My last entry defined the questions we asked regarding the relationships among various measures of motivational orientation (as a proxy for leadership style), intelligence, coping, and the dependent variable, the perception of leadership effectiveness. This entry will report the findings.
Recall the subjects of this study were an already highly intelligent group of M.B.A. candidates at the Booth School of Business at The University of Chicago who were selected for participation in an elite leadership development program. These students were selected on the basis of their perceived leadership capacity. Measures of personality and intelligence were taken at the start of the nine-month program; measures of leadership effectiveness were taken at the end of the nine-month program.
Comparing the men's and women's average ratings on leadership showed that female leaders were perceived as being slightly more effective on average than their male counterparts but the difference was not statistically significant. Female leaders were evaluated only marginally more favorably than male leaders when examining the ratings of leadership as perceived separately by the gender of the raters.
Women obtained a slightly higher score than men on the measure of intelligence (APM) but the difference was not significant. There was no relationship between this measure of intelligence and leadership.
Gender differences in motivational orientation were significant. Men scored significantly higher on the agentic variable than did women; women scored significantly higher on the communal variable than did men. Men tended to describe themselves as having more stereotypically masculine attributes than women; women tended to describe themselves as having more stereotypically feminine attributes than men.
To examine the relations among gender, motivational orientation, and leadership, we looked at the correlations between leadership and motivation for the entire sample and separately, by gender. The correlations between leadership and motivation for the entire sample were not significant. When examined by gender, however, a differential pattern of correlations emerged.
- Task Orientation Associated With Effective Leadership for Women
One noteworthy finding were gender differences in coping style and leadership. For one, evaluations of leadership were positively and significantly correlated with the ability to identify sources of difficulty (on the sentence completion test) for women but not for men. Also, the correlation between leadership effectiveness and the tendency to be invested in impersonal objects and activities was marginally significant for women but not for men.
It is reasonable to infer that the standards applied by both men and women for evaluating the leadership style and potential of women were not used in evaluating male leadership style and potential. The most effective female leaders were focused on technical problems and difficulties in the external world. Male leaders' effectiveness was not influenced by their openness to perceiving external difficulties. This finding is consistent with previous research reporting that female leaders' behaviors are viewed as being more task-oriented than men's equivalent behaviors.
The constraints on women's leadership style raise an important issue: Are women evaluated less favorably than men when performing leadership or managerial behaviors even though women's and men's behaviors are objectively equivalent? If individuals are biased to evaluate female leaders' efforts less favorably than the equivalent efforts of male leaders, women who aspire to leadership roles would encounter serious barriers to entering and advancing in these roles. To the extent that my findings can be generalized to organizational settings, they suggest that females in managerial roles may be subject to more stringent evaluations. Particularly in organizations in which autocratic styles are common, women in management may encounter significant bias given the evidence of this study and others.
Women with active coping stand a better chance of succeeding in leadership roles. Women who show more active coping tend to be selected more often for leadership roles. Women who wish to advance as managers should avoid behaviors and situations that elicit negative ratings. Avoidance of autocratic, directive styles, which elicit negative evaluation of female leaders, requires that women in leadership roles adopt more democratic, participative styles than men in similar roles. To the extent that women either avoid male-dominated leadership roles or favor an autocratic and directive style, the phenomena demonstrated in this study would serve to preserve the traditional division of labor and discourage women from seeking or attaining positions of leadership. My findings indicate that women capable of overcoming the limitations on leadership style must be more self-confident, task focused and open to the perception of frustration and difficulty than their male counterparts.
- Toward a General Model of Leadership
I have proposed that active coping is a necessary but insufficient determinant of effective leadership; other characteristics, such as motivational orientation, are also required. The utility of a specific skill set or leadership style will depend on the situation but the underlying stability and openness to adapting to change associated with active coping is always necessary.
My findings support this model. The strength of the findings could not be explained by different levels of intelligence. This observation is important because high correlations between managerial performance and intelligence have been reported across all levels of managerial functioning.
Using a task group (M.B.A. candidates at The University of Chicago) working over a nine months on a task that determined important consequences (corporate sponsorship for the program at the Booth School of Business and the students' grades), my research demonstrated that active coping is associated with the emergence and evaluation of an individual as a leader regardless of gender. I also found a differential pattern of relationships among gender, motivation, and the evaluation of leadership.
Differences in the evaluation of male and female leaders could have been due to genuine differences in their behavior as well as to gender expectations in the perceivers. Furthermore, whether leaders are more effective as a result of their differing motivations or styles, and the ways in which gender interacts with these factors, are questions that can be addressed only by taking measures of group outcomes into account along with measures of perceived leadership effectiveness.
To be an effective leader or manager, it is important to be able to strike an appropriate balance between assertiveness and cooperation. Ideally, both male and female leaders will choose their actions sensibly and flexibly depending on the situations they confront. Expressive, relationship-oriented behaviors contribute to high morale and cohesiveness in small task groups. My findings suggest that men and women alike expect women to serve these empathetic socially-facilitating functions in the workplace. Autonomy, decisiveness, and ambition also are requisites of effective leadership. Yet it appears that women should apply these qualities with judicious restraint if they are to succeed as leaders. Given the expectation imposed on female leaders, it is not surprising that women have to be stronger copers than men to establish legitimacy and credibility as leaders within a small group.
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