Gender Role Self-Concept, Categorical Gender, and Transactional-Transformational Leadership

Abstract

Prior research has shown that female managers are more likely to display transactional–transformational leadership, but they are less likely than their male colleagues to benefit from this in terms of leadership effectiveness. The aim of this study is to address this intriguing finding. Our expectations were that female managers need masculinity so that their leadership can display positive effects on perceived workgroup performance, whereas androgyny would be advantageous in male managers. We collected data from 67 workgroups, and asked managers to report on their gender role self-concept as well as workgroup performance, and 473 workgroup members to report on their manager’s leadership style. Our analyses revealed that, expectedly, androgyny might be advantageous in male managers using contingent reward, intellectual stimulation, and charisma/inspiration. For female managers, however, a lack of gender-typical attributes might be disadvantageous, especially when using charisma/inspiration.