When a Woman Is the Boss Dilemmas in Taking Charge

Abstract

This study explored the possibility that encouraging women to behave more dominantly in leadership situations will undermine their effectiveness rather than increase it. As predicted, women who enacted a dominant approach were found to be somewhat less influential overall than women who enacted a considerate, problem-solving approach and significantly less influential when they supervised male rather than mixed-sex subordinates. Women in subordinate roles gave domi nant female supervisors slightly higher ratings of effectiveness than considerate ones. Overall, however, women subordinates disliked their female bosses more than men did and judged them more negatively no matter which approach they enacted. It is concluded that women who wish to be effective leaders should be encouraged to behave considerately and to improve their participative management skills, not to act more like men.