Exploring the Sex Difference in Affective Motivation to Lead

Elprana, Gwen; Felfe, Jörg; Stiehl, Sybille; Gatzka, Magdalena

doi:10.1027/1866-5888/a000137

Cited by 42 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…CEO GENDER AND IMPLICIT MOTIVES 4 (Duncan & Peterson, 2010;Pang & Baumann, in press). In addition, research investigating the relationship between motives and gender in the leadership context has largely focused on explicit rather than implicit motivational constructs (e.g., Bark et al, 2016;Elprana et al, 2015;Schuh et al, 2014). Moreover, those few studies that have examined the role of gender in IM (e.g., Denzinger et al, 2016;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005;Schultheiss & Brunstein, 2001) have neither investigated leaders nor shown consistent results.…”

Section: Connect Vs Conquer? Ceo Gender and Implicit Motivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connect vs conquer? CEO gender and implicit motives

Brueckner

Bosak

Lang

2020

JMP

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PurposeThis study examined gender differences in CEOs' expression of implicit achievement, power and affiliation motivation. Building on the role congruity account of sex differences and similarities in motivation and existing literature on implicit motives, the study tested whether female CEOs would express higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs and similar levels of achievement motivation. In addition, gender differences in power motivation were explored.Design/methodology/approachThe study used propensity score matching to generate a comparable sample of male and female CEOs from publicly traded companies. Subsequently, the authors content-coded CEO letters from annual reports using Winter's (1994) manual for scoring motive imagery in running text.FindingsOverall, CEOs expressed more achievement and power motivation than affiliation motivation. Comparisons between male and female CEOs showed that female CEOs expressed lower power and higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs.Research limitations/implicationsBy integrating implicit motive theory with social role theory and the role congruity account of motivation, this study provides a theoretical framework and novel demonstration that understanding social roles and gender roles can lend insights into motive expression by CEOs.Originality/valueThe study uses established theory and a validated scoring method in a novel way by analyzing implicit motives from CEO letters, a critical communication channel in the CEO–shareholder relationship. In doing so, this study adopts a sociocultural perspective. Informed by the role congruity account of motivation, the study demonstrates the importance of social roles and gender roles for motivational displays.

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Section: Connect Vs Conquer? Ceo Gender and Implicit Motivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connect vs conquer? CEO gender and implicit motives

Brueckner

Bosak

Lang

2020

JMP

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“…MtL is, in part, malleable and previous findings suggest that it depends on the extent and quality of prior leadership experience (Chan & Drasgow, ; Elprana et al, ). In this study, we build on these findings and suggest that having more leadership experience will provide an advantage because more time will have been spent on training to be a leader.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, MtL is also in part malleable through prior leadership experience and self‐efficacy. Experienced individuals and those who feel confident about being a leader are also more motivated to lead (Chan & Drasgow, ; Elprana, Felfe, Stiehl, & Gatzka, ; Hendricks & Payne, ). Crucially for this study, MtL is shaped by more stable interests and by the more malleable leadership experience and self‐efficacy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking an Interest in Taking the Lead: The Influence of Vocational Interests, Leadership Experience and Success on the Motivation to Lead

Bergner

Kanape²,

Rybnicek

2018

Applied Psychology

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Motivation plays a crucial role in leadership, particularly when facing difficult situations and decisions. This long-term study investigates whether vocational interests predict an individuals motivation to lead (MtL). Moreover, it examines whether the link between vocational interests and MtL is mediated by the extent and success of prior leadership experiences. To this end, 471 participants (291 male, 180 female, M age 5 22.65, SD age 5 7.95) provided information on their vocational interests. Two years later, participants rated their MtL and provided information on both the extent of their prior leadership experiences and the respective success gained from these. Results show that enterprising and conventional interests positively affect MtL two years later. Additionally, enterprising and social interests also indirectly influence a persons motivation to lead through the extent and success of prior leadership experiences: people with higher enterprising and social interests report more prior experience in leading. This experience is linked to more self-perceived leadership success, which consequently enhances these persons motivation to take on leading roles. These findings enrich theory on the antecedents and malleability of MtL. From a practitioners view, the findings equip recruiters with information on how to search for motivated leaders and how to maintain their motivation.

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“…By highlighting men’s and women’s differences in sense of power when presented with a majority-male leadership committee, we identify a novel perspective—the important role of sense of power on intentions to lead—that may help to explain women’s underrepresentation in leadership groups. Whereas previous research has investigated gender differences in desires to obtain positional power (Elprana et al, 2015; Gino et al, 2015) and career aspirations (Netchaeva et al, 2018), few studies investigate mediators and moderators of the relationship between gender and desire to lead (Elprana et al, 2015) in groups, as we do. As such, previous work is less able than the current research to empirically identify why organizations and leadership opportunities are not attracting more women to leadership groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Gender, Sense of Power, and Desire to Lead: Why Women Don’t “Lean In” to Apply to Leadership Groups That Are Majority-Male

Goodwin

Dodson

Chen

et al. 2020

Psychology of Women Quarterly

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We investigated why women may have lower desires and intentions to apply to become a member of a leadership group (i.e., committee) than men when the majority of its members are men. In four studies, we examined the interaction between gender and gender composition of the leadership group on leader candidates’ sense of power, desire to lead, and intentions to apply to become a member of a leadership group. Informed by research on gender, perceived power, and the model of goal-directed behavior, we found that women, compared to men, expected lower sense of power when considering applying to a majority-male (vs. gender-balanced) online leadership committee (Study 1A, N = 294; Study 1B, N = 278). This pattern observed for women in majority-male leadership committees was not, however, evident for men in majority female leadership committees (Study 2, N = 560). Furthermore, women’s lower sense of power explained why they expressed lower desires to lead and intentions to apply for a majority-male leadership committee compared to men. Finally, we found that increasing women’s sense of power increased their desires and intentions to lead in a majority-male committee (Study 3, N = 460). We contribute to understanding why there still exists a discrepancy in the number of men versus women in leadership groups despite ongoing efforts to reduce it. We hope readers will apply these findings by identifying ways to increase women leader candidates’ sense of power in order to increase women’s representation on leadership committees and groups (e.g., boards).

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Exploring the Sex Difference in Affective Motivation to Lead

Cited by 42 publications

References 28 publications

Connect vs conquer? CEO gender and implicit motives

Connect vs conquer? CEO gender and implicit motives

Taking an Interest in Taking the Lead: The Influence of Vocational Interests, Leadership Experience and Success on the Motivation to Lead

Gender, Sense of Power, and Desire to Lead: Why Women Don’t “Lean In” to Apply to Leadership Groups That Are Majority-Male

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