Understanding Gendered Leader Dynamics and Shared Leadership in Teams

In light of the growing and pervasive use of teams in organizations today, this dissertation seeks to better understand the gendered leader dynamics in small, self-managed, project teams. Despite the fact that decades of research suggests that there is no gender difference in leader effectiveness, there is a persistent gender gap in leader emergence with men emerging as leaders more often than women. Current social-psychological theories of leadership (and followership) construction focus on leadership as a dynamic, social process and emphasize the emergent and shared nature of leadership examining the co-production of leadership by multiple individuals. Using these newer leadership theories, I examine the effects of gender on the leadership process at both the dyad and team levels. Methodologically, I introduce a new measurement procedure and calculation for dyad and team level leader emergence that is gender neutral and accounts for changes in leader emergence over time.

Many thanks to Andrea’s Committee Members: Chair - Lauren D’Innocenzo - Assistant Professor - Drexel University Member - Daan van Knippenberg - Joseph F. Rocereto Professor - Drexel University Member - Wendy van Ginkel - Associate Professor - Drexel University Member - Daniel Tzabbar - Associate Professor - Drexel University Member - Michael Kukenberger - Assistant Professor - University of New Hampshire