more effectively and gain greater team trust.
... Equipped with these findings, corporations with women leaders have been improving their diversity efforts and CSR initiatives over the years, albeit slowly. Women CEOs face harsher performance evaluations and perceptions than their male counterparts due to social role expectations (Yang & del Carmen Triana, 2019;Vial et al., 2016). For example, Moake and Robert (2022) found that women face narrower social role expectations and have less social latitude in their use of humor at work despite their high organizational status. ...
... For example, Moake and Robert (2022) found that women face narrower social role expectations and have less social latitude in their use of humor at work despite their high organizational status. Vial et al. (2016) showed that men are perceived as more legitimate "power-holders" than women. Unless women "power-holders" legitimize their position, they face more challenges than men in garnering their subordinates' respect and status/admiration. ...
This study explores whether and under what conditions women CEOs engage in behavioral consistency when promoting CSR practices. Specifically, drawing from the social role and behavioral consistency theories, we argue that women's CEO presence will positively affect CSR consistency. We use two categories to capture the firm's consistency in CSR practices: inter-domain and temporal consistency. Inter-domain consistency indicates reliability in a firm's conduct across its various stakeholder groups. Temporal consistency refers to the consistency of a firm's behavior toward its stakeholders over time. Using 167 unique S&P 500 firms over the 2005-2013 sample period, we found that women CEOs maintain higher temporal and inter-domain consistency than men. Our results also show that women CEO-led firms with greater gender diversity on their boards exhibit higher temporal and inter-domain consistency levels. Our study advances our understanding of how women CEOs use their situational and positional power to improve such equity and consistency.
... Here and in Study 3, our measure of anticipated cooperation was inspired by the adult literature on leadership, which suggests that "subordinate cooperation" reflects and shapes the legitimacy of authority figures and differs based on leader gender (e.g., Tyler, 2002; 2018; see also Vial et al., 2016). Three questions gauged how much participants expected the other children to cooperate with them as would-be leaders. ...
... third person), they nevertheless complemented each other and provided a comprehensive examination of children's gendered leadership cognitions across a wide age span: We examined 5-to 10-yearold children's expectations for other leaders (Study 1) and for themselves as leaders (Studies 2 and 3). We examined children's interest in leadership (Studies 2 and 3), as well as a series of associated constructs that are implicated in adult gender gaps in leadership, including selfefficacy (Studies 2 and 3; e.g., Fox & Lawless, 2011) and the anticipation of social support (Studies 1-3) and cooperation from others (Studies 2 and 3; e.g., Brescoll, 2011;Vial et al., 2016. We also examined whether children's beliefs about leadership and gender are sensitive to contextual features that mark the leadership role as more (or less) communal (Study 3), in line with past investigations with adults (e.g., Belanger et al., 2020;Schneider et al., 2016). ...
Investigating how children think about leadership may inform theories of the gender gaps in leadership among adults. In three studies (N = 492 U.S. children ages 5–10 years), we investigated (1) whether children expect those who claim leadership roles within a peer group to elicit social support and cooperation from the group, (2) children’s own interest and self-efficacy in such roles, and (3) the influence of contextual cues (e.g., how leader roles are described) on children’s reasoning about and interest in leadership. We also explored differences based on children’s race/ethnicity. In Study 1, girls expected lower social support for child leaders than boys did. However, in Study 2, we found no evidence that girls are less interested in leadership. In addition, interest in leadership increased with age among White girls but decreased among White boys and girls and boys of color. In Study 3, we tested whether interest in a leader role is boosted (particularly among girls) by describing the role as helpful for the group and by providing gender-balanced peer role models. Regardless of gender, children in the helpful or “communal” (vs. “agentic”) leader condition were more interested in the leader role, anticipated stronger social support and cooperation from others, and reported higher self-efficacy as leaders. The gender composition of role models had little impact. This research underscores the early development of children’s attitudes toward leadership and highlights the potential value in early interventions to nurture children’s leadership ambitions.
... Na categorização temática, os artigos classificados como Relação entre Mulheres avaliam o comportamento entre as mulheres seniores e juniores e/ou colegas do mesmo nível organizacional, bem como as expectativas e percepções que as mulheres têm umas das outras no ambiente de trabalho (e.g Abalkhail, 2020;O'Neil et al., 2018;Dusch et al., 2014). A categoria Experiências e Desafios compreende publicações que abordam as barreiras, os desa-fios e as estratégias adotadas para superá-los (e.g Míltersteíner et al., 2020;Diehl et al., 2020;Vial et al., 2016). A terceira categoria temática mais identificada foi a Influência do Gênero nas Organizações que aborda estudos voltados a entender como o gênero influencia o convívio entre colegas, as práticas organizacionais, as relações comerciais e sociais (e.g Ellemers, 2014). ...
O objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar o efeito dos indicadores econômico-financeiros no preço das ações de empresas listadas na B3. A amostra foi composta de oito indicadores relacionados a liquidez, rentabilidade,
lucratividade e endividamento de doze empresas distribuídas entre os setores de utilidade pública, saúde e materiais básicos. Foram analisados os dados trimestrais, primeiramente no período de 2010 a 2018 e posteriormente de 2019 a 2020, período relacionado a pandemia do COVID-19. Os modelos analisados foram em mínimos quadrados ordinários para dados empilhados (POLS), dados em painel com efeitos aleatórios e efeitos fixos. Para a primeira análise, foi aplicado o modelo de dados em painel com efeitos fixos, apresentando significância estatística para os indicadores de liquidez, rentabilidade, lucratividade e endividamento. Na segunda análise, foi aplicado o modelo de POLS, também apresentando significância estatística para os indicadores de liquidez, rentabilidade, lucratividade e endividamento. Quanto ao efeito dos indicadores econômico financeiros no preço das ações, houve efeitos
positivos, negativos ou nenhum efeito, variando entre os indicadores e modelos analisados.
Palavras-chave: Preço das ações; Indicadores econômico-financeiros; Mercado de capitais; Dados em painel;
Regressão
... The existing literature has found that female executives have a suppressive effect on CSR: in closed social cultures, due to significant gender perception and bias, females may face barriers to promotion and demonstrating their capabilities, leading to limited influence on the fulfillment of CSR [27]. Moreover, bias against female executives can make it challenging for them to earn respect and recognition from subordinates [28], restricting their management activities. In the fierce competition for senior management positions, female executives, in their pursuit of reputational capital in competitive environments, prioritize maintaining the company's reputation, thereby improving the reliability of financial disclosure and reducing corporate misconduct [29]. ...
Amid China’s pursuit of a green and low-carbon transition, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is facing new challenges. Our research delves into the influencing factors and mechanisms for CSR reputation under green and low-carbon transition and provides practical enlightenment for enterprises to achieve sustainable development. This paper constructs a comprehensive index system of CSR from five dimensions (innovation, coordination, sustainability, openness, and sharing), and CSR reputation of China’s A-share listed companies is comprehensively estimated by using an entropy method and data from 2013 to 2021. Then, from the perspective of external supervision and internal governance, we discuss the influence factors of CSR reputation, with an emphasis on the impact of public environmental concerns. Finally, the realization mechanism of CSR is further revealed. It is found that public environmental concern and the expansion of the enterprise scale boost the enhancement of CSR reputation. However, a higher proportion of female managers tends to hinder CSR reputation. Furthermore, public environmental concern plays a more prominent role in improving CSR reputation of non-state-owned and eastern enterprises. Additionally, public environmental concern significantly enhances CSR reputation through green technology innovation and executive environmental awareness. This research provides valuable insights for improving CSR reputation and optimizing regulatory compliance and governance practices.
... where they remain "a-legitimate" (Nousiainen et al, 2013: 53). If women challenge legitimacy, this often leads to negative reactions and a resistance to their authority (Vial et al, 2016). Less scrutiny, however, has been afforded to the nuances of processes that destabilise women's legitimacy and comprise a Legitimacy Trap for women leaders. ...
... The fact that men and women respectively associate status and relationship quality with success at work [35,36] reinforces the argument concerning "fit"; if men occupy the majority (if not all) of the senior roles in largely masculine cultures, then masculinity can effectively become synonymous with seniority and, de facto, a leadership prerequisite to those (men) who make promotion decisions. Indeed, and for the same reasons, those women who do achieve seniority may encounter difficulties in legitimising their roles [37] . ...
A substantial literature has emerged in recent years advocating the view that women and men have different definitions, approaches and emanating perspectives of work. However, many of these assumptions regarding gender differences in construal of work are not empirically supported. Within the framework of the psychological contract, this study contributes to the literature by analysing the constructs of work obtained from both sexes, proportionately distributed across comparable cohorts of workers in the Czech Republic and the UK. The findings show a high degree of congruence in the construct distributions for both sexes, supporting the argument that gender inequality is socio-cultural in origin and not a product of gender-based differences in the construal processes. Suggestions are made concerning implications for practice.
... This finding lines up with other empirical research that finds that leaders with disadvantaged status characteristics face "stricter standards", are often considered less "likeable" in comparison to leaders with consistent status characteristics and have been found to face a wide array of "backlash effects" when they present themselves as high status or attempt to fill high status positions (Foschi, 2000;Rudman & Phelan, 2007). Relatedly, there is empirical evidence that atypical leaders within groups, like women or minorities, face problems of legitimacy that limit their influence (Butler & Geis, 1990;Ridgeway & Nakagawa, 2014;Vial et al., 2016). ...
... Alternatively, strengthening stereotypes associating women as communal (Eagly et al., 2020) may prompt women to intentionally conform to norms and avoid backlash by leading in more caring ways. Further, selection-based views of leadership might suggest that women who support, express, or embrace ethics of care will be more likely to be promoted to leadership roles because this style conforms to social role stereotypes (Eagly & Koenig, 2021;Vial et al., 2016). Whether differences in ethics of care leadership arise from gender differences in moral virtues, as we suggest, or from a blend of reasons suggested above (e.g., social norms, selection), we suggest that women leaders are more likely to embrace ethics of care leadership (Elleyl-Brown & Pringle, 2018;Pullen & Vachhani, 2021). ...
Growing evidence suggests the presence of a female leadership advantage (FLA), such that women leaders tend to be associated with more effective outcomes in uncertain conditions. However, mechanisms linking women's leadership to effective outcomes are less well understood. We integrate FLA insights with ethics of care philosophical framework to conceptualize how women leaders achieve effective outcomes in the context of the urban revitalization crisis in the United States. We propose and empirically test the mediating role of ethics of care leadership in the relationship between women mayors and economic health of their cities. We used data from the Urban Institute that includes 272 United States cities and measures of variables in our conceptual model at five points in time spanning 36 years (n = 1185 city-year observations). We capture ethics of care leadership focused on racial inclusion with an index measure of a city’s racial spatial segregation, homeownership gap, poverty gap, and education gap, and we capture economic health with an index measure of a city’s employment growth, unemployment rate, housing vacancy rate, and median family income. We found that female-led cities were associated with better economic health, and this association was mediated by female-led cities’ association with greater racial inclusion. Ethics of care leadership appears to be one pathway through which a FLA manifests itself in the context of the urban revitalization crisis. This underscores the importance of city leadership that balances social and economic prerogatives. Implications are discussed.
... Female executives are penalized for acquiring functions that are incongruent with prescribed gender-based expectations (e.g. Ferguson, 2018;Vial et al., 2016). We generalize this proposition and theorize that perceived incongruence is a matter of degree-the more masculine an executive function, the more incongruent it is with prescribed female gender norms. ...
... It has been found that women encounter sexual discrimination in several forms in the workplace, making it especially difficult for them to obtain a leadership position (e.g., Eagly & Karau, 2002;Heilman, 2001). This problem is also referred to as the glass ceiling-effect, which continues to be a relevant issue in the workplace (Vial, Napier & Brescoll, 2016). Moreover, Ridgeway (2001) confirms that women are indeed at a disadvantage when trying to get into leadership positions, but ascribes this phenomenon to the theory that men are seen as having greater status. ...
This study examines non-binary people’s experience in the workplace with a special focus on the way they experience leadership. Five participants were interviewed and confronted with a hypothetical scenario in which they had to decide whether or not they would take a leadership position. The findings suggest that the non-binary gender identity and colleagues’ attitude towards it affected their decision and in some cases would cause the participants to decline the leadership position. Difficulties navigating the workplace as a non-binary person are also discussed. It is concluded that having a non-binary gender identity complicates not only work life, but most of a person’s daily life. However, more research is needed in order to clearly distinguish what the most pressing issues are.
... Women are often held to a higher standard of competence and risk being perceived as less effective than men (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Women in executive roles are often aware of these challenges (Dwivedi, Misangyi, & Joshi, 2021) and experience a sense of belonging uncertainty (Brands & Fernandez-Mateo, 2017) and legitimacy concerns (Jeong & Harrison, 2017;Vial, Napier, & Brescoll, 2016). To alleviate such concerns, they are required to focus substantial amounts of time and cognitive resources on proving their merit and fit with the managerial role (Lyness & Heilman, 2006). ...
In male-dominated industries, organizations face considerable pressure to enhance women's representation in top leadership roles. Firms respond to this pressure by increasing gender diversity in senior positions but often fail to achieve a critical mass of senior women at the top. This raises a key question: What impact does greater gender diversity at the top have on junior women’s career opportunities? Drawing insights from the attention-based view of the firm, we theorize that firms with relatively more women in senior management compared to their industry peers, who themselves have very low levels of female representation, are likely to allocate fewer attentional resources, time and effort towards internal diversity practices. This inadvertently hurts the recruitment of women at the lower level. We propose that one way to mitigate these adverse cross-level spillover effects is to ensure women's substantive representation on committees responsible for overseeing and monitoring the firm’s diversity and hiring-related decision-making processes. We test our contentions and find support for our model using a panel dataset on the largest U.S. law firms. We conduct several supplemental analyses to provide insights into our findings.
... This expectation of masculinity applies to all leaders, not just those in politics, and is particularly true for positions of great authority like the presidency and vice presidency (Dittmar, 2016;Schneider and Bos, 2014). According to this study, discrimination will persist, making women leaders appear less genuine than their male counterparts, which will result in decreased influence and collaboration (Vial et al., 2016). ...
Due to restrictions on women’s behavior and gender disparities in opportunities, much of women’s potential remains untapped in the world. In today’s ever challenging competition, the social community need to increase capability of women to take leadership in realizing their rights and determining their life outcomes among various options, so that they can lead a better life with dignity under any circumstances. The aim of this study was to determine social, political and economic influences on women leadership in today’s world. A content analysis of comprehensive in-depth interviews has taken place to understand the research phenomena. Malaysia has been chosen as the study setup where the proportion of women is almost half of the total population. Data has been analyzed using Nvivo computer programs. The result shows distinctive themes grouped under each measured variables. Social, political and economic influences shaping women leadership with many unseen obstacles at first hand, but later synchronized under study objectives. This research will endeavor not only for empowering of those that are more vulnerable in conflicts or natural disasters such as women, but also to increase awareness about gender equality among men in general and decision makers in local communities as well as among influential people (administrators, educators, politicians and religious leaders) through scientific recommendations on advocacy and training, and accelerate the transformation of social structure.
... Furthermore, women are not perceived the same way as men when it comes to organisational roles. The perception of women as the emotional sex has critical consequences in organisations, so much so that some women perceive themselves as illegitimate leaders (Vial, Napier, & Brescoll, 2016). Ryan et al. (2016) describe the glass cliff phenomenon whereby women are appointed leadership positions when the organisation is desperate. ...
Women typically experience barriers such as gender stereotyping when wishing to progress into higher leadership positions. The size of the organisation influences perceptions of subordinates about their leaders, such as the support expected in a small organisation and the economic focus of a large organisation. Research looking at the effects of gender in leadership shows mixed results; some authors argue that there are differences in leadership style, others argue that there are none. One way to research gender and leadership differences is to ask subordinates to rate their employers according to their gender. The “Satisfaction with my Supervisor Scale” (Scarpello and Vandenberg, 1987) which measures subordinate satisfaction of their supervisors and their performance, was used for this study to compare gender differences and leadership style according to the size and nature of the organisation. Using an experimental design, University students were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Each group member received one of four versions of the questionnaires with a total of eighty-five responses being collected. The main finding from this study is that respondents preferred a female leader in both a small and large organisation. This implies that although women are exposed to barriers in the workplace, they are perceived to possess the skillsets required for high leadership roles.
... Leadership legitimacy, the claiming and granting a leader identity, is a socially constructed process with consequences for an individual leader and his leadership (DeRue and Ashford, 2010). The basics for gaining approval for a leader is admiration, respect and sanctioned authority to act and be recognized as a legitimate leader (Vial et al., 2016). The popularity ratings of political leaders based on elections studies of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, between 2014 and 2023 reveal (Table 1) Modi being way ahead of his competitor Rahul Gandhi, and this is a strong evidence of his magnetic personality transcending normative structure of party politics (Rai, 2019). ...
Modi ‘Wave’ is a political phenomenon that describes a strong hegemon (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) who scripts landslide victories in Indian elections based on political charisma and electoral legitimacy. The consecutive victories of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in national elections 2014 and 2019 is a testimony of charismatic routinization of Modi ‘Wave’. ‘There Is No Alternative’ to Modi seems to be ingrained in the conscious psyche of the electorate (will of the majority), which provides successive leadership legitimacy renewals. The political momentum of Modi’s charisma is a discursive dynamic, but it continues to institutionalize right-wing ideology and expand saffron electoral footprints in India.
... To begin with, successful women are often perceived differently than men, and women working in roles associated as male are judged more harshly when compared to males in those same roles and can be perceived as "coldly ambitious" instead of assertive (Brescoll et al., 2010, Okimoto and. Also, female power holders are often seen as less legitimate than male power holders and receive less support from subordinates (Vial et al., 2016). These perceptions hinder women's ability to obtain key roles in the organization or limit their ability for further advancement. ...
Our research provides a fuller picture by building on factors explaining perceptions of gender pay equity. Similar to previous human capital research, our study further validates the relationship between human capital factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, educational attainment, and beliefs about gender pay equity. We go one step further, developing two scales, employee and employer perceptions, answering the call to investigate the impact of psychological variables on gender pay equity. Findings suggest that the full model, which includes human capital and perception variables, explains 33% of the variance in beliefs about gender pay equity, whereas the model consisting of just human capital factors explains only 8%. Employer perceptions of pay equity were significantly associated with beliefs that women do not receive equal pay for equal work, confirming the need to explore psychological factors. Implications emphasizing the importance of perceptions as an integral component offering a fuller picture when considering actions to decrease the pay gap between women and men are discussed.
... Among the studies regarding the association between gender and leadership, the editorial article of Eagly & Heilman (2016) about gender and leadership and the review study of Lord et al. (2017) stand out. Many research focusing on the gender of leaders introduced comparisons of the features of female and male leaders, particularly emphasizing the distinct or disadvantageous characteristics of female leaders, their leadership styles, and the effects of these differences on employees and organizations (Eagly and Johnson, 1990;Eagly, 2007;Nash et al., 2017;Pew Research Center;Rink et al., 2013;Rosener, 1990;Van Engen & Willemsen, 2004;Vial et al., 2016). ...
The objective of this study is to address the research gap in the existing literature by examining the moderating influences of leaders' gender and employees' gender on the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' affective commitment to their organizations. The research sample consisted of 636 employees working in an industrially developed region in Turkey. Initially, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and reliability analysis were conducted for all variables. To test the hypotheses, the study investigated the various effects of gender-based variables through correlation and regression analyses. The correlation analysis revealed that the relationships between the gender of leaders and employees and all other variables were insignificant. In the regression analysis, when female leaders were selected from the sample, it was found that only the justice dimension significantly influenced affective commitment. In the remaining selections, both the morality and justice dimensions had a significant influence on affective commitment. In general, the moderation analyses indicated that neither leaders' nor employees' gender significantly moderated the relationship between the four dimensions of ethical leadership and affective commitment. Although the overall results did not yield significant implications, the findings related to women and the ethical leadership dimensions can shed light on future studies. This study contributes to the existing literature on employees' affective commitment, ethical leadership, and gender differences in organizations by examining the potential moderating variables that impact affective commitment. Additionally, the use of an unverified ethical leadership scale as an independent variable can be considered an original contribution to the methodology.
... Cognitive load has also been shown to disrupt trait inferences for counter-stereotypical targets (Wigboldus et al., 2004). This effect may disrupt any associations between gender-occupation incongruent messengers and positive traits like integrity, which may be more readily applied to congruent messengers (Hu et al., 2022;Vial et al., 2016). As such, cognitive load theory would predict that richer media will intensify trainees' biases against gender-occupation incongruent messengers. ...
While training design choices seem amoral, they interact to determine training (in)effectiveness, potentially harming/benefiting trainees and organizations. These moral implications intensify when training is administered at scale (e.g., e-training) and focuses on social issues like sexual harassment (hereafter, SH). In fact, research on SH training shows it can elicit trainees’ gender-based biases against content messengers. We suggest that one such bias, resulting from messenger gender-occupation incongruence and influencing training effectiveness, is lowered perceptions of the messenger’s integrity. We also investigate whether rich media will increase or decrease this perceived integrity penalty. Using an excerpt from real SH e-training and a sample [N = 210] consistent with the targeted training audience, we conducted a 2 × 2 × 2 relative comparison experiment (messenger gender x messenger occupation x media richness) and tested a moderated mediation model of the interactive effects of messenger gender-occupation incongruence and media richness on trainees’ perceptions of messenger integrity and training outcomes. Results suggest that trainees’ perceptions of messenger integrity decrease when the messenger’s gender is incongruent with their occupation, leading to worse outcomes in text-based training. These effects, however, are mitigated by increased media richness, providing support for media richness theory. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
... Therefore, male leaders may feel entitled to use rationalized hiding while female leaders may not for fear of being judged as gender role-incongruent, due to being openly unhelpful (Heilman & Chen, 2005;Kidder & Parks, 2001). Furthermore, the legitimacy of women in leadership roles is often challenged (Vial et al., 2016), so women may find it hard to persuade their colleagues that their reasons for rationalized hiding are valid. Evasive hiding, which imitates helping (communal behaviour), is likely to be seen as optional for male leaders but required for female leaders (Heilman & Chen, 2005;Kidder & Parks, 2001). ...
Knowledge hiding – intentionally concealing knowledge from a colleague who requested it – is often damaging for individuals and organizations. Amongst the factors explaining knowledge hiding, one has been overlooked, despite being an important lens for understanding employee behaviours: gender. In this article, we investigate its relevance by examining whether and how gender shapes two complementary aspects of knowledge hiding behaviour: frequency of hiding, and the approaches that knowledge hiders employ to do so. Building on extant literature about gender roles at the workplace, we suggest that the social roles into which women and men are socialized, and the sanctions they face if they behave incongruently with these roles affect both aspects of knowledge hiding. We explore these ideas in a multi‐wave study of full‐time employees based in the United Kingdom ( n = 449). Our findings suggest that men hide their knowledge from colleagues more frequently. In addition, both women and men hide knowledge in a way that is congruent with the expectations of others regarding their social role: that is, women use evasive hiding and playing dumb more than men, while men use rationalized hiding more than women. A male‐dominated context reduces these differences between genders.
... The absence of effective governance mechanisms provides opportunities for politicians to use firm resources to fulfill administrative mandates, secure political support, and get promoted. Because female leaders are perceived as more submissive and risk-averse (Vial et al., 2016;Zhang & Qu, 2016), investors may believe that female CEOs will work in favor of government mandates and be less willing to protect shareholders' interests. Therefore, state ownership may further reduce the credibility of female CEOs. ...
Female entrepreneurs and CEOs generally face greater challenges in securing funding to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities, yet contextual factors under which such challenges are more likely to arise are less understood. We find that female-led initial public offerings (IPOs) incur greater IPO underpricing, but this effect is moderated by their ownership structure, reflecting different institutional logics in which these firms operate. Specifically, the positive relationship between female CEOs and IPO underpricing is attenuated by venture capitalist ownership, whereas such a relationship is exacerbated by state ownership. Based on a sample of 958 IPOs in China between 2009 and 2015, this study corroborates these findings.
... This finding lines up with other empirical research that finds that leaders with disadvantaged status characteristics face "stricter standards", are often considered less "likeable" in comparison to leaders with consistent status characteristics and have been found to face a wide array of "backlash effects" when they present themselves as high status or attempt to fill high status positions (Rudman & Phelan, 2007;Foschi, 2000). Relatedly, there is evidence that atypical leaders within groups, like women or minorities, face problems of legitimacy that limit their influence (Vial, Napier, & Brescoll, 2016;Ridgeway & Nakagawa, 2014;Butler & Geis, 1990). ...
This dissertation examines whether there are unintended consequences that emerge from status interventions in task groups in relation to cohesion and solidarity. Past theorists have argued that inconsistent status structures produce weaker levels of cohesion and solidarity in comparison to consistent status structures. To contextualize the issue of group processes as they relate to public policy, I first introduce the complexity framework for public policy and then outline the history of group processes and the concept of solidarity. Despite centuries noting the complexity of group processes and their implications, policymakers remain myopically focused on either individual responsibility or social structure as the root of social inequality.
After providing a theoretical overview, I then proceed to discuss the procedure of the study more in-depth. Data come from an online experiment involving mixed-sex dyads interacting in one of three conditions. Participants individually completed an ambiguous problem-solving task and then worked together over Zoom audio to form a group decision. In the three conditions, participants were either given no performance feedback before the problem-solving task or were informed the male or the female participant performed better on a pre-test related to the task. The conversations were recorded and analyzed using measures related to paraverbal synchronization and accommodation.
In terms of self-reported cohesion, there appeared to be a difference, albeit a weak one, in only the inconsistent-status condition, with female participants reporting higher levels of cohesion in comparison to males. However, in terms of solidarity, there was no significant difference between the conditions. Although inconsistent status structures were associated with weaker perceptions of cohesion, it did not appear to impact solidarity like theorists have suggested. Status structures do not appear to impact group solidarity. The nature of group membership in conjunction with status consistency/inconsistency may produce the significant differences in solidarity that theorists have suggested. To date, there has been little empirical examination of how status consistency affects cohesion and solidarity. Relatedly, the current study advances the research on vocal accommodation by analyzing status and solidarity simultaneously. The implications of the findings on status interventions for public policy, in particular the nature of feasibility strategies, are discussed in detail at the end.
... Identify factors such as male ego, disobedience, and family responsibilities that make career and guidance difficult for women. The study by Vial et al. (2016) revealed that there are challenging times in leadership positions; however, women experienced more of this challenge than men. However, from this study, it could be observed that exceptional leadership was a necessary factor in STEM women's success. ...
This study examines the success and role of African women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In the absence of significant research on women’s STEM leadership, the success and roles of others could motivate an aspiring African woman to pursue a career in STEM. A qualitative approach was sought using open online questions and narratives from African women leaders about their roles and career success in STEM. Data were collected from the western, eastern, northern, and southern regions of Africa from participants who held STEM leadership positions, such as directors, deans, and chief officers. The participants were 42 women representing 12 African nations. The narratives of these women leaders’ tones and life experiences were analyzed through content analysis. The narratives of these women leaders’ tones and life experiences were analyzed in search of recurring patterns and themes. Successful leadership in STEM requires balancing career and family life, setting goals, solving problems, being open to innovative ideas, embracing diversity, collaborating, and having knowledge of STEM research and mentoring skills. Using the achievements and roles of others could inspire future African women to pursue careers in STEM.
Purpose
This qualitative study explores the career trajectories of women of color (WOC) leaders through the “From Assimilation to Alienation” framework, building upon Thomas et al .’s (2013) “Pet to Threat” work and incorporating intersectionality and the Stereotype Content Model. By examining 71 WOC leaders across various industries and racial groups (Black, East Asian, Latina and South Asian), this study aims to uncover the challenges, coping strategies they employ and the nuanced variations in their career experiences. The findings seek to inform organizational practices and DEI interventions in workplaces and leadership positions by considering the complex interplay of race, gender and stereotypes in corporate environments.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study employs an interpretivist paradigm, featuring semi-structured interviews with 71 WOC leaders (18 Black, 18 East Asian, 17 Latina and 18 South Asian) from various industries, including Fortune 10 to 500 companies. Participants were purposively sampled based on leadership roles and racial backgrounds. Virtual interviews lasted approximately 60 min each. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, focusing on predefined themes from the “From Assimilation to Alienation” framework while allowing for new themes to emerge. This approach enabled the exploration of participants' experiences, challenges and coping strategies within their corporate environments.
Findings
The findings reveal that WOC leaders experience a trajectory “From Assimilation to Alienation,” with nuanced variations across racial groups. Initially, they face tokenism, overlooked competencies and patronization. As they challenge the status quo, they encounter alienation, professional legitimacy challenges and insufficient recognition. Black women leaders face the most adverse experiences, followed by South Asian, Latina and East Asian leaders. Isolation emerges as a persistent theme across racial groups and career tenures. WOC leaders employ coping strategies such as demonstrating high work proficiency, relying on merit, utilizing diplomacy and setting boundaries when facing adversity.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s limitations include a focus on specific racial groups (Black, East Asian, Latina and South Asian), excluding white women and other diverse groups. It also does not explore intersectionalities such as religion, sexual orientation and age. However, the “From Assimilation to Alienation” framework developed in this study provides a foundation for future research to examine how multiple intersectionalities impact work and leadership experiences across a broader range of diverse groups.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the unique challenges faced by WOC leaders, highlighting the need for organizations to develop targeted interventions that address the “From Assimilation to Alienation” trajectory. Leadership training programs should incorporate modules that raise awareness about the experiences of WOC leaders and provide tools to assess and mitigate the adverse effects of tokenism, isolation and professional legitimacy challenges. These modules should also emphasize the importance of recognizing and rewarding the contributions of WOC leaders. By fostering a deeper understanding of the experiences of this group and providing practical strategies for support and inclusion, organizations can create a more equitable and inclusive leadership landscape that harnesses the full potential of diverse talent.
Originality/value
This study extends the Pet to Threat theory (Thomas et al. , 2013) by exploring the “From Assimilation to Alienation” experiences of women of color leaders in corporate environments, integrating intersectionality and the Stereotype Content Model. Examining leaders from four racial groups (Black, East Asian, Latina and South Asian) provides a nuanced understanding of their challenges and coping strategies. The findings offer insights for organizations promoting DEI in leadership, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. This research contributes to the limited literature on career trajectories of this underrepresented group and lays the foundation for future studies on intersectionality of race, gender and leadership in the workplace.
Leaders with legitimacy attain substantial benefits in the workplace, like cooperation and minimal dissension from workers. We argue that legitimacy also benefits leaders by enhancing workers’ positive emotions and displays and reducing negative emotions and displays to their behaviors. Employed, adult study participants took the role of a worker and responded to a vignette description of a leader’s behaviors (use of fair/unfair decision- making procedures; high/low use of power benevolently) and status characteristics (Study 1, three months/three years of experience; Study 2, Black male/White male). Results confirm the expected patterns of effects of legitimacy on positive and negative emotions. Perceived legitimacy also largely mediates the effects of the leader’s behaviors and experience (but not race) on emotional responses. Legitimated leaders benefit from a flow of positive emotions and displays and are largely protected from negative emotions and displays that could jeopardize their legitimacy and ultimately the functioning of the work group.
Aims: This study aims to provide a concise historical perspective and summarize recent developments in leadership styles and effectiveness of female officers in the US military. The review focuses on the evolving roles of women in military leadership, the predominant leadership styles employed, and their effectiveness in the contemporary military context. Study Design: A narrative study of peer-reviewed articles and official military reports published primarily within the last decade (2013-2023). Methodology: A comprehensive literature search was conducted using military and leadership databases, including JSTOR, Military & Government Collection, and Leadership Studies. The review prioritized empirical studies, policy analyses, and authoritative reviews published in reputable journals and official military publications. Results: The study reveals a significant increase in leadership opportunities for female officers over the past decade. Transformational and adaptive leadership styles are predominant among female officers. They have demonstrated effectiveness in team cohesion, crisis management, conflict resolution, and mentorship. In some areas, such as strategic thinking and innovative problem-solving, female officers show comparable or superior performance to their male counterparts. However, challenges related to gender stereotypes and work-life balance persist. Conclusion: While substantial progress has been made in integrating women into military leadership roles, continued efforts are needed to address remaining barriers. The unique contributions of female officers to military leadership, particularly in areas of team cohesion and adaptive problem-solving, warrant further research and recognition in military doctrine and training programs.
This study suggests a research model for investigating the negative impact of occupational stigma consciousness from the perspective of the Conservation of Resources theory. It explores the intrinsic mechanisms connecting female leaders’ stigma consciousness with their career development and work–life balance and verifies the relationships between these variables. This study conducts a quantitative analysis of data collected from a sample of 400 female leaders in Chinese enterprises and institutions. A structural equation modeling approach is used to test the proposed hypotheses. Our findings reveal that the stigma consciousness of female leadership has a significant negative impact on their career advancement and work–life balance. This negative influence is mediated by emotional exhaustion. Additionally, self-efficacy negatively moderates the relationship between female leadership stigma consciousness and emotional exhaustion.
This report was originally written as an internal report for Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). It was publicly released by CEO Tangen, January 2024.
The report describes and discusses organisational culture. How NBIMers think, act, and communicate. The aim is providing a researcher’s gaze on discussions and decisions, on what changes and what remains the same – not to provide a what-to-do list. It is to present and make analyses on discourses, practises, and patterns of communication which hopefully invite and inspire to reflect on hard-programmed truths and myths. To describe and discuss some of the new initiatives, social silence, team building, power struggles, gender, working hard, making projects work despite the different time-zones, and how global politics, new technologies, and ecological changes are intertwined with everyday life at NBIM.
This work is based on anthropological fieldwork - participant observation (September 2022 - October 2023)
This report was originally written as an internal report for Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). It was publicly released by CEO Tangen, January 2024. The report describes and discusses organisational culture. How NBIMers think, act, and communicate. The aim is providing a researcher’s gaze on discussions and decisions, on what changes and what remains the same – not to provide a what-to-do list. It is to present and make analyses on discourses, practices, and patterns of communication which hopefully invite and inspire to reflect on hard-programmed truths and myths. To describe and discuss some of the new initiatives, social silence, team building, power struggles, gender, working hard, making projects work despite the different time-zones, and how global politics, new technologies, and ecological changes are intertwined with everyday life at NBIM. This work is based on anthropological fieldwork - participant observation (September 2022 - December 2023)
The contemporary global backlash against women has a dual structure of articulation. There is an over(t)‐articulation of the trend toward gender parity in social, political, and economic life and a simultaneous strengthening of subterranean forces of resistance and hostility against this trend. A proper understanding of the gender backlash should both identify the shortfalls in the over‐articulated parity trends, and also the hidden markers of hostility and resistance to them. Research shows that modern forms of war and conflict have taken an aggravated toll on women, children, and minority groups. The prevalence of intimate partner violence, the resistance to reproductive rights, asymmetries in the gender gap, anti‐women political discourse, and the phenomenon of “gendertrolling” are some other manifestations of the global backlash against women.
Purpose
This study aims to explore the factors that build positive leadership identities in women and reduce woman-leader identity conflict in societies with low gender equality. In doing so, it responds to calls to examine the role of “context” for women aspiring to leadership roles.
Design/methodology/approach
The required data were collected through semistructured interviews with 30 senior-level female leaders in the corporate sector of Pakistan and analyzed using NVivo.
Findings
Successful professional women are often facilitated by various social and organizational factors that boost their confidence and ability to view themselves positively as leaders, reducing woman-leader identity conflict. The main facilitators observed were egalitarian values practiced at home, male sponsorship in organizations and individual leadership experiences. Furthermore, the age and socio-economic status of women have also emerged as important factors contributing to the success of women leaders in Pakistani society, which is characterized by gender inequality and high power distance.
Practical implications
Organizations committed to developing women for leadership roles and attaining their gender diversity goals need to address the structural and psychological barriers that hinder women’s progress in the workplace. Moreover, men need to be engaged as allies to enable women’s advancement as organizational leaders.
Originality/value
This study highlights how culture, gender norms and significant experiences of women moderate equality lows in patriarchal societies. It aims to demonstrate that women can progress as leaders within a low gender-egalitarian culture in the presence of factors that facilitate the establishment of their identities as leaders, thus reducing identity conflict. In addition, the role that men can play in creating a supportive environment for establishing women’s leadership identities is particularly highlighted in this study.
Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of the introduction and implementation of a flexible work policy intended in part to improve gender equality at a STEM professional organization, I develop grounded theory on how managers’ gender shapes their implementation of such initiatives. I identify an equality policy paradox in which women managers, who openly support gender equality, are more likely than men managers to limit the policy. This apparent contradiction between intentions and actions is reconciled through an interactional role-based mechanism. Specifically, in this setting women managers encounter barriers to developing technical expertise, client relations, and respected authority. They respond by engaging extensively with subordinates, which allows them to effectively manage by brokering information (as an alternative to technical and client-facing tasks) and cultivating cooperation (as an alternative to formal authority). The policy undermines these interdependent activities; reflecting this, women managers generally oppose it. Men managers tend not to experience these constraints, and they focus on technical and client-related tasks that are largely independent of subordinates. The policy maintains these activities; reflecting this, they implement it. By identifying the equality policy paradox and the mechanism underlying it, this study advances theory on managers’ implementation of equality-related practices and policies as well as theory on gender and management.
How does female board membership affect firm stakeholder strategy? With the large increase in pressure to add more women to boards, it is especially important to understand how they influence firm strategy. Moreover, despite the growing importance of firm stakeholder strategy, key stakeholders continue to criticize firms for failing to keep their commitments. Here, we expect that owing to their long-term nature, consistency is particularly important for stakeholder investments, and that owing to their greater interest in stakeholder issues and their effect on board monitoring, female board members can be a key driver of stakeholder strategy consistency. Specifically, we develop and test hypotheses that increasing architectural complexity and uncertainty make stakeholder investments more difficult or costly, leading to a reduction in such investments. However, female board membership increases firm stakeholder consistency and counteracts these negative effects. Using a sample of 1755 S&P 1500 firms for the period 2000–2013, we provide robust support for our hypotheses.
Legitimacy is crucial for the effectiveness of leaders in the workplace. We investigate pathways by which authorities in the workplace gain legitimacy and how they differ by authority race. In addition to leaders’ behaviors, subordinates’ impressions of leaders’ competence and warmth, stemming from those behaviors, impact their views of leader legitimacy. We further assess how the role of mediating impressions depends on the race of the authority enacting the behaviors. In an experimental vignette study, we manipulate the authority’s actions (use of fair procedures and power benevolently) and race (Black/white) and measure perceived competence, warmth, and legitimacy. Results indicate that the effects of leader behaviors on legitimacy operate through impressions of competence and warmth. Moreover, authority race alters this pathway; behaviors operate through competence impressions for white managers and through warmth impressions for Black managers. Our study illuminates how leaders gain legitimacy at work and how this process is racialized.
This study examines how gender diversity on nonprofit boards relates to chief executive officer (CEO) compensation using data of 1,835 501(c)(3) organizations with the GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency. The analysis reveals a positive association between women’s representation on a governing board and female CEO compensation until women’s proportion reaches 82%. By contrast, there is a negative relationship between women’s representation on boards and male CEO compensation. Overall, the findings suggest that board gender diversity has distinctive implications for CEO compensation depending on CEO gender and that having more women on governing boards contributes to closing the gender pay gap for nonprofit executives. These findings can be applied to other dimensions of diversity, including racial and ethnic diversity.
A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles.
Previous research suggests that women, more than men, experience negative outcomes when they display dominance. A closer look, however, reveals ambiguity about the specific forms of dominance proscribed for women. Here, we suggest that negative reactions to women's dominance, a counter-stereotypical behavior, may require that the behavior be clearly encoded as counter-stereotypical-which is less likely when the behavior is expressed implicitly. This hypothesis was tested with a meta-analysis of studies on the evaluation of individuals behaving dominantly, including articles not directly investigating gender. Results revealed that dominance indeed hurts women's, relative to men's, likability (although the overall effect is small, d = -0.19, k = 63), as well as more downstream outcomes such as hireability (d = -0.58, k = 20). More important, however, dominance expressed explicitly (e.g., direct demands) affected women's likability (d = -0.28) whereas implicit forms of dominance (e.g., eye contact) did not (d = 0.03). Finally, the effect of dominance on men's and women's perceived competence did not differ (d = 0.02, k = 31), consistent with the idea that it is interpersonal (rather than instrumental) evaluations that obstruct women leaders. Implications for theory, and for the success of male and female leaders, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
How might being outcome dependent on another person influence the processes that one uses to form impressions of that person? We designed three experiments to investigate this question with respect to short-term, task-oriented outcome dependency. In all three experiments, subjects expected to interact with a young man formerly hospitalized as a schizophrenic, and they received information about the person's attributes in either written profiles or videotapes. In Experiment 1, short-term, task-oriented outcome dependency led subjects to use relatively individuating processes (i.e., to base their impressions of the patient on his particular attributes), even under conditions that typically lead subjects to use relatively category-based processes (i.e., to base their impressions on the patient's schizophrenic label). Moreover, in the conditions that elicited individuating processes, subjects spent more time attending to the patient's particular attribute information. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the attention effects in Experiment 1 were not merely a function of impression positivity and that outcome dependency did not influence the impression formation process when attribute information in addition to category-level information was unavailable. Finally, Experiment 3 manipulated not outcome dependency but the attentional goal of forming an accurate impression. We found that accuracy-driven attention to attribute information also led to individuating processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
We hypothesized that women avoid male-dominated domains because they anticipate lacking the power to influence others in those contexts. In Study 1, a questionnaire study, male undergraduates were more interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors than were female undergraduates, and this gender disparity was mediated by women anticipating having less power in STEM fields than men did. Study 2 experimentally demonstrated that a lack of female representation within an academic context (MBA program) led women to infer that they would lack power in that context. Consequently, they became less interested in the program and in business schools in general. Our findings indicate that expecting low interpersonal power is an important mechanism by which women lose interest in pursuing male-dominated fields.
I draw on research on emotion and gender to illustrate how an essentialized view of gender as difference persists through the circulation of beliefs about gender from popular culture to scientific writing and back again. I begin by describing the paradoxical nature of beliefs about emotion and then show that emotion's representations in beliefs and stereotypes have a powerful effect on how we interpret our own and others' emotional behavior. I consider how the differences paradigm, the study of gender in terms of identification of difference(s) between girls/women and boys/men, aids the circulation of essentialized beliefs about gender from popular culture to psychological science. Specifically, essentializing discourses from popular culture are absorbed into scientific discourse and gain scientific authorization via research undertaken within a differences paradigm. These results circulate back again to popular culture and the cycle continues. I conclude with a discussion of how the differences paradigm can be disrupted by a research approach informed by contextual factors that moderate gender effects, the intersectionality of social identities, and attentiveness to gender fault lines, giving examples from our work on the negotiability of emotion's meaning and emotion's representation in language. My article has implications for counselors and therapists whose clients struggle with the expression of emotions, instructors who want to encourage their students to explore how they think about gender as essentialized, and researchers concerned with interpersonal interactions, especially workplace interactions where understanding of others' emotions often has a gendered cast.
In this paper we integrate recent theories of motivation and leadership. Drawing on the self-regulatory focus theory and on self-concept based theories of leadership, we develop a conceptual framework proposing that leaders' chronic self-regulatory focus (promotion versus prevention), in conjunction with their values, influences their motivation to lead and, subsequently, their leadership behavior. We further suggest that leaders may influence the motivational self-regulatory foci of their followers, which will mediate different follower outcomes at the individual and group level.
The current research integrates perspectives on gendered race and person-position fit to introduce the concept of a gender profile. We propose that both the "gender" of a person's biological sex and the "gender" of a person's race (Asians are perceived as feminine and Blacks as masculine) help comprise an individual's gender profile-the overall femininity or masculinity associated with their demographic characteristics. We also propose that occupational positions have gender profiles. Finally, we argue that the overall gender profile of one's demographics, rather than just one's biological sex, determines one's fit and hirability for feminine or masculine occupational roles. The current five studies establish the gender profiles of different races and sexes, and then demonstrate that individuals with feminine-typed and masculine-typed gender profiles are selected for feminine and masculine positions, respectively. These studies provide new insights on who gets ahead in different environments.
© 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Race and gender categories, although long presumed to be perceived independently, are inextricably tethered in social perception due in part to natural confounding of phenotypic cues. We predicted that target gender would affect race categorizations. Consistent with this hypothesis, feminine faces compelled White categorizations, and masculine faces compelled Asian or Black categorizations of racially ambiguous targets (Study 1), monoracial targets (Study 2), and real facial photographs (Study 3). The efficiency of judgments varied concomitantly. White categorizations were rendered more rapidly for feminine, relative to masculine faces, but the opposite was true for Asian and Black categorizations (Studies 1-3). Moreover, the effect of gender on categorization efficiency was compelled by racial phenotypicality for Black targets (Study 3). Finally, when targets' race prototypicality was held constant, gender still influenced race categorizations (Study 4). These findings indicate that race categorizations are biased by presumably unrelated gender cues.
© 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Despite evidence that men are typically perceived as more appropriate and effective than women in leadership positions, a recent debate has emerged in the popular press and academic literature over the potential existence of a female leadership advantage. This meta-analysis addresses this debate by quantitatively summarizing gender differences in perceptions of leadership effectiveness across 99 independent samples from 95 studies. Results show that when all leadership contexts are considered, men and women do not differ in perceived leadership effectiveness. Yet, when other-ratings only are examined, women are rated as significantly more effective than men. In contrast, when self-ratings only are examined, men rate themselves as significantly more effective than women rate themselves. Additionally, this synthesis examines the influence of contextual moderators developed from role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Our findings help to extend role congruity theory by demonstrating how it can be supplemented based on other theories in the literature, as well as how the theory can be applied to both female and male leaders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
We compared perceived cultural stereotypes of diverse groups varying by gender and ethnicity. Using a free-response procedure, we asked 627 U.S. undergraduates to generate 10 attributes for 1 of 17 groups: Asian Americans, Blacks, Latinos, Middle Eastern Americans, or Whites; men or women; or 10 gender-by-ethnic groups (e.g., Black men or Latina women). Based on intersectionality theory and social dominance theory, we developed and tested three hypotheses. First, consistent with the intersectionality hypothesis, gender-by-ethnic stereotypes contained unique elements that were not the result of adding gender stereotypes to ethnic stereotypes. Second, in support of an ethnicity hypothesis, stereotypes of ethnic groups were generally more similar to stereotypes of the men than of the women in each group. Third, a gender hypothesis postulated that stereotypes of men and women will be most similar to stereotypes of White men and White women, less similar to ethnic minority men and ethnic minority women, and least similar to Black men and Black women. This hypothesis was confirmed for target women, but results for target men were mixed. Collectively, our results contribute to research, theory, and practice by demonstrating that ethnic and gender stereotypes are complex and that the intersections of these social categories produce meaningful differences in the way groups are perceived.
We propose that the psychological states individuals bring into newly formed groups can produce meaningful differences in status attainment. Three experiments explored whether experimentally created approach-oriented mindsets affected status attainment in groups, both immediately and over time. We predicted that approach-oriented states would lead to greater status attainment by increasing proactive behavior. Furthermore, we hypothesized that these status gains would persist longitudinally, days after the original mindsets had dissipated, due to the self-reinforcing behavioral cycles the approach-oriented states initiated. In Experiment 1, individuals primed with a promotion focus achieved higher status in their newly formed groups, and this was mediated by proactive behavior as rated by themselves and their teammates. Experiment 2 was a longitudinal experiment and revealed that individuals primed with power achieved higher status, both immediately following the prime and when the groups were reassembled 2 days later to work on new tasks. These effects were mediated by independent coders’ ratings of proactive behavior during the first few minutes of group interaction. Experiment 3 was another longitudinal experiment and revealed that priming happiness led to greater status as well as greater acquisition of material resources. Importantly, these immediate and longitudinal effects were independent of the effects of a number of stable dispositional traits. Our results establish that approach-oriented psychological states affect status attainment, over and above the more stable characteristics emphasized in prior research, and provide the most direct test yet of the self-reinforcing nature of status hierarchies. These findings depict a dynamic view of status organization in which the same group may organize itself differently depending on members’ incoming psychological states.
In two experiments, we investigate how individuals' levels of power and status interact to determine how they are perceived by others. We find that power and status have similar, positive, effects on judged dominance. We also find that power has a negative effect on perceived warmth, but status moderates this “power penalty”: high power without status is associated with low warmth, but power with status is judged warm. Consequently, we find high status individuals, regardless of power level, are perceived positively – dominant and warm – whereas high power–low status individuals are judged most negatively — dominant and cold (Experiments 1 and 2). As a result, perceivers expect positive interactions with high status individuals, but negative interactions with high power, low status individuals (Experiment 2). These findings provide insight into power and status social judgments, and further our understanding of similarities and differences between these distinct, yet related, constructs.
Motivation may provoke stereotype use. In a field study of students’ evaluations of university instructors and in a controlled experiment, participants viewed women as less competent than men after receiving negative evaluations from them but not after receiving positive evaluations. As a result, the evaluation of women depended more on the favorability of the feedback they provided than was the case for men. Most likely, this occurred because the motivation of criticized participants to salvage their self-views by disparaging their evaluator led them to use a stereotype that they would otherwise not have used. The stereotype was not used by participants praised by a woman or by participants who observed someone else receive praise or criticism from a woman; all these participants rated the woman just as highly as participants rated a man delivering comparable feedback.
Attitudes toward female authority and their relationship to gender beliefs were examined using implicit and explicit measures of each. Implicit attitudes covaried with implicit gender authority beliefs (i.e., linking men to high-authority and women to low-authority roles). Explicit attitudes covaried with explicit gender authority beliefs, feminist identification, and hostile sexism. Thus, gender authority beliefs may influence both conscious and unconscious prejudice against female authorities. Although women showed less explicit prejudice than did men, their implicit attitudes were similarly negative. Finally, the relationship found between two different response latency methods (a priming task for attitudes, a categorization task for beliefs) supports the assumption that implicit measures assess similar constructs (i.e., automatic associations in long-term memory).
A laboratory study and a field study (N = 168) investigated evaluative affect display (EAD), that is nonverbal evaluative reactions, toward leaders in small, face-to-face groups. Butler and Geis had found that female leaders received more negative affect than did male leaders, whereas both groups were judged equally competent on rating scales. Study 1 replicated their findings with a more economic coding method and improved methodological control. Study 2 examined EAD in routine meetings of real teams in different organizational field settings. Results suggest that EAD is a reliably observable phenomenon in field and laboratory settings. Generally, more negative affect was displayed toward female leaders across contexts. By contrast, there was no preference for men over women in competence ratings on scales.
Hierarchy is such a defining and pervasive feature of organizations that its forms and basic functions are often taken for granted in organizational research. In this review, we revisit some basic psychological and sociological elements of hierarchy and argue that status and power are two important yet distinct bases of hierarchical differentiation. We first define power and status and distinguish our definitions from previous conceptualizations. We then integrate a number of different literatures to explain why status and power hierarchies tend to be self‐reinforcing. Power, related to one’s control over valued resources, transforms individual psychology such that the powerful think and act in ways that lead to the retention and acquisition of power. Status, related to the respect one has in the eyes of others, generates expectations for behavior and opportunities for advancement that favor those with a prior status advantage. We also explore the role that hierarchy‐enhancing belief systems play in stabilizing hierarchy, both from the bottom up and from the top down. Finally, we address a number of factors that we think are instrumental in explaining the conditions under which hierarchies change. Our framework suggests a number of avenues for future research on the bases, causes, and consequences of hierarchy in groups and organizations.
This book addresses women's civil strategies for negotiation and leadership through careful analysis of social science research and management theory as well as interviews with women legislators, documenting how women in Washington are affecting the development of the world at all levels.
In October 2013, after the war between Republican and Democratic men in Congress resulted in a government shutdown, Time magazine referred to the women legislators as "the only adults left in Washington." In Why Congress Needs Women: Bringing Sanity to the House and Senate, editor Michele A. Paludi and various contributors explain how women in Washington have redefined leadership and power by embracing a transformational leadership style: a style that incorporates empowerment, ethics, nurturance, inclusiveness, and social justice, transcending their own self-interests for the good of the group—or, in the case of the shut-down, for the good of the nation.
A resource that will prove invaluable for anyone interested in politics and leadership as well as students taking courses in politics, women's studies, gender studies, or management, the chapters provide an in-depth review of the ways women in Washington are striving to find lasting solutions to our nation's challenges. The contributors document the mindset and methodologies women legislators are using to achieve their legislative goals and work toward creating gender-equitable environments in Washington's well-established climate where bullying, harassment, and sexual exploitation is perceived as normative. Insights from interviews with women senators and congress members enhance the scholarship discussed in this book.
A leader's emotional display is proposed to affect his or her audience. In this study, observing a male or female leader express negative emotion was proposed to influence the observer's affective state and assessment of the leader's effectiveness. In a laboratory study, a leader's specific negative emotional tone impacted the affective state of participants in the study. Negative emotional display had a significant and negative main effect on participant assessment of leader effectiveness compared to a more neutral emotional display. Further, a significant interaction between leader gender and emotion was found. Male leaders received lower effectiveness ratings when expressing sadness compared to neutrality, while female leaders received lower ratings when expressing either sadness or anger. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recent research suggests that women are more likely to participate in the helping dimension of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) whereas men are more likely to participate in the civic virtue dimension. Three laboratory studies were conducted to test the hypotheses that observers expect employees to participate in gender-congruent OCBs and that, when exhibited, observers are more likely to attribute gender-incongruent OCBs than gender-congruent OCBs to impression management motives. Results indicated that OCBs in general were expected more of women than of men. Only under specific conditions were OCB-civic virtue behaviors expected more of men. Additionally, participants were more likely to attribute men's OCB than women's OCB to impression management motives. Implications and future research suggestions are discussed.
Despite the widespread interest in the topic of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), little empirical research has tested the fundamental assumption that these forms of behavior improve the effectiveness of work groups or organizations in which they are exhibited. In the present study, the effects of OCBs on the quantity and quality of the performance of 218 people working in 40 machine crews in a paper mill located in the Northeastern United States were examined. The results indicate that helping behavior and sportsmanship had significant effects on performance quantity and that helping behavior had a significant impact on performance quality. However, civic virtue had no effect on either performance measure. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the topic of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).
Despite a long history in social sciences such as anthropology and sociology, status has not received its deserved status in psychology and related domains such as management. This chapter attempts to bring greater clarity to the conceptualization of status and to highlight its distinctions from related bases of social hierarchy, such as power, dominance, and influence. To accomplish these goals, we first review current conceptual thinking on status and other related bases of social hierarchy. We then present a review of recent empirical evidence that supports differentiation among these bases of social hierarchy, focusing primarily on empirical work that differentiates status and power. We then propose an integrative framework that organizes the many related, yet distinct constructs that describe social hierarchy. Throughout, we are attentive to the fundamental question of why distinguishing status from these related aspects of social hierarchy matters-both for research and for a better understanding of social life. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014. All rights are reserved.
Any organization's success depends upon the voluntary cooperation of its members. But what motivates people to cooperate? In Why People Cooperate, Tom Tyler challenges the decades-old notion that individuals within groups are primarily motivated by their self-interest. Instead, he demonstrates that human behaviors are influenced by shared attitudes, values, and identities that reflect social connections rather than material interests. Tyler examines employee cooperation in work organizations, resident cooperation with legal authorities responsible for social order in neighborhoods, and citizen cooperation with governmental authorities in political communities. He demonstrates that the main factors for achieving cooperation are socially driven, rather than instrumentally based on incentives or sanctions. Because of this, social motivations are critical when authorities attempt to secure voluntary cooperation from group members. Tyler also explains that two related aspects of group practices--the use of fair procedures when exercising authority and the belief by group members that authorities are benevolent and sincere--are crucial to the development of the attitudes, values, and identities that underlie cooperation. With widespread implications for the management of organizations, community regulation, and governance, Why People Cooperate illustrates the vital role that voluntary cooperation plays in the long-standing viability of groups.
This article explores strategies for enhancing women's effectiveness as leaders by first recognizing that leadership itself is gendered and is enacted within a gendered context, two themes that recur throughout this issue. These contexts exist along a continuum ranging from male-dominated, hierarchical, performance-oriented, power-expressive and thus masculinized contexts at one extreme to transformational contexts that stress the empowerment of followers at the other pole. Each context suggests different strategies for making women leaders effective, emphasizing women-specific recommendations in masculinized contexts that focus on status enhancement and the legitimation of women leaders in contrast to innovative contexts with broader task goals that prove more congenial for women, as well as men, leaders.
This review article posits that the scarcity of women at the upper levels of organizations is a consequence of gender bias in evaluations. It is proposed that gender stereotypes and the expectations they produce about both what women are like (descriptive) and how they should behave (prescriptive) can result in devaluation of their performance, denial of credit to them for their successes, or their penalization for being competent. The processes giving rise to these outcomes are explored, and the procedures that are likely to encourage them are identified. Because of gender bias and the way in which it influences evaluations in work settings, it is argued that being competent does not ensure that a woman will advance to the same organizational level as an equivalently performing man.
Past research has demonstrated a causal relationship between power and dominant behavior, motivated in part by the desire to maintain the social distinctiveness created by one's position of power. In this article, we test the novel idea that some individuals respond to high-power roles by displaying not dominance but instead submissiveness. We theorize that high-power individuals who are also high in the need to belong experience the social distinctiveness associated with power as threatening, rather than as an arrangement to protect and maintain. We predict that such individuals will counter their feelings of threat with submissive behaviors to downplay their power and thereby reduce their distinctiveness. We found support for this hypothesis across three studies using different operationalizations of power, need to belong, and submissiveness. Furthermore, Study 3 illustrated the mediating role of fear of (positive) attention in the relationship between power, need to belong, and submissive behavior.
© 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Two major types of motivation underlie the ability of leaders to gain cooperation in groups. First is the desire of people to gain rewards and avoid punishments. Leaders can tap into such motivations to the extent that then control resources and/or instruments of surveillance and sanctioning. Second is people's internal attitudes and values, which shape what people want or feel they ought to do. Leaders can draw on these internal motivations by appealing to or creating attitudes and values. Both strategies influence behavior, but there are clear advantages to leadership based on connecting to people's attitudes and values. In particular, people voluntarily follow leaders who engage their internal motivations.
This article presents the results from two expectation-states studies on gender and double standards for task competence. The emergence of such standards under several experimental conditions is investigated. In both studies, men and women, participating in opposite-sex dyads, worked first individually and then as a team in solving a perceptual task. As predicted, result from Experiment 1 show that although subjects of both sexes achieved equal levels of performance, women were held to a stricter standard of competence than men. This difference was more pronounced when the referent of the standard was the partner rather than self. Experimetn 2 investigates the extent to which the double standard is affected by level of accountability for one's assessments. Results show a significant difference by sex of referent of standard when accountability was low, but not when it was increased. In both studies, measures of perceived competence in self and in partner reflected reported standards, as predicted. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
This study examined recipients’ perceptions of workplace discipline. Females delivering discipline were perceived to be less effective and less fair than males. Both recipients’ biases and behavior differences by male and female supervisors appear to contribute to reduced effectiveness. These results suggest the need to raise the awareness of managers and subordinates regarding potential negative reactions to females administering discipline. Special training in discipline delivery for female managers may also be warranted.
Why do some leaders use their position to amass personal prestige and resources, and others to benefit the team, the organization, or society? This article synthesizes new, cross-disciplinary research showing that self-serving leader behavior is predictable based on the function and nature of power—an essential component of leadership. First, because power increases goal-oriented behavior, it amplifies the tendency of self-focused goals to yield self-interested behav-ior. Self-focused goals may arise from a variety of sources; evidence is reviewed for the role of traits (e.g., low agreeableness), values (e.g., self-enhancement), self-construal (e.g., indepen-dence), and motivation (e.g., personalized power motivation). Second, because power is gener-ally desirable, leaders whose power is threatened (e.g., self-doubts, positional instability) will turn their focus to maintaining that power—even at others' expense. These ideas have important implications for research and for organizational efforts to develop leaders who will improve others' outcomes rather than merely benefit themselves. A position of leadership brings power to its occupant—the power to steer the direction of a group, to decide whether others get plum assignments or international transfers or demo-tions, and to use available resources as the leader sees fit. Each time power is placed in the Acknowledgments: I thank Emily Bianchi, Nate Fast, Jill Perry-Smith, and Becky Schaumberg for thoughtful comments on earlier drafts.
This article reviews research on the evaluation of women and men who occupy leadership roles. In these experiments, the characteristics of leaders other than their sex were held constant, and the sex of the leader was varied. These experiments thus investigated whether people are biased against female leaders and managers. Although this research showed only a small overall tendency for subjects to evaluate female leaders less favorably than male leaders, this tendency was more pronounced under certain circumstances. Specifically, women in leadership positions were devalued relative to their male counterparts when leadership was carried out in stereotypically masculine styles, particularly when this style was autocratic or directive. In addition, the devaluation of women was greater when leaders occupied male-dominated roles and when the evaluators were men. These and other findings are interpreted from a perspective that emphasizes the influence of gender roles within organizational settings.
The authors identify status and power as the principal bases of influence for public managers and describe how managers can use this conceptual distinction to increase their influence. Status is defined as the degree to which one is respected by one's colleagues, and power is defined as asymmetric control over valued resources. Different social and relational processes govern (1) how people determine who is, and who ought to be, high status versus powerful and (2) how status and power affect individual psychology and behavior. To illustrate key points, the authors provide examples of individuals from the public sector and public service organizations. The framework of interpersonal influence gives practitioners behavioral strategies for increasing their status and power as well as a way to assess and diagnose interpersonal dimensions of their own performance in their jobs and careers.
This contribution focuses on women in leadership positions. We propose that two convictions are relevant to the effects of having women in high places. On the one hand, women as a group are expected to employ different leadership styles than men, in this way adding diversity to management teams. On the other hand, individual women are expected to ascend to leadership positions by showing their ability to display the competitiveness and toughness typically required from those at the top. We posit that both convictions stem from gendered leadership beliefs, and that these interact with women's self-views to determine the effectiveness of female leaders. We develop an integrative model that explains the interplay between organizational beliefs and individual-self definitions and its implications for female leadership. We then present initial evidence in support of this model from two recent programs of research. The model allows us to connect “glass cliff” effects to “queen bee” effects showing that both relate to the perceived salience of gender in the organization, as well as individual gender identities. Each of these phenomena may harm future career opportunities of women, be it as individuals or as a group. We outline how future research may build on our proposed model and examine its further implications. We also indicate how the model may offer a concrete starting point for developing strategies to enhance the effectiveness of women in leadership positions.
This article presents a four-category framework to characterize the contents of prescriptive gender stereotypes. The framework distinguishes between prescriptions and proscriptions that are intensified by virtue of one's gender, and those that are relaxed by virtue of one's gender. Two studies examined the utility of this framework for characterizing prescriptive gender stereotypes in American society (Study 1) and in the highly masculine context of Princeton University (Study 2). The results demonstrated the persistence of traditional gender prescriptions in both contexts, but also revealed distinct areas of societal vigilance and leeway for each gender. In addition, they showed that women are seen more positively, relative to societal standards, than are men. We consider the implications of this framework for research on reactions to gender stereotype deviants and sex discrimination.
In two scenario-based studies, we found that women and men evaluate glass-cliff positions (i.e., precarious leadership positions at organizations in crisis) differently depending on the social and financial resources available. Female and male participants evaluated a hypothetical leadership position in which they would have both social and financial resources, financial resources but no social resources, or social resources but no financial resources. Women evaluated the position without social resources most negatively, whereas men evaluated the position without financial resources most negatively. In Study 2, we found that women and men considered different issues when evaluating these leadership positions. Women’s evaluations and expected levels of influence as leaders depended on the degree to which they expected to be accepted by subordinates. In contrast, men’s evaluations and expected levels of acceptance by subordinates depended on the degree to which they expected to be influential in the position. Our findings have implications for the understanding of the glass-cliff phenomenon and gendered leadership stereotypes.
Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) isbehavior that extends beyond that required by anorganization in a formal job description. Past researchshows that engaging in OCB is related to higherperformance evaluations. We wished to determine whether therelationship between OCB and job performance ratingswould be affected by the gender of persons performingOCB. Ninety-six primarily Caucasian dormitory Resident Advisors (RAs) rated one another on thelikelihood of performing OCB and we obtained RAperformance ratings from their Hall Directors. Aspredicted, women received higher OCB scores than menalthough they did not differ from men on performance ratings.This finding may suggest a form of subtle discriminationagainst women, although other interpretations arepossible.
Gender- and race-bias have often been studied as separate phenomena, but examining intersections of race and gender is critical given that people always belong to many social categories simultaneously. In two studies, we focus on the evaluation of mixed-sex work teams, and examine how race and gender of team members affect the evaluations they receive. Participants read about a pair of employees assigned to work together on a “masculine” task on which they either succeeded (Study 1) or failed (Study 2). Mixed-sex teams included White pairs, Black pairs, or mixed race pairs (White woman–Black man; Black woman–White man). In both studies, pro-male gender bias was evident only in the White male–White female work pair. We suggest that rather than suffering the double jeopardy of dual subordinate identities, Black women were buffered from the effects of gender bias by virtue of their non-prototypicality or invisibility.
We contribute to a current debate that focuses on whether individuals with more than one subordinate identity (i.e., Black women) experience more negative leader perceptions than do leaders with single-subordinate identities (i.e., Black men and White women). Results confirmed that Black women leaders suffered double jeopardy, and were evaluated more negatively than Black men and White women, but only under conditions of organizational failure. Under conditions of organizational success, the three groups were evaluated comparably to each other, but each group was evaluated less favorably than White men. Further, leader typicality, the extent to which individuals possess characteristics usually associated with a leader role, mediated the indirect effect of leader race, leader gender, and organizational performance on leader effectiveness. Taken together, these results suggest that Black women leaders may carry a burden of being disproportionately sanctioned for making mistakes on the job.
This research extends the role incongruity analysis of employment-related gender bias by investigating the role of dispositional and situational antecedents, specifically political ideology and the salience of cues to the traditional female gender role. The prediction that conservatives would show an anti-female candidate bias and liberals would show a pro-female bias when the traditional female gender role is salient was tested across three experimental studies. In Study 1, 126 participants evaluated a male or a female job applicant with thoughts of the traditional female gender role activated or not. Results showed that when the gender role is salient, political ideology moderates evaluations of the female candidates such that conservatives evaluate her negatively and liberals evaluate her positively. Study 2 (89 participants) replicated this effect and showed that this political ideology-based bias does not occur when the non-traditional female gender role is made salient. Study 2 also demonstrated that the observed effects are not driven by liberals' and conservatives' differing perceptions regarding the female applicant's qualifications for the job. Finally, Study 3 (159 participants) both replicated the political ideology-based evaluation bias for female candidates and demonstrated that this bias is mediated by conservatives' and liberals' attitudes toward the roles of women in society.
We present evidence that shifting hiring criteria reflects backlash toward agentic (“masterful”) women (Rudman, 1998). Participants (N = 428) evaluated male or female agentic or communal managerial applicants on dimensions of competence, social skills, and hireability. Consistent with past research, agentic women were perceived as highly competent but deficient in social skills, compared with agentic men. New to the present research, social skills predicted hiring decisions more than competence for agentic women; for all other applicants, competence received more weight than social skills. Thus, evaluators shifted the job criteria away from agentic women's strong suit (competence) and toward their perceived deficit (social skills) to justify hiring discrimination. The implications of these findings for women's professional success are discussed.
Although past research has noted the importance of both power and gender for understanding volubility—the total amount of time spent talking—in organizations, to date, identifying the unique contributions of power and gender to volubility has been somewhat elusive. Using both naturalistic data sets and experiments, the present studies indicate that while power has a strong, positive effect on volubility for men, no such effect exists for women. Study 1 uses archival data to examine the relationship between the relative power of United States senators and their talking behavior on the Senate floor. Results indicate a strong positive relationship between power and volubility for male senators, but a non-significant relationship for female senators. Study 2 replicates this effect in an experimental setting by priming the concept of power and shows that though men primed with power talk more, women show no effect of power on volubility. Mediation analyses indicate that this difference is explained by women’s concern that being highly voluble will result in negative consequences (i.e., backlash). Study 3 shows that powerful women are in fact correct in assuming that they will incur backlash as a result of talking more than others—an effect that is observed among both male and female perceivers. Implications for the literatures on volubility, power, and previous studies of backlash are discussed.
Two experimental studies examined whether gender stereotypes about the transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles constitute an advantage or an impediment for women's access to leadership positions in organizations. The first study investigated the accuracy of descriptive gender stereotypes about leadership styles, showing that participants accurately believe that women display more transformational and contingent reward behaviors, and fewer management-by-exception and laissez-faire behaviors than men. The second study investigated prescriptive stereotypes about the importance of leadership styles for the promotion of women and men to different levels in organizations. Inspirational motivation was perceived as more important for men than women and especially important for promotion to CEO. In contrast, individualized consideration was perceived as more important for women than men and especially important for promotion to senior management. Consistent with these stereotypical beliefs about leadership, women interested in promotion may be well advised to blend individualized consideration and inspirational motivation behaviors.
The current research explores how roles that possess power but lack status influence behavior toward others. Past research has primarily examined the isolated effects of having either power or status, but we propose that power and status interact to affect interpersonal behavior. Based on the notions that a) low-status is threatening and aversive and b) power frees people to act on their internal states and feelings, we hypothesized that power without status fosters demeaning behaviors toward others. To test this idea, we orthogonally manipulated both power and status and gave participants the chance to select activities for their partners to perform. As predicted, individuals in high-power/low-status roles chose more demeaning activities for their partners (e.g., bark like a dog, say “I am filthy”) than did those in any other combination of power and status roles. We discuss how these results clarify, challenge, and advance the existing power and status literatures.
Occupying gender stereotype-incongruent roles can lead individuals to lose status and earn a lower salary. The present research examined whether merely working for a supervisor in a gender-atypical occupational role leads a subordinate to lose status. Two studies found that male subordinates of gender deviants (i.e., a female supervisor in a masculine domain or a male supervisor in a feminine domain) were accorded lower status and were paid less than male subordinates of supervisors in gender-congruent roles (i.e., a female supervisor in a feminine domain or a male supervisor in a masculine domain). However, the status of female subordinates was unaffected by working for a gender atypical supervisor. Moreover, the status loss for male subordinates was mediated by a perceived lack of masculinity. Thus, establishing the male subordinate's masculine credentials eliminated the bias.
This study investigated the effectiveness of male and female managers when they engaged in the masculine-oriented managerial behavior of discipline. A sample of 155 employed students rated their managers. When managers reportedly allowed two-way discussion with employees, their subordinates reported improved behavior. Two-way discussion and timely and private discipline behaviors were related to fewer negative outcomes. Male and female managers did not differ on discipline behaviors; however, manager gender by behavior interactions indicated that when women were low on two-way discussion, employees reported fewer improvements. This finding suggests that women may experience costs that men do not when they fail to discipline in a considerate way. Our results suggest that when females provide two-way discussion and discipline in private, they realize more improvements in employee behavior than males.
Acriticalexaminationofresearchontherelationshipbetweenstereotypingandworkplace discrimination must meet three requirements.Thefirstrequirementisanunderstanding of the theory that guides this research. The second requirement is anunbiased review of relevant research. The third requirement is comprehension of the ways thatdifferenttypesofresearchareinformative about behavior in organizations. Landy (2008) meets none of these requirements. He misstates the consensual social scientific theory about the relation between stereotyping and discrimination, presents onlya selective portion of the relevant research, and misconstrues the basis for generalizing researchfindingstoorganizations.Asaresult, Landy misrepresents the evidence for stereotype-based workplace discrimination. For brevity, we consider only sex discrimination. Also, consistent with Landy’s emphasis, we address the consequences of stereotypes that describe women and men as opposed to stereotypes that prescribe normatively acceptable behavior for them and thus sanction behavior deviating from gender norms (see Eagly & Karau, 2002; Heilman, 2001).
This study examined recipients’ perceptions of workplace discipline. Females delivering discipline were perceived to be less effective and less fair than males. Both recipients’ biases and behavior differences by male and female supervisors appear to contribute to reduced effectiveness. These results suggest the need to raise the awareness of managers and subordinates regarding potential negative reactions to females administering discipline. Special training in discipline delivery for female managers may also be warranted.
A review of recent research demonstrates that people are more willing to accept decisions when they feel that those decisions are made through decision-making procedures they view as fair. Studies of procedural justice judgements further suggest that people evaluate fairness primarily through criteria that can be provided to all the parties to a conflict: whether there are opportunities to participate; whether the authorities are neutral; the degree to which people trust the motives of the authorities; and whether people are treated with dignity and respect during the process. These findings are optimistic and suggest that authorities have considerable ability to bridge differences and interests and values through the use of fair decision-making procedures. The limits to the effectiveness of such procedural approaches are also outlined. Une recension des recherches recentes montre que les gens sont prets a accepter des decisions quand ils sentent que ces decisions sont prises a la suite d'une procedure decisionnelle qu'ils considerent equitable. De plus, les etudes sur les jugements dans les procedure judiciaires suggerent que les gens evaluent l'equite prioritairement sur la base des criteres fournies a toutes les parties en conflit: possibilites de participation: neutralite des autorites; confiance dans les motifs des autorites; et procedure qui traite les personnes avec dignite et respect. Ces resultats optimistes suggerent que les autorites peuvent, par des procedures equitables de prise de decision, concilier des differences, des interets et des valeurs. Les limites a l'efficacite de ces approches procedurales sont aussi soulignees.