The effects of sex of the leader and sex of the subordinate on the use of organizational control policy

Abstract

The current study extends the Attributional Model of Leadership (S. G. Green & T. R. Mitchell, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1979, 29, 429–458) to include sex of the leader and sex of the subordinate as moderating factors. Two hundred ten subjects role-played the position of leader or subordinate at a printing firm in which a deadline had been missed. The sex of the leader, sex of the subordinate, cause for the missed deadline, and the organizational control policy for missing a deadline were manipulated. Following a 20-min discussion concerning the missed deadline, the leader informed the subordinate of the corrective action that he or she would recommend. Subjects then responded to a questionnaire which measured the appropriateness of various corrective actions, satisfaction with the discussion and decision, and attributions for the missed deadline. Analyses revealed that the sex variables, cause for the missed deadline, and organizational control policy affected the attribution, corrective action, and satisfaction measures. The results of the study were interpreted to provide general support for the contention that the sex composition of the leader-subordinate dyad is a critical variable which must be considered when examining the use of control processes.