Leadership perceptions as a function of race–occupation fit: The case of Asian Americans.

Abstract

On the basis of the connectionist model of leadership, we examined perceptions of leadership as a function of the contextual factors of race (Asian American, Caucasian American) and occupation (engineering, sales) in 3 experiments (1 student sample and 2 industry samples). Race and occupation exhibited differential effects for within- and between-race comparisons. With regard to within-race comparisons, leadership perceptions of Asian Americans were higher when race-occupation was a good fit (engineer position) than when race-occupation was a poor fit (sales position) for the two industry samples. With regard to between-race comparisons, leadership perceptions of Asian Americans were low relative to those of Caucasian Americans. Additionally, when race-occupation was a good fit for Asian Americans, such individuals were evaluated higher on perceptions of technical competence than were Caucasian Americans, whereas they were evaluated lower when race-occupation was a poor fit. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that race affects leadership perceptions through the activation of prototypic leadership attributes (i.e., implicit leadership theories). Implications for the findings are discussed in terms of the connectionist model of leadership and leadership opportunities for Asian Americans.

Implications of dispositional and process views of traits for individual difference research in leadership

“…In this way, leadership prototypes are dynamically derived and can be adjusted to many contextual features upon use (e.g., organizational culture, task characteristics, and characteristics of the perceiver) as sensory input causes different sets of nodes to become active (Foti, Knee, & Backert, 2008;Hanges, Lord, & Dickson, 2000;Lord et al, 2001). The result is that across different situations, certain individuals may be more (or less) likely to emerge as leaders based on how contextual features constrain which parts of the connectionist network becomes active or suppressed (Lord et al, 2001; see also Sy et al, 2010). In a competitive environment, for instance, leadership prototypes may center more on individual characteristics that emphasize 'dominance' and 'aggression.'…”

Reconsidering the accuracy of follower leadership ratings

“…Moreover, social perceivers give non-whites less credit for their success and hold lower expectations for their future success (Rosette, Leonardelli, & Phillips, 2008). Similarly, Asian Americans are significantly less likely to be viewed as leaders than Caucasian Americans (Sy et al, 2010). Thus a mismatch between racial stereotypes and the job role (e.g., leader) may promote a bias against non-white leaders, whereby they are given consistently lower ratings.…”

Ethical Leadership Perceptions: Does It Matter If You’re Black or White?

“…Given the historic and current overrepresentation of Whites in leadership positions in the USA (Bell et al 2014;Maume 2012;Stainback and Tomaskovic-Devey 2009), it is not surprising that research has found that being White is a prototypical characteristic of a leader (e.g., Carton and Rosette 2011;Rosette et al 2008;Sy et al 2010). During the leader categorization process, non-White targets have a higher probability of receiving a non-leader designation, leading to a less favorable evaluation of effectiveness than White targets.…”