| Role congruity theory suggests that people place importance on congruence between gender role stereotypes and leadership stereotypes, suggesting that women may be discriminated against for traditional/autocratic leadership positions, and men may be discriminated against for democratic/participative leadership positions (Eagly & Karau, 2002; Koenig et al., 2011). Results also may vary by leadership level with women holding an increasing percentage of lower level leadership roles while men continue to dominate more senior roles. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate three independent variables: applicant gender (male or female), leadership style (autocratic or democratic), and leader status (high or low), in the evaluation of resumes in a simulated personnel selection context. Amazon's Mechanical Turk and snowball sampling were used to recruit business and HR professionals. Participants ( N = 330) completed an online study that randomly assigned them to research conditions. The sample included nearly twice as many male participants (N = 197, 59%) as female participants (N = 108, 32%). The mean age was 31 years old (SD = 9.0) with, on average, 7.7 years of full-time work experience (SD = 7.7). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze results, which indicated no significant main effect for applicant gender (beta = .12, p = .281), indicating no difference in resume ratings based on the gender of the applicant. Also, there was no significant interaction between applicant gender and leadership style or applicant gender and leader status (beta = - .13, p = .351; beta = - .09, p = .477, respectively). In addition, the hypothesized three-way interaction between applicant gender, leadership style, and leader status was not significant (beta = .07, p = .616). These results indicate that applicant gender did not have a significant effect when evaluating resumes for a hypothetical leadership position. Future research should examine the changing nature of gender and leadership stereotypes in the selection context. Specifically, more research is needed that examines gender bias in the selection process using gender-stereotyped and gender-neutral jobs along a continuum, as well as at different points in the hiring process in order to better inform hiring practices. |
