This dissertation thesis takes a novel evolutionary psychology-based approach to the research field of sex differences in leadership. The mature field is characterized by ambiguous results as well as discrepancies in statements from scholars as opposed to practitioners. To bring more clarity into the field, the researcher first reviews the underlying assumptions of the hitherto predominantly feminist angles taken that build on social structure meta-theory. It criticizes this meta-theory for not making clear predictions about the existence of sex differences in leadership behaviors, because of the conflicting roles faced by women leaders. Evolutionary psychology, on the other hand, predicts the existence of sex differences based on evolved mechanisms related to differences in mating strategies and parental effort. The superordinate framework guiding traditional social structure-based approaches builds on the dichotomy of agency and communion that is loosely linked to gender stereotypes. It lacks rigor and transparency and hence adds to the ambiguousness of the field. The author develops a new framework that builds on the theoretical assumption that evolution favored men who manipulated their surrounding social structures to represent dominance hierarchies and women who manipulated their social structures to represent egalitarian communities. Men achieve their goal by utilizing the strategies of dominance behavior and coalition-building, whereas women achieve their goal by utilizing the strategies of intimacy-building and nurturing behavior. The evolutionary relevance of these strategies is demonstrated by providing empirical evidence from the fields of comparative psychology, developmental psychology, and neuroscientific as well as endocrinological research. Nevertheless, findings from the SDL field on related behaviors imply that leaders’ social environment, i.e. gendered organizations, makes those sex differences difficult to detect using aggregating quantitative approaches. The second part of the thesis hence applied the framework to guide a comparative ethnographic field study in a standardized work environment that allows for differences and similarities in behavior to become visible and for the consideration of situational effects that affect them. The field study uncovered two subcultures that varied considerably in their tolerance of dominance behavior and in their people-orientation. Nevertheless, sex differences in leader behavior occurred in all strategies in the predicted direction although these differences were not always straightforward. Dominance behavior was more strongly affected by social influences in women than in men. Furthermore, women did not apply dominance in a way that served dominance hierarchy building. Coalition-building entailed the most conspicuous sex differences with women essentially not investing in coalition-building at all, whereas male leaders frequently demonstrated behaviors that served the group’s cohesiveness and sense of unity. Male leaders displayed hardly any female strategies. The female leaders demonstrated some behaviors related to female strategies, but these displays often appeared to be involuntary. They sought more one-on-one interactions with their subordinates and disclosed more intimate information. Regarding nurturing behavior, women leaders found strategies to care for their employees on the group level. The individual store structures met the respective behaviors of their leaders. Male stores displayed more consistent and stable dominance hierarchies, whereas female stores were characterized by counter dominance, open conflict, and less efficient cooperation. The female store in the subculture that frowned upon dominance displayed the most egalitarian structures. In addition to introducing several behaviors that were as yet neglected in the sex differences in leadership research field, the findings help to achieve more clarity by entangling behaviors that were treated interchangeably in the past but actually represent either male or female strategies. Furthermore, it demonstrates the distorting role of organizational subcultures on sex differences in leader behavior. It ends with discussing the implications and limitations of its findings.    «

This dissertation thesis takes a novel evolutionary psychology-based approach to the research field of sex differences in leadership. The mature field is characterized by ambiguous results as well as discrepancies in statements from scholars as opposed to practitioners. To bring more clarity into the field, the researcher first reviews the underlying assumptions of the hitherto predominantly feminist angles taken that build on social structure meta-theory. It criticizes this meta-theory for not...    »