The Impact of Imperfection: How Race, Leadership Style and Job Performance Influence the Perception of Female Leaders in the Workplace

Abstract

Prior studies have demonstrated that a leader’s race, leadership style and job performance affect the perception of their leadership. This effect is heightened for women, who are stereotypically incongruent with typical leadership, and specifically for Black women, who are multiply incongruent with leadership. Though there has been significant research on how the intersection of these factors impacts the perception of female leaders, there has been little research on the specific intersectional impact of race, leadership style and suboptimal job performance on the perception of female leaders. This thesis aims to not only fill this gap in the literature, but also contribute to literature about Black female leaders, a group underrepresented in psychological research. Specifically, this study investigates the intersection of race, leadership style and job performance’s effects on the perception of female leaders. Significant results showed that Black women who made a mistake were penalized more when they were Agentic rather than Communal, and White women who did not make a mistake were penalized more when Agentic rather than Communal. Potential explanations for these results as well as possibilities for future research are discussed in this thesis.

key words: female leadership, race, agency, communality, mistake, perception, workplace