Lecture 6

Question 1

Article: Unilever says no to ‘normal’ with new positive beauty vision

Answer 1

The 10,000-person study, which was commissioned by Unilever, was conducted across nine countries. It found that:

• More than half of people (56%) think that the beauty and personal care industry can make people feel excluded.
• People want to see the beauty and personal care industry focusing more on making people feel better, than just looking better (74%).
• More than half of people (52%) say they now pay more attention to a company’s stance on societal issues before buying products.
• Seven in ten people agree that using the world ‘normal’ on product packaging and advertising has a negative impact. For younger people, those aged 18-35, this rises to eight in tent.

Question 2

Rijksmuseum presents for the first time female artists in the honor

Answer 2

This indicates there is more inclusion in our society, especially for gender equality in art.

Question 3

What are the ten qualities of a great leader according to the Forbes?

Answer 3

1. Honesty
2. Delegate
3. Communication
4. Confidence
5. Commitment
6. Positive attitude
7. Creativity
8. Intuition
9. Inspire
10. Approach

We don’t know if this is supported by research considering that Forbes is just a magazine. But apparently this is how people perceive good leadership.

Question 4

Leadership characteristics

Answer 4

We usually associate leaders with certain characteristics, not in terms of qualities but in terms of gender/ethnic characteristics for example.

We tend to think of good leaders as white males, especially in the Western society. We can see that the number of female prime ministers is increasing but we still have a long way to go. Female leaders are still considered as diverse/minorities leaders. The population of women is in many countries bigger than men, but that female leaders are still considered as a minority is quite telling on how the world works for women.

Question 5

Importance of leadership for successful organization

Answer 5

• Diverse leaders
  o Do group characteristics covary/relate with leadership style or effects of leadership?
• Diverse leadership
  o Which forms of leadership are optimal in a diverse organization?
• Inclusive leadership
  o How can leadership be inclusive in a diverse organization?

Question 6

Diverse leaders

Answer 6

Diverse leaders are leaders who are of minority backgrounds themselves.

Question 7

What do we talk about when we are talking about diverse leaders?

Answer 7

• Group differences in leadership style (gender)?
• Who becomes the leader?
• Do female leaders perform less well?
• New directions in research on gender and leadership?

Question 8

Are there gender differences in leadership style between men and women?

Answer 8

Yes, there are differences:

• Evolutionary/socio-biological theories
• Cultural theories
• Structural theories

No, there are no differences:

• Social category theories

Question 9

Evolutionary/socio-biological theory

Answer 9

• According to this theory there are gender differences in leadership style between men and women.
• It’s about the association between gender and certain tasks (women take care of reproduction, child-rearing, and protection, whereas men do the hunting and the fighting). This leads to different styles of leadership that men and women use.
  o E.g., because men used to do the hunting, men are thought to be more effective in leading organizations that are more competitive. It is the effect of evolution.
• Some excellent and quite interesting work that uses the generally accepted scientific rules about hypothesis testing, has come to predictions about how the conditions under which we evolved for much of our evolution (on the savannah, hunter/gatherer) might have affected gendered roles today.

Question 10

What should you be careful about with evolutionary/socio-biological theories?

Answer 10

There is some not very good evolutionary research that simply justifies how things are today by pointing at evolution.

• “If women were not predisposed to be competitive, then maybe we should not give women leadership responsibilities.”

Question 11

Evolutionary approach

Article: facing the situation: testing a biosocial contingency model of leadership in intergroup relations using masculine and feminine faces

Answer 11

• They have found that followers expect masculine-faced leaders to behave competitively and feminine-faced leaders cooperatively in intergroup relations.
• For example, a masculine-looking leader is preferred in a competitive intergroup setting.
• It explains how task features that were more clear and rigid in the past have an effect on how people expect men and women to behave. This expectation might be right for most men and women and therefore people in leadership positions try to behave according to these expectations, resulting in different leadership styles.
• At the moment there is more of an active attempt to reduce gender roles, which might change how men and women approach leadership and how people perceive differences in leadership between men and women.

Question 12

Cultural theories

Answer 12

• According to these theories there are gender differences in leadership style between men and women.
• The effects of socialization of girls and boys and men and women into gender roles overflows to other roles.
• It is a bit similar to the evolutionary approach, but this theory focusses more on how the cultural, especially related to gender roles affect behaviour of men and women.
• Maybe boys and girls were told that they had to behave a certain way because of their gender, and the games they played and the toys they got had these gender norms as well.

Question 13

What are the differences in leadership style between men and women according to cultural theories?

Answer 13

Male leaders as competitive, analytical, directive and controlling (agentic).

Female leaders as empathic and caring, participating and intuitive (communal).

Task and directive versus interpersonal leadership.

• Men tend to be perceived to excel in task oriented leadership and women are expected to excel in interpersonal leadership.
• As a good leader you need both and it really depends on the work environment.

Question 14

Structural theories

Answer 14

• According to these theories there are gender differences in leadership style between men and women.
• The differences are a consequence of power/status:
  o Leadership style/behavior depends on position in system (cf. Kanter)
  o Women and minorities have lower power/status
   E.g., they might be more democratic

Question 15

What are the differences in leadership style between men and women according to structural theories?

Answer 15

Result in gender differences in

• Democratic versus autocratic leadership
• Indirect versus direct influence

Question 16

Are women more interpersonally sensitive leaders according to structural theories?

Answer 16

No difference between males and females, but difference between leaders and subordinates (Snodgrass et al.)

Question 17

Role congruity theory (Eagly et al.)

Answer 17

• Certain groups are expected to occupy certain roles and then try to see whether or not a person from a certain group actually fits in this role
• Gender socialization and organizational structure combine to disadvantage female leaders
• This theory tries to combine different perspectives and the interaction between them.

Question 18

What does the meta-analysis of leadership behaviour and gender of Eagly & Johnson on the congruity theory show?

Answer 18

• Very small differences task versus interpersonal leadership (with no differences in studies in real organizations)
• If there are differences in leadership behavior, they are the result of a combination of socialization and organizational structure

Question 19

What does the role congruity theory seem to suggest?

Answer 19

This theory seems to suggest that combinations of opportunities and culture and socialization may work against women and ethnic minority groups, but another study shows that there are no differences.

Question 20

Article: Academics as Agentic Superheroes: Female academics’ lack of fit with the agentic stereotype of success limits their career advancement

Answer 20

• Male academics tend to be perceived as more authentic than female academics, they also tend to evaluate male academics more positively than female academics.
• Academics perceive agency as more descriptive of the stereotypical successful academic than communality.
• Early career female academics perceived highest lack of fit with this narrowly defined agentic occupational stereotype.
• So when women are perceived to be lower in positions and they feel that way, this correlates negatively with work engagement, professional identification and career efficacy, and higher work exhaustion and exit intentions.
• There seems to be the idea that academia is only meant for men, which means that men fit the characteristic of a good academic more than women. Lack of fit seems yet another barrier contributing to pervasive gender gaps in academia.
• This shows that societal perceptions affect individuals.

Question 21

Social category theories

Answer 21

• According to these theories there are no gender differences in leadership style between men and women.
• Differences in leadership behavior are only perceived.
• Result of social categorization processes.
• It is not about inherent differences between men and women but about categories that exist in our society.

Question 22

What are the consequences of expectations and stereotypes according to the social category theories?

Answer 22

• Category consistent behavior => positive assessment (Masculine behavior tends to look consistent with expected behavior in leadership)
• Role incongruent behavior => backlash

Question 23

Differential appraisal

Answer 23

• Shifting standards (Glick & Fiske; Biernat)
• In organization, when women tend to be more directive, tough, objective and speak up, these women are suddenly labeled as a bitch, but men who do the same thing are not labeled as a bitch because a different standard is applied to them. So the same behaviour gets a different treatment because of shifting standards.

Question 24

Who becomes the leader?

Answer 24

Women less often emerge as leaders.

There is more of a barrier for women than for men to emerge as leaders.

Question 25

What are the exceptions where women have more equal chances to emerge as a leader?

Answer 25

• Social vs. performance-based tasks
  o Especially in leaderless organizations/group
• Long-term interaction within a group
• This is in line with gender expectations

Question 26

What are the barriers in obtaining leadership roles?

Answer 26

• Who is perceived as suitable is also determined by:
  o Current leaders
  o Societal developments
• Opportunity to lead also depends on position and department in which you work (cf. Ely & Thomas)
• Having a leadership position does not equal ability to lead.
• The higher barrier for women depends on where they work/the context in which they operate. If there are more opportunities for women it will be a little easier for them. This is why affirmative actions are important.

Question 27

What is the relationship between contextual messages and leadership aspirations?

Answer 27

Contextual messages can decrease and increase women’s leadership aspirations

• When organizations apply regulations that seem to discriminate against women or that seem to provide less opportunity for women to lead, this sends a message
• The context of a message plays a role in the way women perceive their leadership

Question 28

What is the relationship between contextual messages and women’s leadership aspirations related to?

Answer 28

Influence of ambiguity

Question 29

Article: Gender stereotypic tv-commercials affect women’s interest in math and their leadership expectations (Davies et al., 2022, 2005)

Answer 29

It leads to:

• Lowered math performance
• Increased avoidance of math problems
• Lowered interest in math careers
• Lowered leadership aspirations

Question 30

Article: Exposure to female leaders (Dasgupta & Asgari, 2002)

Answer 30

• If you want to change the context you need to make the context more friendly, e.g., to women. One way to change that context is by having more women be leaders. You change the message through changing the context.
• Higher number of female leaders = less likely to express automatic gender stereotypical beliefs.
• If you have more women as leaders, it can not only be inspiring, but it can also make it look possible to other women to become leaders themselves.

Question 31

What does the professor think of people being inspiring and being a role model?

Answer 31

Being inspiring or motivational is very individual oriented, very egocentric, but being a role model is changing the context. You change the message.

Question 32

Gender differences in entitlement (O’Brien)

Answer 32

• System justification beliefs (i.e., status quo is fair) contribute to the creation and maintenance of gender differences in entitlement
• Problem: According to this theory women feel less entitled to high(er) earnings than men
• Inferences about competence
• “Depressed entitlement” = lowly paid individuals see their inputs as inferior and feel less entitled to higher pay
  o If the system says so, they accept and justify the system because trying to fight against the system is more taxing for them

Question 33

What is a solution for gender differences in entitlement?

Answer 33

Lowering system justification beliefs by showing that the status quo is not justified

• This is also why role models are important

Question 34

What maintains the gender difference in entitlement?

Answer 34

Ingroup comparisons maintain differences (women compare their income to other women’s income)

• If the whole group is discriminated against and they compare in the ingroup they will never know that there is a better world out there. It strengthens the system justification beliefs.

Question 35

Why do people make ingroup comparisons?

Answer 35

• Proximity
• Similarity
• Self-protection
  o “I don’t want to compare it to a group with higher positions because they will make me feel bad about myself. By comparing myself with someone in the same position or with the same characteristics I can make myself feel better about myself.” This is actually dangerous because it justifies the system.

Question 36

Do female leaders perform less well?

Answer 36

On average male and female leaders are equally effective, only differences in certain situations (Eagly, Karau & Makhijani)

Question 37

In what situations do females perform less well?

Answer 37

• In male roles
  o Makes sense according to the role congruity theory, they perceive that the role doesn’t match gender roles, therefore they might be evaluated more negatively, it might cause stereotype threat and as a result they might perform less well in these roles.
• With more male subordinates
  o Even though in the structure these women are assigned to be their leaders, society says that it is rare that women are leaders, what is more acceptable is that men should be leaders. These women might feel evaluated negatively, they might feel restrained, the male subordinates might not trust her and they might feel like they should’ve been the leader.

Question 38

In what situations do females perform better than men?

Answer 38

• In less male defined roles
  o They don’t feel like they have to prove that they can do the job well

Question 39

Are female leaders seen less positively?

Answer 39

On average people are slightly less positive about female leaders, this is more pronounced under certain conditions (Eagly, Makhijani & Klonsky).

Question 40

When are females evaluated less positivelY?

Answer 40

When

• Using stereotypically masculine leadership styles
• In male-dominated roles
• Male evaluators evaluate female leaders less positively

Question 41

When are females seen less positively?

Answer 41

• There is little information about the individual
  o Women are expected to introduce themselves etc.
• The evaluation requires more interpreting
  o It is important to have explicit criteria because it limits our ability for multiple interpretations.
  o When interpretation is open, women are more likely to be interpreted less positively compared to men.
• The role or behaviour is gender role incongruent (Eagly & Karau, 2002)
• The position is higher in the organization (in ethnic groups, according to Bovenkerk, lower level)

Question 42

How can less effective leadership be explained by solo or token status?

Answer 42

• Solo or token status makes people evaluate more extremely, positive or negative
• It is related to stereotype threat
• They are more salient

Question 43

So, do female leaders perform less well?

Answer 43

• Female leaders do not differ very much from male leaders.
• When they do, it tends to be a consequence of processes like stereotypes, gender roles, or expectancies.
• Such differences occur under certain conditions, like a male role or leading in a male dominated environment.

Question 44

What are new directions in research on gender and leadership?

Answer 44

• The glass cliff for female leaders
• The female leadership advantage
• The queen bee effect

Question 45

The glass cliff (Tyan & Haslam)

Answer 45

Female leadership positions are more precarious (greater risk of failure and criticism).

• Because they get scrutinized so badly (compared to men) they don’t feel safe in a leadership position. As a result of that there is a greater risk of failure.

Greater risk of failure.

More likely to involve units in crisis.

Through deliberate or inadvertent action.

• So it can also be subconscious

Question 46

What do tabloids say about female leadership?

Answer 46

• Business week: “After years of analyzing what makes leaders most effective and figuring out who’s got the Right Stuff, management gurus now know how to boost the odds of getting a great executive: Hire a female.”
• Fast Company: “the future of business depends on women.”
• Business Week: “Men could become losers in a global economy that values mental power over might.”

Question 47

Article: Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles: A Meta-Analysis Comparing Women and Men

Answer 47

• “Aspects of leadership on which women exceeded men relate positively to leaders’ effectiveness”
• “Aspects of leadership on which men exceeded women do not or negatively relate to leaders’ effectiveness”
• Transformational leadership
  o Women tend to pay attention to the problems and they try to bring the organization forward and they try to transform it
• Men tend to be less committed to the leadership position because their style is to give more freedom.

Question 48

Meta-analysis: women show more effective leadership styles for today’s organization

Answer 48

• Women are stronger on transformational leadership (focused on future, employee commitment and creativity)
• Women are stronger on contingent reward behavior of transactional leadership (giving rewards for satisfactory performance)
• Men exceed women on ineffective leadership styles (i.e., passive management in and laissez-faire leadership)

Question 49

The female leadership advantage

Answer 49

Good leadership = ‘female’ leadership

Women manifest effective leadership styles (transformational and transactional).

Attitudinal prejudice against female leaders tend to lessen gradually.

There are continued challenges, especially in non-traditional settings.

Question 50

The queen bee effect

Answer 50

The prime minister of the UK a couple of years ago was seen as a queen bee because she tried so hard to assimilate to male styled leadership to the point where she didn’t give opportunity to women to be in the same higher positions because she believed that women are not as capable as men in being good leaders.

Question 51

Derks et al., 2016 on the queen bee effect

Answer 51

• Women leaders assimilate into male-dominated organizations by distancing themselves from junior women and legitimizing gender inequality in their organization.
• Consequence of the gender discrimination that women experience at work. They don’t try to erase or fight against the stereotype but they engage in behaviour that they think would model the behaviours of the majority groups. As a result the stereotype is not gone. It is even made stronger because they say that if women want to be good leaders they have to confirm to male stereotypes.
• Not typically feminine response, but also applicable to other marginalized groups

Question 52

Comparison of actual work attitudes and motivation of junior academics to how they are perceived by senior colleagues (Ellemers, Derks, & van Laar)

Answer 52

Results:

• No sex differences in actual commitment
• Junior female academics were perceived as less committed than male junior academics by senior faculty.
• Effect strongest among female senior faculty (vs. male counterparts)

Explanation:

• Distancing from other women and female stereotypes
  o Experienced discrimination + low group identification: own work experience
  o They don’t want to be associated with the discrimination they faced because it hurts their self-esteem. They tell themselves that they are the exception, that they are different, that they are like men and therefore they deserve the position that men usually occupy. The behaviour manifests more discrimination and stereotypes.

Question 53

Paradox of equality (Ellemers, 2014)

Answer 53

• When meritocracy is promoted (i.e., equality), men are more likely to receive rewards;
• But this bias does not emerge with less emphasis on individual merit
• Problem: merit plans are common/commonsense solution
• Unintentional triggering of gender stereotypes and biases, especially when emphasizing merit
• When individual merit is criterion (objectivity) —> less vigilance for bias

Question 54

Article: The Impact of Organizational Diversity Policies on Minority Employees’ Leadership Self-Perceptions and Goals

Answer 54

To increase perceptions of an open diversity climate, which may lead to enhanced leadership self-efficacy (i.e., to think you are a better leader) for situational minorities:

• Do (because most effective):
  1. Value subgroup differences (multiculturalism).
  2. De-emphasize subgroup differences while valuing interindividual differences (individualize).
• So the organization acknowledges the struggles while at the same time de-emphasize subgroup differences.
• Don’t (because less effective):
  3. De-emphasize differences in favor of an overarching group membership (homogeneity).

Question 55

Article: The Impact of Organizational Diversity Policies on Minority Employees’ Leadership Self-Perceptions and Goals

• In organizations that focus on the two dos, they would have:

Answer 55

• Felt more capable of leadership role
• Higher expected success as leader
• More positive expectations
• More ambitions to fulfill leadership role

Question 56

When you want to lead diverse organizations with more heterogeneity, what are the three points that you have to pay attention to?

Answer 56

1. Managing actual differences between groups
2. Reducing perceived differences between groups
3. Managing expectations, emotions, and attitudes

Question 57

What are questions for leaders that every leader should pay attention to?

Answer 57

• Is the organizational climate good?
• Do we have the highest possible productivity?
• Does our system work as smoothly as possible?
• Are outcomes as positive as with homogeneous staff?
• Do equal procedures lead to equal outcomes?

Question 58

What is the key to diverse leadership?

Answer 58

The key is group conscious

• Do not ignore differences and unique struggles
• Address influences of past group differences
• Stimulate advantages of diversity
• Prevent disadvantages of current diversity approach

Question 59

How can you affect change in diverse organizations?

Answer 59

By influencing organizational culture

• Desocialization plays a role in what people perceive a good leader is

By influencing organizational structure

• Make sure opportunities are distributed more fairly so people can see that there are more people from a certain group can be good leaders or be in higher positions

By influencing behaviour of personnel

• You have to motivate people to for example be more reflective, to pay attention to what they say when they interact with people from different groups, to be more culture conscious because otherwise diverse organizations might not perform well.

Question 60

What is wrong in organizational culture?

Answer 60

• Assumptions, values, convictions, ideology
• Often implicit and unconscious

Question 61

How can you influence organizational culture?

Answer 61

• First develop insight into current culture, then change
• Change through altering vision, traditions, symbols, management practices, reward structure

Question 62

How can you influence organizational structure?

Answer 62

• Communication structure, hierarchy, boundaries of management, task functions, interaction patterns, networks
• Special attention to segregation and to unequal entry, promotion or exit
• Change through attention to fair recruitment and selection, evaluation and reward, restructuring

Question 63

Influencing the behaviour of personnel

Answer 63

• Behaviour, attitudes, perceptions
• Very difficult
• Change through
  o Addressing behaviour/attitudes/perceptions
  o Addressing organizational structure and climate

Question 64

What are the pitfalls in diverse leadership?

Answer 64

• Giving feedback
• Communicating feelings of trust
• Feelings of justice and satisfaction
• Estimation of needs of subordinates
• Attributions for behavior/performance of subordinates
• Subordinates’ expectations of leadership style
• Giving access to power, use of power, effects of power on bias

Question 65

What can go wrong when giving feedback?

Answer 65

o Incorrect feedback
o Ambiguous feedback
o No feedback

Question 66

What can be the reason for giving ambiguous feedback?

Answer 66

Maybe due to intergroup anxiety and ambivalent racism

• We are scared because we don’t want to discriminate against people or make people feel hurt, so we give feedback that is vague and ambiguous. But this actually leads to a sense of exclusion or discrimination.
• Giving people from other cultures feedback can make you unsure if your style of giving feedback is the right one which can lead to more ambiguous and unclear feedback which is not helpful.

Question 67

What is the best way for giving feedback?

Answer 67

Standardized feedback

Question 68

What is important about communicating feelings of trust?

Answer 68

It is important to trust and understand each other in order to reduce intergroup anxiety.

Question 69

What areas need to receive attention with communicating feelings of trust?

Answer 69

• Intergroup processes
• Salience of group differences

Question 70

What can go wrong in the estimation of the needs of subordinates?

Answer 70

Sometimes we estimate what the subordinates need but they don’t actually need that. That’s why it is important to ask.

Question 71

What can go wrong with attributions for behaviour/performance of subordinates?

Answer 71

• Don’t attribute a mistake to a group, they do it because of a personal fault.
• Doing this creates more divisions in diverse organizations.

Question 72

Procedural justice

Answer 72

Perceived fairness; you have to make sure the procedures are fair

Question 73

Inclusive leadership

Answer 73

Leader behavior that creates a sense of inclusion and psychological safety that allows all team members to contribute their own perspective. It focuses on whether or not the leader is inclusive enough, whether they create psychological safety, whether they manage to uphold procedural justice, and try to embrace resistance and voices of their members.

Question 74

What does inclusive leadership consist of?

Answer 74

Procedural justice

Employees valued by leader (Shore et al., 2011)

• When employees are given the opportunity to speak up they will feel more valuled

Actively working with resistance (Wasserman et al., 2008)

• When there is resistance you address is instead of ignoring it

Question 75

Diversity mindsets

Answer 75

It is not only focused on the leaders but also on the team cognition reflecting team members’ understanding of their team’s diversity and how to engage with it

• I.e., the understanding is specific to the team and the team’s composition and not a generic, one-size-fits-all understanding
• E.g., we all understand we are different so let’s work with it. So when you have a meeting, instead of forcing everyone to have the same opinion you let people speak up, you allow integration of perspectives to happen instead of picking one perspective.