Social rules for managing attempted interpersonal domination in the workplace: Influence of status and gender

The present study utilized a social rules approach to investigate the relat ive influence of gender and status on managers' self-evaluations of their e ffectiveness in handling a dominating subordinate. In the first study 84 Wh ite middle-class participants identified the prescriptive and proscriptive rules for socially appropriate responding to a stimulus situation involving a pushy subordinate. Four rule sets were identified for female and male ma nagers and subordinates, respectively. Rule-sets shared a number of common rules and showed some variation according to gender roles. In the second st udy, 91 White middle-class participants rated the individual rules for impo rtance and also rated their personal and managerial effectiveness when resp onding to the stimulus situation using gender- and status-consistent and ge nder-and status-inconsistent response strategies. Both men and women rated the female gender and status- consistent strategy as most effective, and ra ted the status-inconsistent strategy as less effective than a gender-incons istent response. Results were interpreted as providing more support for a s ituational gender-related theory of workplace behavior, rather than a tradi tional gender role perspective.