Power and leadership effectiveness: a study of subordinate evaluations of male and female leaders

The increase of women in management has amplified the need to evaluate their performance in leadership roles. While researchers generally agree that there are negligible differences between the genders in actual leadership behavior, they have been puzzled over the inconsistent findings on subordinate evaluations of female leaders' effectiveness; compared to male leaders, female leaders have been found to receive lower, higher and commensurate ratings of equivalent leader behavior.

One explanation for these inconsistent findings is that subordinates may be responding to gender differences in leader power. An integrated review and analysis of the literature on gender differences in power in organizations and subordinate evaluations of male and female leaders is presented, along with a typology of power and a conceptual model of power and the leader-subordinate relationship.

The relative influence of leader gender and perceived leader power on subordinate evaluations of leader effectiveness was investigated in a field study of 110 subordinates (55 male and 55female) of matched pairs of male and female leaders in three organizations. To control for gender differences in power, leaders were matched on organizational level, function, and, where possible, specialization. As predicted, perceived leader power accounted for more of the variance in leadership evaluations than leader gender. Leader gender did not significantly influence subordinate ratings of leader effectiveness. Additionally, there was a lack of support for the theory that power is gender-typed; male and female leaders received equivalent ratings when perceived as using the same forms of power.

Theoretical and applied implications of these findings for women in management are discussed. Future directions for research in this area are suggested.