| Seeking Structure in Organizations: Understanding the Effect of Female Leaders’ Personal Need for Structure on Subordinates’ Perceived Team Faultlines and Job |
Received:October 16, 2017 Revised:October 16, 2017 |
Key Words: female leadership; personal need for structure; perceived team faultlines; task performance; role congruity theory |
| Author Name | Affiliation | | Ye Zhang* | Guanghua School of Management, Peking University | | Shengming Liu | Guanghua School of Management, Peking University | | Jih-Yu Mao | Southwestern University of Finance and Economics |
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Abstract: |
| Existing research has shown that female leaders are often on the short end of leadership evaluations and are being perceived as less effective leaders. In this study, we identified personal need for structure as a trait that is more associated with females that can enhance females’ leadership effectiveness. Drawing on role congruity theory while using a sample of 153 team leaders and 724 team members across 24 real estate firms, we showed how female leaders’ personal need for structure can reduce subordinates’ perception of faultlines within the work team, which can in turn, enhance subordinates’ task performance. Our findings were consistent with the predictions of role congruity theory. Contributions and limitations were also discussed. |
