Leadership Status, Gender, Group Size, and Emotion in Face-to-Face Groups

Abstract

In two experiments, we investigated the emotional reactions of group members in typical face-to-face interaction on different tasks. Results from both experiments supported the proposition that high-status group leaders would report more positive emotional reactions to group work than would non-leaders. We also found that women reported more positive emotion than men. Unexpectedly, we also found that women leaders were rated more likable than other group members while men leaders were not. As expected, leaders were rated as more competent and willing to contribute than were other group members. Less expected was the finding that women leaders were rated as competent and as willing to contribute as men leaders. While women leaders were not rated less competent than men leaders, members of groups led by a woman rated group performance lower than did members of groups led by a man. Group size did not affect the degree of positive emotion of group members or ratings of leaders, perhaps because differences in size among groups were small. Of methodological interest, experimentally induced status differences maintained themselves through several weeks of group interaction.

Collective Validation in Multi-Actor Task Groups: The Effects Of Status Differentiation

“…In a laboratory study conducted by Lovaglia and Houser (1996), higher-status task leaders reported more positive emotion than lower-status group members. This finding has been replicated in other studies (Lucas 1999;Lucas and Lovaglia 1998) and is consistent with affect control theory, which predicts that people experience positive emotion when they enact valued (i.e., good and powerful) role identities (Smith-Lovin 1990). Lovaglia and Houser's research also clarifies the idea that the desire for status operates through inborn emotional tastes (see, e.g., Frank 1988).…”

Gender, Perceived Competence, and Power Displays

“…There is no consistent evidence in the literature that suggests that this type of dominance behavior will generate differences in perceptions of leadership between men and women. Although a number of studies have found that women who displayed assertive leadership behavior in task groups were judged more negatively than were their male counterparts (e.g., Butler & Geis, 1990;Eagly, Makhijani, & Klonsky 1992), these findings are at best mixed, with more recent studies finding no differences in perceptions of men and women in leadership roles (e.g., Lucas & Lovaglia, 1998). Therefore, our predictions regarding the consequences of interruption behavior for emergent leadership rankings do not differ for men and women.…”

A Study of Exchange and Emotions in Team Member Relationships

“…Demographic factors may influence individuals' experience of team member affect and perceptions of TMX (Lucas & Lovaglia, 1998). Given these influences, gender, age, and work experience with team members were also included as controls (Williams, Parker, & Turner, 2007).…”