This study challenges the assumption that male and female business leaders establish gender-stereotypic organizational characteristics in their firms. Data collected from 229 businesses in Vancouver, Canada, indicate that an owner’s sex has no effect on the extent of a firm’s bureaucracy or the femininity of its employment relationships. These findings hold even in situations theoretically conducive to eliciting gender stereotypes. Rather than conforming primarily to the archetypically masculine model of organizing, both male and female owners manage their firms with a mix of masculine and feminine approaches. Subsequent analyses revealed, however, that business owners tend to talk as if they organize and manage their firms in different (and gender-stereotypic) ways, even though they do not do so in practice. This finding may help explain the persistent belief that a leader’s sex leaves an identifiable imprint on organizational characteristics.
Adler, Nancy1999‘Global leaders: Women of Influence’, in Handbook of gender and work. G. N. Powell (ed.), 239-262. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
2.
Alvesson, Mats , and Yvonne Due Billing 1992‘Gender and organization: Towards a differentiated understanding’ . Organization Studies13: 73-102 .
3.
Alvesson, Mats , and Yvonne Due Billing1997Understanding gender and organizations. London: Sage .
4.
Baker, Ted , Howard Aldrich , and Nina Liou1997‘Invisible entrepreneurs: The neglect of women business owners by mass media and scholarly journals in the United States’ . Entrepreneurship and Regional Development9: 221-238 .
5.
Baron, James , Michael Hannan , and Diane Burton1999‘Building the iron cage: Determinants of managerial intensity in the early years of organizations’ . American Sociological Review64: 527-547 .
6.
Belcourt, Monica1991‘From the frying pan into the fire: Exploring entrepreneurship as a solution to the glass ceiling’ . Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship8: 49-55 .
7.
Belcourt, Monica , Ronald Burke , and Helene Lee-Gosselin1991The glass box: Women business owners in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women .
8.
Billing, Yvonne Due , and Mats Alvesson1989‘Four ways of looking at women and leadership’ . Scandinavian Journal of Management5: 63-80 .
9.
Bird, Barbara , and Candida Brush2002‘A gendered perspective on organizational creation’ . Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice26: 41-65 .
10.
Brush, Candida1992‘Research on women business owners: Past trends, a new perspective and future directions’ . Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice16: 5-30 .
11.
Butterfield, Anthony , and James Grinnell1999‘Re-viewing gender, leadership, and managerial behavior: Do three decades of research tell us anything?’ in Handbook of gender and work. G. N. Powell (ed.), 223-238. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
12.
Calás, Marta , and Linda Smircich1996‘From the woman’s point of view: Feminist approaches to organization studies’, in Handbook of organization studies. S. R. Clegg , C. Hardy and W. R. Nord (eds), 218-257. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
13.
Carli, Linda , and Alice Eagly1999‘Gender effects on social influence and emergent leadership’, in Handbook of gender and work. G. N. Powell (ed.), 203-222. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
14.
Chaganti, Radha1986‘Management in women-owned enterprises’ . Journal of Small Business Management24/4: 18-29 .
15.
Deaux, Kay , and Brenda Major1987‘Putting gender into context: An interactive model of gender-related behavior’ . Psychological Review94: 369-389 .
16.
DiMaggio, Paul , and Walter Powell1983‘The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields’ . American Sociological Review48: 147-160 .
17.
Eagly, Alice , and Mary Johannesen-Schmidt‘The leadership styles of women and men’ . Journal of Social Issues57: 781-797 .
18.
Eagly, Alice , and Blair Johnson1990‘Gender and leadership style: A meta-analysis’ . Psychological Bulletin, 108: 233-256 .
19.
Eagly, Alice , Steven Karau , and Mona Makhijani1995‘Gender and the effectiveness of leaders: A meta-analysis’ . Psychological Bulletin117: 125-145 .
20.
Eagly, Alice , Mona Makhijani , and Bruce Klonsky1992‘Gender and the evaluation of leaders: A meta-analysis’ . Psychological Bulletin111: 3-22 .
21.
Eagly, Alice , W. Wood , and A. Diekman2000‘Social role theory of sex differences and similarities: A current appraisal’, in The developmental social psychology of gender. T. Eckes and H. Trautner (eds), 123-174. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
22.
Ferguson, Kathy1984The feminist case against bureaucracy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press .
23.
Fischer, Elaine , Rebecca Reuber , and Lorraine Dyke1993‘A theoretical overview and extension of research on sex, gender, and entrepreneurship’ . Journal of Business Venturing8: 151-168 .
24.
Folker, Catherine , and Ritch Sorenson 2000 ‘Women’s orientation to management: An empirical revisit to gender differences using family business owners’ . Paper presented at the annual convention of the Western Academy of Management, Hawaii.
25.
Fondas, Nanette1997‘Feminization unveiled: Management qualities in contemporary writings’ . Academy of Management Review22: 257-282 .
26.
Goffee, Robert , and Richard Scase1985Women in charge: The experiences of female entrepreneurs. London: George Allen & Unwin .
27.
Helgesen, Sally1990The female advantage: Women’s ways of leadership. New York: Doubleday .
28.
Helgesen, Sally1995The web of inclusion. New York: Doubleday .
29.
Hisrich, Robert , and Candida Brush1987‘Women entrepreneurs: A longitudinal study’ . Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research643-653 .
30.
Inkson, J. H. K. , D. S. Pugh , and D. J. Hickson1970‘Organization, context, and structure: An abbreviated replication’ . Administrative Science Quarterly15: 318-329 .
31.
Kalleberg, Arnold , and Kevin Leicht1991‘Gender and organizational performance: Determinants of small business survival and success’ . Academy of Management Journal34: 136-161 .
32.
Kaplan, Elaine1988‘Women entrepreneurs: Constructing a framework to examine venture success and failure’ . Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research643-653 .
33.
Lee-Gosselin, Hélène , and Jacques Grisé1990‘Are women owner-managers challenging our definitions of entrepreneurship? An in-depth survey’ . Journal of Business Ethics9: 423-433 .
34.
Lefkowitz, Joel1994‘Sex-related differences in job attitudes and dispositional variables: Now you see them... ‘ . Academy of Management Journal37: 323-349 .
35.
Maier, Mark1999‘On the gendered substructure of organization: Dimensions and dilemmas of corporate masculinity’, in Handbook of gender and work. G. N. Powell (ed.), 69-94. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
36.
Martin, Patricia1993‘Feminism and management’, in Women in management: Trends, perspectives and challenges. Elaine Fagenson (ed.), 274-296. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
37.
Meyer, John , and Brian Rowan1977‘Institutional organizations: Formal structures and myth and ceremony’ . American Journal of Sociology83: 340-363 .
38.
Miller, Danny , and Cynthia Droge1986‘Psychological and traditional determinants of structure’ . Administrative Science Quarterly31/4: 539-560 .
Podsakoff, Philip M. , Scott B. MacKenzie , Mike Ahearne , and William H. Bommer1995‘Searching for a needle in a haystack: Trying to identify the illusive moderators of leadership behavior’ . Journal of Management1/3: 422-470 .
41.
Powell, Gary , and Laura M. Graves1993Women and men in management. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
42.
Powell, Gary1997‘Leadership and gender: Vive la différence?’ in Women, men, and gender: Ongoing debates. Mary Roth Walsh (ed.), 298-305. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
43.
Powell, Gary1999‘Introduction: Examining the intersection of gender and work’, in Handbook of gender and work. Gary N. Powell (ed.), ix-xx. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
44.
Powell, Gary2003Women and men in management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
45.
Pugh, Derek S. , and David J. Hickson1976Organizational structure in its context. Westmead, Farnborough: Saxon House .
46.
Ramsay, V. Jean , and Linda M. Calvert1994‘A feminist critique of organizational humanism’ . Journal of Applied Behavioral Science30: 83-97 .
47.
Reed, Kimberly2001Managing our margins: Women entrepreneurs in suburbia. New York: Routledge .
48.
Riger, Stephanie1994‘Challenge of success: Stages of growth in feminist organizations’ . Feminist Studies20/2 (Summer): 275-300 .
49.
Rosener, Judy1990‘Ways women lead’ . Harvard Business Review, November-December: 119-125 .
50.
Rothschild, Joyce 1992 ‘Principles of feminist trade union organizations’ . Paper presented at the Workshop on Feminist Organizations, Washington, DC.
51.
Staw, Barry , and Robert Sutton1993‘Macro organizational psychology’, in Social psychology in organizations. Keith Murnighan (ed.), 350-384. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall .
52.
Stinchcombe, Arthur1965‘Social structure and organizations’, in Handbook of organizations. James March (ed.), 142-193. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally .
53.
Wajcman, Judy1998Managing like a man. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania Press .
