Implicit Leadership Theories: Do they differ for male and female leaders?

Abstract

Implicit leadership theories have been shown to be potent in the development of global leadership models that accommodate the challenges posed to leadership efforts in a globalized world. Furthermore, the rise of women to leadership positions warrants investigations of whether individuals hold differing implicit leadership theories for men and women. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether implicit leadership theories differ for male and female leaders, and whether the difference was greater in a neutral versus masculine work context. The present research project utilized a short version of project GLOBE s leadership questionnaire that was administered to 579 students (311 women and 268 men) at Norwegian Universities and University Colleges. Results revealed no significant relationship between leaders gender and the rated importance of leadership attributes, contrary to the hypothesized expectations. Furthermore, a significant but very small interaction-effect between leader gender and work context was found to affect ratings of leader attributes. As such, the rated importance of the leader attributes within the culturally endorsed leadership theory does not differ as a function of leader gender. Methodological limitations as well as theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.