The emergence of female leaders: the effects of self-monitoring, priming and task characteristics

Abstract

Despite the growing number of women in the workforce, women still emerge as leaders in organizations less often than men. In order to understand this phenomenon, the current study explores the effects of self-monitoring, task characteristics, and priming on emergent male and female leaders. 160 high and low self-monitors performed one of two tasks (production or interpersonal task) in mixed sex groups of four, with a priming manipulation given to half of the groups. It was hypothesized and found that high self-monitors emerged more often as leaders than low self-monitors. The second hypothesis received partial support, as males emerged as leaders more often in a production task, but females did not emerge more often in an interpersonal task. Other hypotheses also received partial support, showing that high self-monitoring males emerged more often as leaders than females even during interpersonal tasks. Females did not emerge more often as leaders even if they were high self-monitors or if they were given a priming manipulation before completing a specified task. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.