May the power be with you? A micro-dynamic perspective on the role of gender in claiming and granting leadership in interactions of man

• Applicant: Professorin Fabiola Gerpott, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance ; Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 429334030

A substantial body of literature in research and in practice outlines the performance-enhancing potential of and the ethical obligation to increase the number of women in managerial positions. However, the progress in reaching this goal is still slow. Although scholars have contributed much to identifying general factors in the person and in the environment that may hinder women in assuming leadership positions, knowledge about the concrete interactions that leaders and followers encounter and that they use to claim and grant leadership is notably little, particularly from a comparative perspective on gender. Yet, these daily situations are essential for the successful establishment of leadership and consequently the long-term climbing of the career ladder. If followers for example react more challenging in day-to-day meetings toward a female manager who claims leadership than toward a male manager, does this trigger specific subsequent behaviors in the female versus male manager? How does one verbal or nonverbal incident lead to the other, thus forming sequences of behaviors that strengthen or weaken the manager’s position? And do these emergent social dynamics ultimately result in the manifestation of higher-level phenomena, such as the manager’s effectiveness and the follower’s endorsement of the manager?This project focuses on three different foci of analysis (i.e., verbal, paraverbal, non-verbal behaviors) to answer these questions and contribute to the advancement of leadership theory. Specifically, by using a multi-method approach that is embedded in an overarching theoretical framework of leadership claiming and granting processes, this project investigates across three studies when and how female and male managers and their followers signal and negotiate leadership in their daily meetings, and whether this manifests in subsequent leader legitimacy and leader effectiveness. The findings will be integrated into a complex model of the small incidents that male and female managers face in daily interactions with followers, and that may ultimately contribute to their success in leadership positions. As such, this project contributes to developing theory on leadership and gender with regards to micro-processes and the specification of observer versus actor effects. The data collection to test the hypothesized relationships will take place in the field to ensure that the results can be used to derive direct implications for managerial practice, particularly for leadership development and training programs.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Niels Van Quaquebeke