The effect of gender role, attitude toward leadership, and self-confidence on leader emergence: Implications for leadership development
✍ Scribed by Judith A. Kolb
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 997 KB
- Volume
- 10
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1044-8004
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Although research has indicated no substantial dqferenccs between the behaviors of male and female leaders, dlfferences exist in perceptions of these behaviors. Leadership continues to be described in stereotypically masculine terms, although some evidence exists that a n androgynous leadership style also may be related to perceptions of leadership. This study examined whether self-perceptions of masculine gender role characteristics would predict individuals who were perceived by others as leaders on a team project and gother self-report measures might be used instead to predict leadership. Results indicate that both attitude toward leadership and leadership experience were stronger predictors of leader emergence than masculine gender role.
After two decades of research on differences in the leadership behaviors of males and females, the consensus appears to be that there are few, if any, differences (Powell, 1990; Shimanoff and Jenkins, 1991). Powell, for example, reported no significant differences between male and female managers in taskoriented behavior, people-oriented behavior, effectiveness ratings of managers, and subordinates' responses to managers. Shimanoff and Jenkins concurred. After reviewing research on sex differences in leadership, they stated, "Research has demonstrated that there are far more similarities than differences in the leadership behaviors of women and men, and they are equally effective" (1991, p. 504). They concluded, however, that this same literature reflected a Note 1 would like to thank Dennis Gouran and Grant Henning for their comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript Portions of this article were presented at the 1997 convention of the Association for Business Cominunication Other data collected on this sample were included in an article that appeared in the 1998 conference proceedings of the Academy of Human Resource Development