Are Female Leaders Judged More Harshly than Male Leaders?

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance, Diversity
Publication: Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Article: Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective? Male Subordinates’ Devaluation of Female Transformational Leaders.
Authors: Ayman, R., Korabik, K., and Morris, S.
Reviewed By: Samantha Paustian-Underdahl

 Amongst researchers and practitioners, one of the most popular leadership styles today is transformational leadership. Transformational leaders inspire their subordinates through motivational communication and action. They are generally concerned with promoting personal growth and development in their followers by challenging them to learn new skills and abilities.  But how is the perceived effectiveness of transformational leadership different for male and female leaders?

Ayman, Korabik, and Morris (2009) believe that women who use a transformational leadership style will be evaluated as less effective than their male counterparts who adopt the same style. This may be due to the gender stereotypes that are prevalent in our society - that leadership and masculinity go hand-in-hand. According to Eagly and Karau’s (2002) role congruency theory, when raters experience incongruence between the behavior they expect of a leader and what they expect of a woman, they under-value the female leader’s behavior and performance.

In a recent study, Ayman, Korabik, and Morris (2009) examined 109 leader-subordinate dyads in Canada. The relationship between a leader’s transformational leadership and their subordinates’ evaluation of their performance was significantly less positive for female leaders with male subordinates than for female leaders with female subordinates. However, when male leaders were evaluated, male and female subordinates rated their performance as equally effective, regardless of their levels of transformational leadership. 

The results of this study suggest that popular leadership styles like transformational leadership may not be equally effective for men and women. Male subordinates, as compared to female subordinates, were more negative in their evaluations when a female leader considered herself high on transformational leadership behaviors. This highlights the subtle biases female leaders face in diverse work settings. Female leaders should focus on understanding others’ perceptions of their behavior. Organizations can work to reduce these gender biases by promoting diversity training and the use of bias-free personnel feedback systems.

Ayman, R., Korabik, K., and Morris, S. (2009). Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective? Male Subordinates’ Devaluation of Female Transformational Leaders. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39 (4), 852-879.

Leading Employees by Involving Them Leads to Results

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance, Citizenship Behavior      
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior
Article: Does participative leadership enhance work performance by inducing empowerment or trust? The differential effects on managerial and non-managerial subordinates
Authors: X. Huang, J. Iun, A. Liu, and Y. Gong
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 Isn’t it nice when our supervisors invite our ideas/opinions and include us in decision making?  Of course it is!  These kinds of supervisory behaviors are known as participative leadership behaviors and, not surprisingly, they tend to positively impact employee job performance.  Although this effect is expected for all employees, a recent study by Huang and colleagues (2010) suggests that the reasons why participative leadership behaviors lead to improved performance depends on a subordinate’s hierarchical level in the organization. 

In their study, Huang et al. collected a sample of 527 employees from a Fortune 500 telecommunications company in China.  As expected, they found that participative leadership behaviors of supervisors leads to improved task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) of their subordinates.  But, as mentioned above, there appear to be slightly different reasons why these effects occur depending on the hierarchical level of the subordinate (i.e., managerial vs. non-managerial).  

Specifically, the effect of participative leadership behaviors on performance for managers appears to be due to psychological empowerment (i.e., feelings of competence and meaningfulness) whereas these effects are due to the trust placed in leaders for non-managerial employees. 

Key to Good Boss-Employee Relationships: First Impressions and Then Performance

Topic: Leadership, Personality, Performance
Publication: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Article: The development of leader–member exchanges: Exploring how personality
and performance influence leader and member relationships over time.
Authors: Nahrgang, J.D., Morgeson, F.P., and Ilies, R.
Reviewed By: Samantha Paustian-Underdahl

 The relationships that form between leaders and their employees have been associated with a number of workplace outcomes including employee satisfaction, performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. However, little research has examined how these leader-member relationships develop over time. Nahrgang, Morgeson, and Ilies (2009) followed 330 leader-member dyads over an eight-week period of time to see how personality and performance impacts the quality of these relationships.

The authors found that within each two-person team, there were different levels of leader-member relationship quality. In other words, some relationships between a leader and members were stronger than others. However, in general all relationship quality increased over time and then stabilized. The authors also found that leaders based their first impressions of each leader-member relationship on how extraverted each team member appeared to be. The members however based their first impressions of the relationship quality on how agreeable their leader seemed.

These perceptions changed after the leaders and members became more familiar with one another, however. Actual behavior, rather than personality became more important for relationship quality as the leaders and members interacted over time.

Do You, You, Feel Like I Do?

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance
Publication: The Leadership Quarterly
Article: Do you feel what I feel? Mood contagion and leadership outcomes
Authors: S.K. Johnson
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 Everyone wakes up on the wrong side of the bed from time-to-time - and leaders are certainly no exception. 

As a recent example, a study by Johnson (2009) shows that followers’ moods are directly impacted by the expressed moods of leaders.  This phenomenon is known as mood contagion, which in this case refers to the automatic transfer of moods from leaders to followers.  Mood contagion occurs unconsciously and thus employees have little control over it. 

First, Johnson demonstrated the mood contagion effect, such that when participants (university students) saw a video of a leader expressing a positive mood, they tended to report positive moods.  Similarly, when participants saw a video of a leader expressing a negative mood, they too tended to report negative moods. 

More importantly, participants reporting positive moods outperformed those reporting negative moods on a relevant task (a mock hiring task which related to the content of the videos shown to participants).  Johnson demonstrated that mood contagion was partially responsible for the performance outcomes.  Additionally, leaders who exhibited positive moods in the videos were rated as more charismatic, which was also found to affect follower performance on the task.

Because we are all subject to mood changes, leaders must be aware of how their moods can affect their followers’ performance.  Johnson’s study shows that moods can be highly contagious and can either enhance or damage employee performance. 

Johnson, S.K. (2009). Do you feel what I feel? Mood contagion and leadership outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 20, 814-827.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Invigorating Leadership/Job Performance Chain

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology
Article: How leaders cultivate social capital and nurture employee vigor: Implications for job performance
Authors: A. Carmeli, B. Ben-Hador, D.A., Waldman, and D.E. Rupp
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 One important characteristic of effective leaders is the ability to build relationships and encourage communication and collaboration among their employees (i.e., leader relational behaviors).  Although we can probably all agree that leader relational behaviors should have a positive impact on employee and organizational performance, Carmeli and colleagues recently showed that the relationship between leader relational behaviors and job performance is a complex process.

Importantly, Carmeli et al. placed a heavy focus on the role of employee vigor (energetic feeling about work) in this process linking leader relational behaviors to employee job performance.  The authors collected data from 209 employees and 15 managers of several Israeli community centers. 

Not surprisingly, employees with managers who exhibit more leader relational behaviors tend to have more high-quality relationships with others in the workplace.

Great Expectations: Catalyst for Employee Learning and Development

Topic: Job Performance, Leadership, Training
Publication: Journal of Management
Article: Pygmalion and employee learning: The role of leader behaviors
Authors: X.M. Bezuijen, P.T. van den Berg, K. van Dam, and H. Thierry
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 Isn’t it fascinating how our expectations of others so frequently come to fruition?  The finding that supervisors’ expectations of their employees’ capabilities accurately reflect their actual performance is well-established.  This phenomenon is called the self-fulfilling prophesy (AKA the Pygmalion effect).  But, how and why do supervisors’ expectations of employees’ capabilities reflect their performance?  Is it magic?  Is it a sixth sense?  Is it prescience? 

No, no and no….

A recent study by Bezuijen and colleagues (2009) suggests that supervisors’ expectations of their employees’ capabilities to learn job-related skills is primarily due to goal-setting (bummer, I had guessed magic).  They demonstrated that high expectations lead supervisors to assign more difficult and specific goals to employees and also provide these employees with more learning opportunities.  Increased opportunities, in addition to more difficult and specific goals, make it more likely that employees will engage in learning and development activities. 

Book Announcement

Topic: Leadership, Strategic HR
Publication: Strategy-driven talent management: A leadership imperative
Authors: Rob Silzer, Ben E. Dowell (Editors)

Strategy-Driven Talent Management: A Leadership Imperative

 Effective talent management can have a profound impact on organizational success. Therefore, the ability to identify, develop, and manage talent is key to the healthy functioning of any organization.   Rob Silzer and Ben Dowell offer a comprehensive guide to the talent management process that could prove to be valuable tool for human resource practitioners and industrial-organizational psychologists alike. 

Silzer & Dowell’s recently published book, Strategy-Driven Talent Management: A Leadership Imperative aims to illuminate the various aspects of the ongoing talent management process. A compilation of current organizational procedures, a list of critical issues, and a collection of organizational case examples come together to create a framework of best practices.  And the annotated bibliography is a very nice touch!  The table of contents has been reproduced below:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 1 General Frameworks.

Chapter 1: Strategic Talent Management Matters
            Rob Silzer, Ben E. Dowell
Chapter 2: Building Competitive Advantage through Integrated Talent Management
            Marcia J. Avedon, Gillian Scholes

Lead to inspire creativity and innovation. Gandhi did it – how hard can it be?

Topic: Creativity, Leadership
Publication: Journal of Business Research
Article: Transformational leadership, creativity, and organizational innovation
Authors: L. Gumusluolu, A.Llseve
Reviewed by: Lit Digger

Although Gandhi had passed away before the idea of transformational leadership was academically introduced by Burns in 1978, Gandhi’s life and work exemplified transformational leadership.  Transformational leaders:

·      Demonstrate charisma
·      Build relationships with their followers
·      Express a vision for the future
·      Inspire and encourage their followers to reach big-picture goals
·      Intellectually stimulate their followers. 

Such leaders enable followers to achieve what might otherwise be viewed as impossible.  Gandhi effectively did all of these things.

If Gandhi was leading your company today, is it likely that he could also inspire creativity and innovation?  Yes . . . simply by using his same transformational leadership style.

Gumusluoglu and Ilsev (2009) recently conducted the first study that examined multiple organizational levels while evaluating transformational leadership’s effect on employee creativity.  Their sample included employees within numerous small Turkish organizations specializing in software development.

Gumusluoglu and Ilsev supported the link between transformational leadership and individual-level creativity.  Transformational leaders build their employees’ self-confidence, enable employees to identify with their company’s vision, and encourage their employees to think in new ways. 

Importantly, the authors found that psychological empowerment plays a role in this relationship.  When employees feel psychologically empowered by their transformational leader, they also exhibit a greater sense of autonomy that naturally leads to creative thought. 

On the flip side, Gumusluoglu and Ilsev found that transformational leadership is less likely to result in employee creativity when it does not involve the psychological empowerment of followers.

Findings also supported the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational-level innovation.  Interestingly, the innovation measure captured the organization’s innovative activity as well as the returns the organization saw from those innovations.  How thoughtful to include money in this outcome measure.

So, what’s the take-away?  If you’re leading a company that relies on creativity and innovation for bottom-line profit, perhaps you should consider adopting a transformational leadership style.  If you empower your employees, this will encourage them to make calls on their own and think outside of the box.  We can’t ALL be Gandhis, of course, but we CAN learn from his example to inspire others in new ways.

Gumusluoglu, L., Ilsev, A. (2009). Transformational leadership, creativity, and

organizational innovation. Journal of Business Research, 62, 461-473.

Eyes on the prize

Topic: Leadership, Personality, Performance
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology 

Article:  The role of goal-focused leadership in enabling the expression of conscientiousness.
Author: A.E. Colbert, L.A. Witt
Featured by: Larry Martinez

Colbert and Witt take the stance that goal-directed leadership tactics (being very directive about goals) creates an environment that allows highly conscientious employees to express their conscientiousness most effectively.  In other words, this type of leadership can activate the conscientiousness that may be lying dormant (or at least unharnessed) in a leader’s employees.  That is, if leaders can effectively communicate organizational goals to their employees in such a way as to create goal-alignment, conscientious individuals will be better able to achieve these goals than their less conscientious counterparts, and these conccientious employees will be more productive than they would be in a less goal-directed environment. 

So the point that organizations and leaders should take here is this: different personalities respond differently to the same leadership.  Specifically, conscientious employees (who tend to be the best performers anyway) especially benefit from being told exactly what their job is, what roles they should perform, and what tasks should take priority.  Having a non-goal-focused leader may suppress otherwise conscientious behaviors in employees who are just itching to be on-the-ball.  Use your employees’ natural predilections to your advantage!

Colbert, A. E, & Witt, L. A.  (2009).  The role of goal-focused leadership in enabling the expression of conscientiousness.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 790-796.

Virtual Leadership ≠ Face-to-face Leadership

Topic: Leadership
Publication: Leadership Quarterly
Article: Transformational leadership in context: Face-to-face and virtual teams
Author: R.K. Purvanova, J.E. Bono
Featured by: Benjamin Granger

Due to recent technological advancements, virtual teams (team members working together from different geographical locations using electronic communication media) have become very common in many organizations.  Despite their many advantages, these advancements have introduced new issues that must be addressed.

One area that has received attention relates to the impact of transformational leadership on virtual team performance. By definition, transformational leaders are charismatic, provide a unified vision for their subordinates, treat their employees as unique individuals, and challenge them intellectually.

However, few studies have compared transformational leadership behaviors in face-to-face (where it is typically studied) and virtual work contexts. To address this gap, Purvanova and Bono (2009) conducted an experiment involving 39 college students who led face-to-face and virtual team projects containing approximately 3 team members (also college students).  It is important to stress that each of the 39 leaders participated in both virtual and face-to-face projects.