Sex differences in nonverbal and verbal communication with bosses, peers, and subordinates.

Abstract

Relatively little is known about differences in either the nonverbal or verbal behavior of male and female managers. The present study examines both nonverbal and verbal behavior of male and female master's in business administration (MBA) candidates as they speak on the telephone to their boss, peer, and subordinate. Ratings of the competence and warmth of their tone of voice and of the transcript of the conversation yielded parallel measures of both nonverbal and verbal channels. A repeated measures analysis of variance for the competence variable yielded a significant interaction between sex of speaker and status of person spoken to (i.e., boss, peer, or subordinate) such that females' voices were rated as sounding more competent both verbally and nonverbally when they were speaking to their bosses, whereas males' voices were rated as more competent when they were speaking to their peers. The results are discussed in terms of sex rote stereotypes of males and females in management positions.

Predicting the Strategic Identity Management of Gender and Race

“…Members of devalued groups may seek to convince others of their legitimacy in the socially valued group by downplaying the devalued identity (e.g., avoiding conversations about the devalued identity, avoiding mannerisms that are considered stereotypical of the devalued group). For instance, laboratory studies have suggested that people who expect to be the target of prejudice are more likely to downplay a devalued identity in a simulated performance evaluation, job interview, or social interaction (Kaiser & Miller, 2001;Steckler & Rosenthal, 1985;von Baeyer, Sherk, & Zanna, 1981). Alternatively, they might educate others about the positive attributes of the devalued identity (Bell & Nkomo, 2001;Creed & Scully, 2000;Roberts, 2005).…”

A Theoretical Perspective on Coping With Stigma

“…Compensation involves adapting one's social interaction strategies in an attempt to achieve goals despite the existence of prejudice (Miller & Myers, 1998) by behaving in a socially skillful (Miller et al, 1995;Miller & Rudiger, 1997) or stereotype-disconfirming fashion (Kaiser & Miller, in press). For example, women (but not men) spoke more competently during interactions with employers than during interactions with peers (Steckler & Rosenthal, 1985), and women who believed they would be evaluated by a sexist grader created less feminine impressions on a self-descriptive essay compared to women who did not anticipate sexist graders (Kaiser & Miller, in press). …”

Verbal Strategies for Seeking Help in Organizations1

“…Ambady et al ( 1 996), Lee ( 1 993). and Steckler and Rosenthal(1985) found that when communicating face threats, men used more strategies when communicating to individuals with more power, but women used more strategies when communicating to individuals with equal power. Two explanations have been offered to explain these effects (Hodgins, Liebeskind, & Schwartz, 1996).…”