Dominance needs, gender, and leader emergence in self-managed work teams

Purpose

Examining dominance in influencing leadership perceptions for men and women has received significant scholarly attention. The studies typically show that dominance is beneficial for men in attaining leadership positions but not for women. However, the studies were predominantly conducted more than two decades ago. Given the developments in gender research, this study extends the dominance line of inquiry by probing the impact of dominance need on leader emergence for men versus women in self-managed work teams. Furthermore, this study aims to examine if team dominance needs dispersion posits as a boundary condition for the combined impact of dominance needs and gender on leader emergence.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a longitudinal study that lasted one semester and involved 44 ad hoc self-managed work teams.

Findings

This study found that dominance needs facilitated leader emergence regardless of gender, and team dominance needs dispersion. Furthermore, men with high dominance needs were likelier to emerge as leaders than women with high dominance needs in high dominance needs dispersion teams. By contrast, women low in dominance needs received a harsher penalty in their leadership emergence than men low in dominance needs in low dominance needs dispersion teams

Originality/value

These results depart from the usual findings regarding the backlash effects that dominant women face and paint a rosy picture regarding the use of dominance in shaping leader emergence. However, the findings support the notion in gender stereotypes research that women are judged more critically than men in ascending to leadership positions.