Dissertation
Taking threat to the next level: a multilevel perspective of stereotype threat and women's leadership outcomes
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Sep 2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001319
Abstract
Stereotype threat describes the concern that one might be judged or treated in accordance with a negative ingroup stereotype or confirm such a stereotype in a valued domain. Contending with threat is an effortful process that can have debilitating effects on cognition and behavior, resulting in withdrawal from the domain. This process of disidentification reduces diversity in important domains such as leadership, further perpetuating these stereotypes. However, there is some indication that stereotype threat can also have a performance-enhancing effect, but the mechanism through which this occurs has not yet been explained. I integrate stereotype threat theory (Steele, 1997; Steele & Aronson, 1995) with reactance theory (Brehm, 1966; Brehm & Brehm, 1981) and develop a multilevel framework for understanding how implicit and explicit stereotype threats differentially influence women's leadership behavior, team outcomes, and the motivation to lead through the arousal of vulnerability (stereotype-confirming) and reactance (stereotype-disconfirming) responses that constrain and enhance leadership effectiveness, respectively. I further examine self-disclosure team building as a mitigating factor. To test my hypotheses, I conducted a 2x2 mixed design experiment (n = 79 female-led teams) utilizing a team simulation in an undergraduate business course. Consistent with my framework, explicit threat was associated with affective changes that align with reactance, whereas implicit threat was associated with affective changes that align with vulnerability. My findings provide support for the indirect effect of stereotype threat explicitness on team potency, but not team performance, via directive leadership, although this effect was conditional on leader ethnicity. Team building had no significant effects on leadership behavior or team outcomes. This dissertation underscores the importance of examining stereotype threat explicitness in contexts where reactance can arise and calls for further research on the intersection of identities in the leadership domain.
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Details
- Title
- Taking threat to the next level
- Creators
- Stacy L. Boyer
- Contributors
- Wendy P. van Ginkel (Advisor)Lauren D'Innocenzo (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xii, 159 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Bennett S. LeBow College of Business; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991019104706804721