1. The Paradox of Workplace Anger: How Women Can Level the Playing Field.
- Author
-
Aitong Li and Gupt, Avina
- Abstract
While male leaders are rewarded for expressing anger in the workplace, female leaders are punished through negative characterizations and employee-manager relationship outcomes. Research has demonstrated that one mechanism that accounts for this differential treatment of male and female leaders who express anger is the attribution made about their anger (Brescoll & Uhlmann, 2008). As compared to male leaders, female leaders anger expression is attributed more to internal factors (e.g., personality) and less to external factors (e.g., situation with colleague). The purpose of the current study is to examine whether a pre-existing relationship between a leader and an employee can buffer female leaders who express anger from employees' negative characterizations and backlash through changing the attribution of the anger expression so that it is attributed more to external factors and less to internal factors. Participants were given scenarios in which they were depicted as employees and their manager (either a male or a female) had expressed anger at them. In addition, half of the participants were told they had a pre-existing relationship with their manager while half were told they did not know their manager well. As hypothesized, a pre- existing relationship buffered female managers who expressed anger from employees' negative characterizations (competence, communality and interpersonal hostility, advancement potential and boss desirability) and employee-manager relationship outcomes (trust toward the manager, intention to quit the manager, and retaliation toward the manager) through attributing the anger more to external factors and less to internal factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF