Leadership, Training, and Gender Influences on Team Decision Making
Abstract
This study explored the effects of gender of the leader, gender of the non-leader, and whether the leader or non-leader was trained on team decision making while solving a computerized Tower of Hanoi puzzle. The experiment involved 192 undergraduate students combined into 96 two person teams. The design combines gender of the leader, gender of the non-leader, and whether the leader or non-leader was provided prior relevant training, resulting in 8 experimental conditions with 12 teams in each condition. Analysis of variance yielded significantly quicker times to solve the puzzle for those teams with a male non-leader versus a female non-leader. Teams with male non-leaders also proved to have shorter average times per move while completing the puzzle than teams with female non-leaders. When females are the non-leader of the team, they are less likely to introduce valuable information to the decision making process than when males are the non-leader. When examining same gender teams, female-female teams exhibited significantly longer total times and average times per move than male-male teams. Among the female-female teams, those teams with the leader trained were significantly faster in average time per move than those teams where the non-leader was trained. The gender differences found in this study are consistent with other research.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA326059
Entities
People
- Megan E. Bird
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology