Gender and the CMO: do the differences make a difference?

Abstract

Despite efforts to address the lack of female representation in executive leadership roles, the number of women in leadership roles is still low in comparison to men. Data in the form of online interviews were collected for a sample of 69 CMOs from the World's Most Influential CMO's report by Forbes Magazine and analyzed using the automated text analysis software, LIWC, employing the dimensions of Analytic, Clout, Authentic, and Tone. A series of ANOVAs was conducted to determine the impact of gender on these dimensions. Clout and Authentic were significantly impacted by the gender of the CMO. The paper considers two gender communication theories that could potentially explain these differences. The paper concludes by discussing managerial implications, acknowledging the limitations, and identifying avenues for future research.

Reading Between the Lines: Understanding Customer Experience With Disruptive Technology Through Online Reviews

“…The work of Garcia and Schweitzer (2011) emphasizes the empathetic nature of humans and stresses that we perceive emotions as information comparable to factual data, making emotions a valuable additional human attribute. The psychological value of words has particularly gained prominence in marketing literature over the last decade (Balducci & Marinova, 2018;Bilgihan et al, 2018;Ludwig et al, 2013;Pitt, 2019;Pitt et al, 2020;Rambocas & Pacheco, 2018;Zhang, 2019), especially through the flexing of computer-based text analysis research fronted by psychologist, James W. Pennebaker. Pennebaker et al (2015, p. 1) argue that the day-to-day way in which people use words "provide rich information about their beliefs, fears, thinking patterns, social relationships, and personalities."…”

“…Liu (2015), emotions represent our subjective feelings and thoughts, with Bagozzi et al (1999, p. 185) asserting that it arises “in response to appraisals one makes for something of relevance to one’s well-being.” The work of Garcia and Schweitzer (2011) emphasizes the empathetic nature of humans and stresses that we perceive emotions as information comparable to factual data, making emotions a valuable additional human attribute. The psychological value of words has particularly gained prominence in marketing literature over the last decade (Balducci & Marinova, 2018; Bilgihan et al, 2018; Ludwig et al, 2013; Pitt, 2019; Pitt et al, 2020; Rambocas & Pacheco, 2018; Zhang, 2019), especially through the flexing of computer-based text analysis research fronted by psychologist, James W. Pennebaker.…”

“…Pennebaker et al (2015, p. 1) argue that the day-to-day way in which people use words “provide rich information about their beliefs, fears, thinking patterns, social relationships, and personalities.” Built on a rich theoretical tradition in linguistic psychology (Pitt, 2019), Pennebaker’s work centers on providing compelling empirical evidence that the words we use have tremendous psychological value (Gottschalk & Glaser, 1969; Stone et al, 1966; Weintraub, 1989). These theories in the psychology domain lead to the creation of lexicons capable of analyzing emotion in texts, which enable marketers to identify emotional tone through texts (Felbermayr & Nanopoulos, 2016).…”

The gender differences in innovative mentality, leadership styles and organizational innovative behavior: the case the “40 Under 40” and their impact on organizational success

“…However, these researchers point out that gender does not always define how a person will apply a given leadership. Other studies found more similarities than differences between the leadership styles used by men and women (Pitt, 2021; Cone et al , 2021; Fries et al , 2021; Oshagbemi and Gill (2003).…”