The Effects of Eye Contact and Gender on Leadership PerceptionKristy Fedde

Minnesota State University Moorhead Introduction•Leadership styles are classified based on the degree to which the leader is involved with interpersonal related issues or task related issues (Luthar, 1996).

•Task-oriented leaders display more directive and controlling leadership styles and enjoy a more competitive environment (Anderson, Lievens, Dam, & Born, 2006).

•Interpersonal-oriented leaders allow subordinates to be more involved in the decision making process by being friendly, helpful, and encouraging to subordinates (Luthar, 1996).

•According to Moss, Barbuto, Matkin, and Chin (2005), women were more likely to use a interpersonal-oriented leadership style, where as men were more likely to use a task-oriented leadership style.

•Eye contact can relate to many variables from intimacy to dominance on a leadership spectrum (Burroughs, Schultz, & Autrey, 1973).

Hypotheses•It was hypothesized that males would be rated higher as task-oriented leaders and females would be rated higher as interpersonal-oriented leaders.

•Furthermore, it was hypothesized the models that maintained eye contact would be considered better interpersonal-oriented leaders compared to the models that did not maintain this eye contact.

Method•Fifty-six students (18 males and 38 females) were participants.

•The materials consists of 4 different photographs, which varied by gender and eye contact, along with a description of their current job and brief educational history. (see Figure 1).

•The scale that was used to measure leadership orientation was adapted from the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid Questionnaire. The scale ranged from from 0 (Never) to 5 (Always) in this study.

•Participants viewed one on of the photographs and rated the person on the dimensions of leadership orientation.

Results•A 2 (eye contact: eye contact vs. no eye contact) x 2 (gender: male vs. female) between measures ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The dependent variable was the rating on interpersonal and task-oriented leadership.

•Interpersonal Leadership Results

•Eye contact was a significant factor in determining interpersonal leadership orientation (p = .001), while gender was not (p = .30).

•Task-oriented Leadership Results

•Eye contact was a significant factor in determining task-oriented leadership orientation (p = .006) and gender was also not significant (p = .54).

Discussion•When eye contact was maintained, the person in the photograph was perceived higher on both interpersonal and task-oriented leadership.

•Gender was not significant in determining any types of leadership orientation.

•The results are consistent with Brooks, Church, and Fraser (1985), which concluded that people that maintain eye contact will be rated higher task-oriented leadership.

•Future research should include how males and females are perceived in different leadership situations or positions.

ReferencesAnderson, N., Lievens, F., Dam, K.V., & Born, M. (2006). A construct-driven investigation of gender differences in a leadership-role assessment center. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2), 555-566.

Brooks, C., Church, M., Fraser, L. (1985). Effects of duration of eye contact on judgments of personality characteristics. The Journal of Social Psychology, 126(1), 71-78.

Burroughs, W., Schultz, W., Autrey, S. (1973). Quality of argument, leadership votes, and eye contact in three-person leaderless groups. The Journal of Social Psychology, 90, 89-93.

Luthar, H. (1996). Gender difference in evaluation of performance and leadership ability: Task oriented vs. democratic managers. Sex Roles, 35(5/6), 337-361.

Moss, J.A., Barbuto, JR., Matkin, G.S., & Chin, T. (2005). Influence of sex differences in leaders' behavior. Psychological Reports, 96(2), 499-510.

3.26

2.55

3.7

3.1

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Eye Contact No Eye ContactConditions

Me

an

InterpersonalLeadership

Task Leadership

Figure 2. Interpersonal and task-oriented leadership by eye contact condition.

Figure 1. Photographs and description shown to participants.

Jane/John is a real estate agent who has been employed with her/his company for five years. She/He graduated from college with an average grade point average. Jane/John is hardly ever late for her/ his work and sells fairly a high amount of real estate making a descent salary. Jane/John is on the left speaking to her secretary about the sale that she/he will take on soon.