Gender, managerial level, transformational leadership and work satisfaction

This paper explores how gender and organizational level interact to influence ratings of leadership and work satisfaction, and argues that transformational leadership permits women to simultaneously carry out leadership and gender roles. Findings of a study of the management team of a large US social services agency confirmed predicted similarities in male and female managers’ transformational leadership and work satisfaction. Top managers of both sexes saw themselves as more transformational leaders, while their raters perceived them as less transformational than average for the sample. Those who were younger and at lower managerial levels were more likely to underrate themselves as leaders, while their raters viewed them as higher than average in transformational leadership. The results are discussed in terms of how organizational status, experiences and feedback processes influence individuals’ leadership perceptions and the potential obstacles to women’s accurate assessment of their leadership abilities.