Abstract

We investigate how respectful leadership can help overcome the challenges for follower performance that female leaders face when working (especially with male) followers. First, based on role congruity theory, we illustrate the biases faced by female leaders. Second, based on research on gender (dis-)similarity, we propose that these biases should be particularly pronounced when working with a male follower. Finally, we propose that respectful leadership is most conducive to performance in female leader–male follower dyads compared with all other gender configurations. A multi-source field study (N = 214) provides partial support for our hypothesis. While our hypothesized effect was confirmed, respectful leadership seems to be generally effective for female leaders irrespective of follower gender, thus lending greater support in this context to the arguments of role congruity rather than gender dissimilarity.

Highlights

  • We investigate how respectful leadership can help overcome the challenges for follower performance that female leaders face when working followers

  • We propose that respectful leadership is the right style for overcoming challenges that are owing to role incongruence or gender differences in leader–follower dyads, because of its potential buffering effect in situations where a female leader is paired with male followers

  • We suggest that respectful leadership should be effective in addressing the asymmetrical performance effects of leader–follower gender dissimilarity and role incongruity in female leader–male follower dyads

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Summary

Introduction

We investigate how respectful leadership can help overcome the challenges for follower performance that female leaders face when working (especially with male) followers. Only a few recent studies have explored the differences in leadership effectiveness ratings between male and female followers (Ayman et al, 2009; Douglas, 2012; Johnson et al, 2008; Stoker et al, 2012) These studies support the idea that the genders of both leader and follower jointly influence followers’ perceptions of the leader, but they have not yet tested these effects with regard to the effects on follower performance or what type of leadership may be able to overcome the challenges.

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