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Degree

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational, 2012.

Abstract

he purpose of the current study was to investigate how expectations of male and female leaders contribute to the underrepresentation of women in higher levels of leadership. Role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) proposes that women are disadvantaged in leadership because the leader stereotype overlaps with the male stereotype. Implicit leadership theories (ILT; Lord, Foti, & de Vader, 1984) describe prototypes of leaders but do not address prototypes of female leaders directly. This study sought specifically to identify and compare mental models of male leaders with those of female leaders in terms of leader gender stereotypes, ILT (Lord et al., 1984), and transformational leadership (Carless, Wearing, & Mann, 2000). By applying social networking techniques and analyses (UCInet; Borgatti, Everett, & Freeman, 1992), this study offers a new approach to modeling internal models of others. Traditional quantitative techniques are presented alongside exploratory qualitative ones. Overall, mental models of female leaders were found to be very similar to those of male leaders. They were expected to be just as effective and able, but there were subtle and gender-stereotype-related differences in the expectations of their leadership. Men and women leaders were expected to conform to the positive aspects of both the male and female gender stereotype. Ambivalent sexist attitudes and experience with leaders appears to have limited influence on mental models. Exploratory analyses compared expectations of the leadership ability of typical women and men. Typical women were expected to be more transformational leaders while men were expected to be traditional leaders. The current study developed an entirely new technique for mapping mental models. It also illuminated ideas specific to women in leadership positions. This information can help identify where bias against women leaders is likely so that it can be mitigated.

Subject Headings

Psychology

Keywords

leadership; mental models; gender

Committee / Advisors

Dr. Rosalie Hall (Advisor)
Dr. Robert Lord (Committee Member)
Dr. Paul Levy (Committee Member)
Dr. Jan Yoder (Committee Member)
Dr. Sharon Kruse (Committee Member)

Pages

281p.

Document number: akron1354217637
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1354217637

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