Final Paper

LEADER-MEMBER SIMILARITY ON RACE AND GENDER
Gender, Race, and Leadership: The Effects of Leader – Member Similarity on
Member Perceptions
Rachel Walsh
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

Introduction
The modern American workplace continues to become more and more
diverse as women, racial minorities, and members of the LGBT community continue
to strive for true equality in society as a whole; however, this diversity has yet to
permeate the upper management levels, meaning that a diverse employee group is
still being managed and led by mostly white European American males (Kirkman,
Tesluk, & Rosen, 2004). Therefore, there exists a common occurrence of leader –
member dissimilarity. As human beings, we tend to gravitate and prefer the
company of other human beings who we believe share a common group or bond,
such as race or gender, and we give preferential treatment to these individuals, a
mental construct known as the in-group bias; so, when a leader is not perceived as
being in the member’s in-group, does this effect how the employee views the leader?
Where do these differences occur? The goal of the following research proposal is to
determine the answers to these questions in order to reveal directions for future
research in this area.
Previous Research
Research on Gender and Leadership
There is a very large research base looking for possible differences between
male and female leaders in the workplace (Andersen & Hansson, 2010). However,
most of the empirical evidence has shown no significant differences between male
leaders and female leaders in leadership styles, decision-making styles, or
motivational profiles (Andersen & Hansson, 2010; Dobbins & Platz, 1986; Grants,

1988; Eagly & Johnson, 1990; Powell, 1990; Gibson, 1995; Vecchio, 2002; van Engen,
van der Leeden, & Willemsen, 2001; Oshagbemi & Gill, 2003; Billing & Alvesson,
2000; Cuadrado, Navas, Ferrer, Molero, & Morales, 2012). In a study done by
Cuadrado et al. (2012), the authors looked at how men and women differ in terms of
overall leadership styles, as well as how this affects their subordinates and success
of their groups. The study, which used both leaders and subordinate reports of
participants in Spain, gave surveys measuring leadership style, leaders’
effectiveness, subordinates’ extra effort, subordinates and leaders’ satisfaction, and
sociodemographic and organizational/contextual variables (Cuadrado et. al., 2012).
Although there was no significant difference between male leaders and female
leaders in terms of having a particular leadership style, female leaders were
perceived as being significantly more effective than male leaders at attending to the
needs of subordinates (Cuadrado et. al., 2012). There was a significant in-group bias
for female subordinates, compared to the male subordinates, to perceive
departments managed by women as more effective (Cuadrado et. al. 2012).
These differences in perceptions may be accounted for by expectations
related to gender stereotypes (Johnson, Murphy, Zewdie, & Reichard, 2008). Women
are expected to be more empathetic, caring, and compromising than men, and men
are expected to be tougher, stricter, and more demanding than women (Johnson et.
al., 2008). When leaders break these gender stereotypes, it can be perceived as a
weakness of the leader’s character (Johnson et. al., 2008).
Previous Research on Race and Leadership

As previously stated, workplace diversity has yet to permeate management-
level positions as completely as it has subordinate-level positions; this is especially
true in terms of racial diversity (Kirkman et. al., 2004). A study by Kirkman and
colleagues examines the effects of racial diversity on a team’s ability to fit and work
well together, as well as team empowerment (Kirkman et. al., 2004). The results of
this study showed that team empowerment was significantly lower for teams whose
members and leaders were dissimilar on race (Kirkman et. al. 2004). It was also
shown that although team leader similarity did not have an effect on team
effectiveness, it did have a positive effect on leader ratings of members who were
similar to them in race, and team racial heterogeneity was shown to negatively
influence ratings of team effectiveness. (Kirkman et. al., 2004). However, it was
shown that team empowerment does mediate the relationship between team racial
heterogeneity and team effectiveness; this means that any problems caused by
racial dissimilarity both within the team and between the members and the leader
can be solved by increasing the cohesiveness and member opinions of the team as a
whole (Kirkman et. al. 2004).
Waismel-Manor, Tziner, Berger, and Dikstein (2010) also looked at
leader-member ethnic similarity, but they did it in terms of specifically leader-
member exchange and the frequency of organizational citizenship behaviors. They
posit that ethnic similarity is a moderator between the leader-member exchange
and organizational citizenship behaviors relationship (Waismel-Manor et. al., 2010).
Ethnic similarity did yielded a stronger leader-member exchange between similar
dyads as opposed to non-similar, but the relationship between leader-member

exchange and the occurrence of organizational citizenship behaviors was fewer
between similar dyads (Waismel-Manor et. al., 2010). The authors suggest that this
is because the similarity leads to an expectation to be in the leader’s in-group, and
when this is not the case, resentment occurs (Waismel-Manor et. al., 2010).
Previous Research on the Interaction Between Gender and Race on Employee
Perception and Treatment by Coworkers
The research on this topic is limited, but there is an article worth mentioning
that does show that perceptions of an employee by his or her coworkers does differ
depending on the employee’s race and gender. This study, done by Sliter, Sliter,
Withrow, and Jex (2012) looked at the link between the occurrence of incivility by
coworkers and adiposity with gender and race as moderators of this relationship.
The authors found that there was a difference between the occurrence of incivility
between female victims and male victims when the victims were underweight and
obese; men who were underweight reported a higher occurrence of incivility than
underweight women, and overweight women reported a higher occurrence of
incivility than overweight men (Sliter et. al., 2012). There was also a similar effect
with race; underweight black employees reported more incivility than underweight
white employees, and obese white employees reported more incivility than obese
black employees (Sliter et. al., 2012). However, there was also an interaction effect
between these two factors; obese white women reported significantly more
incivility than obese black women, and underweight black males reported more
incivility than underweight white males (Sliter et. al., 2012). This study shows that

differences in perception and treatment of employees not only differs between
gender and race, but also by the interaction of both gender and race.
Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1: There will be a main effect of gender on participant’s ratings of
strength of business skills and overall effectiveness, in that men will rate female
leaders lower than male leaders, and women will rate female leaders higher than
male leaders.
Hypothesis 2: There will be a main effect of race on participant’s ratings of
willingness to work for the leader and rating of fairness in disciplinary actions, in
that participants will prefer to work for leaders of the same race and will rate
leaders who are dissimilar to them in race as less fair.
Hypothesis 3: There will be some sort of interaction between gender and race on
willingness to work for the leader and ratings of the different personality traits.
Method
Participants
Participants in this study would be students at Indiana University – Purdue
University Indianapolis, a midsized urban campus whose student population ranges
from the normal 18 year-old student to older adults returning to school. For the
purposes of this study, eligible students must be at least 20 years of age and must

have held at least one job for the length of at least one paycheck. This is to ensure
the intellectual maturity of the participants and that they have had the experience of
having to work beneath a boss or manager.
Participants will be recruited through the SONA system, an online program
that allows students in the introductory psychology courses to view surveys and
studies in which they can participate. These students are required to participant in a
set number of studies per semester, so the compensation would be the normal
allotment of 0.5 research credits.
Participants will sign an informed consent form simply stating that the
objective of the study is to look at factors related to leader effectiveness. Following
the conclusion of the survey, participants will be fully debriefed.
Survey
The survey consists of three parts, followed by a demographic information
section at the end asking for age, gender, race, and whether or not the participant
has held or currently holds a job.
Part One: Prompt
The first part contains a picture of a fictional leader and a prompt with a
description of the leader’s educational background, previous experience in
management, and his or her current job responsibilities as a leader at the fictional
company.
The prompt will remain the same for each participant; the picture will vary
between four conditions: black female, white female, black male, and white male.

These four pictures will contain models approximately 35 years old. To ensure that
one model is not considered more attractive than another, a group of approximately
15 graduate and undergraduate research assistants will rate each picture in a larger
selection of pictures on attractiveness of the model; ratings will be averaged and
pictures from each of the four categories that are considered moderately and
equally attractive will be used for the final survey.
After the participant reads the prompt, he will be asked a few basic questions
regarding details in the prompt, such as level of education the leader has received or
how many years the leader has worked at the company, to make sure that the
participant has actually read and mentally processed the information.
Part Two: Scenarios
The second part of the survey consists of four scenarios, each depicting a
different aspect of a leader’s role. Following each scenario are questions asking the
participant to rate the leader on different aspects of competence and motive.
The first scenario is a “disciplinary scenario:” an employee has fallen short of
his sales goals and the leader takes action to at first offer help and then set at
ultimatum for this employee. Following the scenario, the participant is asked to rate
the following: how appropriate they thought the leader’s actions were on a sliding
scale of very inappropriate to very appropriate; how tough they thought the leader
was on a sliding scale of “much too tough” to “much too lenient”; and how fair they
thought the leader was on a sliding scale of “very unfair” to “very fair”.
The second scenario is a “hiring scenario”: the hiring record of the leader is
described, including how many people she has hired, how successful her hires have

been, and how many have been failures due to poor performance or turning over in
less than one year. The participants are then asked to rate the following: the overall
hiring record of the leader on a sliding scale of “very unsuccessful” to “very
successful;” what the most likely explanation is for the leader’s failed hires on a
sliding scale of “bad luck/chance” to “poor leader skills;” and what the most likely
explanation is for the leader’s successful hires on a sliding scale of “good
luck/chance” to “good leader skills.”
The third scenario is a “business deal failure scenario”: an important
business contract negotiation is described, stating that the leader worked with a
team to develop a project bid but alone was responsible for presenting it to the
client, who ultimately does not give the contract to the leader’s company. The
participant is asked to rate the following: who was most likely at fault for the failure
to obtain the contract on a sliding scale of “entirely other people’s fault” to “entirely
the leader’s fault.”
The fourth scenario is a “socializing with members scenario”: the leader is
described as regularly celebrating birthdays and new babies of employees and tries
to publicly recognize successful employees by inviting them to awards lunches and
sending out email announcements. The participant is then asked to rate the
following: the main motivation of the leader for doing these social activities on a
sliding scale of “self-promoting” to “selfless and friendly;” how professional they
think the social activities are on a sliding scale of “unprofessional” to “professional.”
Part Three: Final Assessment

The third part of the survey asks the participant to give their overall ratings
of the leader’s personality traits, job skills, and how willing the participant would be
to work for the leader.
The participant is asked to rate how much each of the following personality
traits accurately describe the leader on a Likert scale (very inaccurate, slightly
inaccurate, neutral, slight accurate, very accurate): intelligent, friendly, determined,
confident, erratic, trustworthy, uptight, combative, demanding, confrontational,
intuitive, caring, and disorganized.
The participant is then asked to rate the leader’s strength in each of the
following areas on a Likert scale (very weak, slightly weak, neutral, slightly strong,
very strong): leadership skills, business management knowledge, social skills,
communication skills, and the ability to motivate employees.
The participant is then asked to rate overall how effective they think the
leader is as a leader on a sliding scale of “very ineffective” to “very effective”, as well
as rate how willing they would be to work for the leader on a sliding scale of “very
unwilling” to “very willing.”
Analysis
A 2x3 ANOVA will be used to analyze the data, the factors being Male/Female
x Black/White/Other. Although a majority of participants are expected to be either
White Caucasian or Black African American, there will be a third group into which
participants of any other racial background will be grouped. Results for this “other”
group will act as a possible control group for the race condition since these

participants will be dissimilar in race to all the leader conditions. The possible
reasoning for any effects observed with this group are further discussed in the
“Future Directions” portion of this research proposal.
In terms of coding the questions, they will be grouped by scenario, by each
individual personality trait, by each of the job skills, by overall effectiveness, and by
willingness of the participant to work for the leader.
Future Directions
Upon the conclusion of this study, there are several different directions that
this research could go. For example, the difference between offices or departments
that have a strong, successful working climate and those that don’t should be
examined in terms of differences in leader perception. The effects examined on
gender should also be examined within the LGBT community, with particular focus
on transgendered individuals. Finally, the effect of leader-member similarity should
be examined between leaders and members who are both in a racial or ethnic
minority group but in different groups, and compare this to the differences in
perception of a majority leader by a minority member or of a minority leader by a
majority member. However, the key thing to take from this proposed research study
is the exact perceptual differences between the different conditions; when leaders
know exactly how gender or race can affect the perceptions of their subordinates,
they are better equipped to overcome these differences to increase trust and
thereby effectiveness of their team.

Works Cited
Andersen, J.A., & Hansson, P.H. (2010). At the end of the road? On differences
between women and men in leadership behaviour. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal, 32(5), 428-441. doi:
10.1108/01437731111146550
Cuadrado, I., Navas, M., Ferrer, E., Molero, F., & Morales, J.F. (2012). Gender
Differences in Leadership Styles as a Function of Leader and Subordinates’
Sex and Type of Organization. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(21),
3083-3113, doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00974.x
Dobbins, G.H. and Platz, S.J. (1986), “Sex-differences in leadership – how real are
they?”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11, pp. 118-34.
Eagly, A.H., Makhijani, M.G. and Klonsky, B.G. (1992), “Gender and the effectiveness
of leaders: a meta-analysis”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 117, pp. 125-45.
Grant, J. (1988), “Women as managers: what they can offer to organisations”,
Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 56-63.
Kirkman, B.L., Tesluk, P.E., & Rosen, B. (2004). The Impact of Demographic
Heterogeneity and Team Leader – Team Member Demographic Fit on Team
Empowerment and Effectiveness. Group & Organization Management, 29(3),
334-368. doi: 10.1177/1059601103257412

Oshagbemi, T. and Gill, R. (2003), “Gender differences and similarities in the
leadership styles and behaviour of UK managers”, Women in Management
Review, Vol. 18 No. 6, pp. 288-98.
Powell, G.N. (1990), “One more time: Do female and male managers differ?”,
Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 68-75. Gibson, C. (1995),
“An investigation of gender differences in leadership across four countries”,
Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 225-79.
Sliter, K., Sliter, M., Withrow S., and Jex, S. (2012), “Employee Adiposity and
Incivility: Establishing a Link and Identifying Demographic Moderators and
Negative Consequences”, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 17
No. 4, pp. 409-424.
van Engen, M.L., van der Leeden, R. and Willemsen, T.M. (2001), “Gender context
and leadership styles: a field study”, Journal of Occupational and
Organizational Psychology, Vol. 74, pp. 581-98.
Vecchio, R.P. (2002), “Leadership and gender advantage”, The Leadership Quarterly,
Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 643-71.
Waismel-Manor, R., Tziner, A., Berger, E., & Dikstein, E. (2010). Two of a Kind?
Leader – Member Exchange and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The
Moderating Role of Leader – Member Similarity. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 40(1), 167-181.

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