THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER AND ORGANIZATION LEVEL ON PERCEPTIONS OF LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS - A SELF AND SUPERVISOR COMPARISON

Reports that male and female leaders provide about their own task and consideration leadership behaviors as well as reports that their super visors provide about their behaviors were analyzed with respect to fou r competing models (Fagenson, 1990). Lenders and their supervisors wer e drawn from a racially diverse managerial population at a Federal gov ernment agency. The gender-centered model posits the existence of inna te or socialized gender differences in leadership styles (Loden, 1985; Rosener, 1990). The organization-structure model maintains that one's position in the organizational hierarchy influences leadership style (Kanter, 1977). The gender-organization and the gender-organization-sy stem models maintain that gender and organization level combine, indep endently and interactively (respectively) to influence leadership beha vior (Fagenson, 1990b). Predictions were based on these four models as well as on Eagly & Johnson's (1990) meta-analytic study which found t hat self-perceptions of leadership style were more stereotypic than th ose of others, Support was found for Eagly & Johnson's findings, as we ll as for the gender-centered and organization-structure models. Leade rs' reports of their leadership behaviors were related to their gender while supervisors' reports were related to the organizational level o f leaders.