A. Mulac et al., Female and male managers' and professionals' criticism giving - Differences in language use and effects, J LANG SOC, 19(4), 2000, pp. 389-415
Study 1 investigated differences in the language used by 86 female and male
middle managers and career professionals during role plays of criticism th
at they had recently voiced to a colleague. Discriminant analysis revealed
significant differences in language use, permitting 72% accurate gender rec
lassification. The language features more indicative of men were number of
words, negations questions, judgmental adjectives, references to emotion, a
nd oppositions Those more predictive of women were intensive adverbs longer
mean length sentences, hedges, directives, dependent clauses, and sentence
initial adverbials. However, nearly one half of these gender indicators ha
d been found in previous research to be predictive of the opposite gender.
In Study 2, effects of these language differences on third-party observers'
judgments were assessed. Contrary to earlier research in nonorganizational
settings, no differences were found on Socio-Intellectual Status, Aestheti
c Quality, or Dynamism. Results indicated a gender-differentiating, but cou
nterstereotypical, language use of female and male managers and career prof
essionals in criticism giving.