LEADERSHIP AND GENDER (FIELD)

Leadership and Gender (Field)



Leadership and Gender (Field)

A multilevel, complexity theory approach to understanding gender bias in leadership.

We use values from multilevel theory, convolution theory, and connectionist theory to assimilate existing gender bias explanations into a inclusive model of gender bias in leadership, one that can be used to inspect and understand how throughout the leadership practice gender bias occurs and can change women negatively. The synthesis of connectionism and complexity theories provides an opportunity to suggest novel solutions to this important leadership problem, but it also shows why multiple solutions applied at individual, group, and organizational levels all may be required to change the way agents and systems of agents respond to potential female leaders.

Outline

1. A multilevel, complexity theory approach to gender bias in leadership emergence

1.1. Multilevel theory, emergent structures, and definitions of gender bias

1.1.1. Micro- and macro-level processes

1.1.2. Conceptual errors

1.1.3. Definitions of bias

1.2. Advantages of complexity and connectionist theories

2. Complexity theory

2.1. Processing units and multilevel structures

2.2. Emergence of order

2.2.1. Micro- and macro-level processes

2.2.2. Composition and compilation

2.2.3. Emergence, time, and representation

2.2.4. Edge of chaos

3. Connectionist theory

3.1. Knowledge, gender, and leadership

3.2. Network structure and processes

3.3. Emergence of meaning

4. Meaning construction through top-down and bottom-up processes

4.1. Constraints and levels of analysis

4.2. Rule development and leadership self-schema

5. An integrated model of gender effects on emerging leadership structure

5.1. Status theory

5.1.1. Emergence of hierarchical structure in groups

5.1.2. Role of self-schema

5.2. A dynamic model of leadership emergence

5.2.1. Prototype fit and dynamic rating processes

5.2.2. Encoding of atypical behavior and affect

5.2.3. Emergence of collective structures over time

5.3. Explicit and implicit contextual constraints

6. Reducing gender bias in leadership processes

References

Female first, leader second? Gender bias in the encoding of leadership behavior

In the present paper we enquire whether gender affects the encoding of leadership behavior. In three investigations we discovered clues that perceivers had adversity encoding leadership behaviors ...