Gender and prejudicial perception of the leadership of a manager: A cognitive categorization Perspective

Abstract

The study investigated the cognitive bases of prejudicial perception of the leadership of managers in order to achieve two objectives:(a) to identify the conditions under which the gender of a manager would prejudice perception of the leadership of the manager, and

(b) to determine the cognitive processes that are involved in such prejudicial perception. To help achieve these objectives, a conceptual model of gender prejudice was developed based on the propositions of cognitive categorization theory, and cognitive social psychology research. The model integrated some key variables in prejudicial perception, namely, the situation (e. g. , salience) and personality of the perceiver (e.g., attitudes and stereotypes), which might attenuate or moderate the

effect of a manager's

gender on perception of the leadership

of the manager. The integrated model addressed issues that may help reconcile some of me conflicts and bridge some gaps in the literature of gender prejudice. The investigation was done through a laboratory

experiment involving a between-subject factorial design of a

2 (manager's gender) by 4 (salience of the situation). The subjects were 320 Japanese undergraduate students, of which 160 were males and 160 were females. Twenty male and 20

female subjects were randomly assigned to each of the eight treatment conditions of the experiment.

In general, most of the hypotheses are supported by the results, thereby lending support to the major propositions of the model. In particular, the results indicate that the gender of a manager would prejudice perception of the leadership of the manager if all of the following conditions are present: (a) The gender of the manager is salient in the situation. (b) The perceivers are relatively traditional in their attitudes toward the rights and roles of women in society. (c) The perceivers' male manager leadership stereotypes are different from their female manager leadership stereotypes. The results of the study also suggest that gender prejudice in leadership perceptions may be the result of a process in which perceivers' gender leadership stereotypes mediate the effect of a manager's gender on perception of the leadership of the manager. Usually, these are stereotypes of a lea.de~rship schema into which perceivers have cognitively categorized the manager. The results show that gender prejudice in leade-:rshipperception also involves the interaction effect of manager gender and perceivers' sex-role attitudes on perception of the leadership of managers. Gender salience of the situation and perceivers' sex-role attitudes play important mediator and moderator roles, respectively. The implications for organizational socialization, communication, and training are discussed.