An Experimental Study of Gender and Situational Effects in a Performance Evaluation of a Manager

Abstract

Following an interactionist perspective, performance evaluations of a manager were studied to assess whether person-related variables (manager's gender and behaviors) or situation-related variables (subordinate's gender, other persons' ratings of appropriateness of behavior or perceived unpleasantness of the task or situation) were related to judgments about the manager. Analysis points to the importance of both person and situation as sources of variance in evaluating the competence of the manager and observers' affect toward the manager. The manager's leadership or communication style, but not gender, affected 394 observers' ratings as did certain situational variables (subordinate's behavior and perceived unpleasantness of the situation, but not subordinate's gender).

Interpersonal communication and personality: Self and other perspectives

“…Those perceived as communicating with high attentiveness to the other achieved higher grades from their group members, as did those perceived as being high on the personality traits of Application, Intellect, and Helpfulness. These results parallel those often found in the literature on communication behaviors and the evaluation of managers (e.g., Giannantonio, Olian & Carroll, 1995). The decisive communication style of Attentiveness to the Other consists of integrative behaviors towards others that facilitate the accomplishment of the group's tasks by responding to the inputs of others.…”

Advances in Quality of Life Theory and Research

“…For instance, scholars claiming to take an interactionist perspective have represented the Person segment in terms of personality traits (Murtha, Kanfer and Ackerman, 1996), cognitive abilities (Woodman, Sawyer and Griffin, 1993), demographic characteristics (Giannantonio, Olin and Carroll, 1995), interpersonal skills (Goldstein, 1997), values (Taylor and Giannantonio, 1993), habits (Isaksen, Puccio and Treffinger (1993, and even genetic characteristics (Weisfeld, Weisfeld and Segal, 1997).…”

“…Scholars havc applied the interactionist perspective to their investigation of a broad range of behavioral subjects; for example, to explain vandalism (Goldstein, 1997), aggression and violence (Felson and Tedeschi, 1993), storytelling as a means of socialization (Miller, 1994), creative problem solving (Isaksen, Puccio and Treffinger, 1993), and evaluation of managers' performance (Giannantonio, Olin and Carroll, 1995). Notably, the concept has been used to explain SELs; e.g., by relating job satisfaction (Steel and Rentsch, 1997) to the degree of fit between the Person and the Environment (Taylor and Giannantonio, 1993).…”

Military Leadership Evaluations: Effects of Evaluator Sex, Leader Sex, and Gender Role Attitudes.

“…The professional literature fails to yield a clear answer. For example, in studies with undergraduates, Cellar, Sidle, Goudy, and O'Brien (2001) and Giannantonio, Olian, and Carroll (1995) reported no differences in leadership evaluations of men and women. T. H. Shore (1992), L. M. Shore and Thorton (1986), and Tsui and Gutek (1985) also found no differences in the leadership evaluations received by men and women in business, and Lopez-Zafra and Del-Olmo-Ablanedo (1999) and M. D. Thompson (2000) reported no sex differences in the performance evaluations of educational leaders.…”

“…The professional literature fails to yield a clear answer. For example, in studies with undergraduates, Cellar, Sidle, Goudy, and O'Brien (2001) and Giannantonio, Olian, and Carroll (1995) reported no differences in leadership evaluations of men and women. T.…”