By Michael J. McCormick University of Houston - Clear Lake, Jesús Tanguma University of Houston - Clear Lake, and Anita Sohn Lopez-Forment Texas A&M University

Academic Citation: McCormick, M., Tanguma, J. and Sohn Lopez-Forment, A., "Executive Summary: Gender Differences in Beliefs About Leadership Capabilities: Exploring the Glass Ceiling Phenomenon with Self-Efficacy Theory," Kravis Leadership Institute Leadership Review, Spring 2003.

About the Authors: Michael J. McCormick is Assistant Professor, Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Houston - Clear Lake where he is responsible for the masters program in I/O psychology. In addition to degrees in law and engineering, he holds a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology from Texas A&M. His research interests include leadership training, small group leadership, and gender issues related to leadership.
Jesús Tanguma received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Foundations at the University of Houston Clear-Lake, where he teaches courses in research methods and statistics. For the past two years he has researched topics in applied statistics, teaching statistics online, and survey design.
Anita Sohn López-Forment received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. She is a bilingual school psychologist specializing in early childhood development and program evaluation.

Women hold about five percent of executive positions in U.S. corporations. Referred to in both the popular press and the academic literature as the glass ceiling phenomenon, it continues to be a serious concern to business leaders, policy makers, and the public. The prevailing explanation for women’s slow progress to top leadership posts has focused almost exclusively on external factors (i.e., sex discrimination, hostile corporate culture, exclusion from informal networks, etc.). In contrast, consideration of possible internal barriers, by the researcher community has been limited, even though published findings suggest there are gender differences in beliefs about personal capabilities for activities that are highly gendered. And this has particular relevance to the glass ceiling problem, since the leadership role is regarded by both males and females as a masculine task. The purpose of this study was to explore whether an internal psychological factor, low leadership self-efficacy (or low self-confidence for the leadership task) might be contributing to the lack of leadership diversity.

The sample was comprised of 404 male and female volunteers recruited from undergraduate classes at a major southwest university. The males and females did not differ significantly in terms of age and education level. College students were used given that studies of career choice and development indicate that decisions to pursue a management career occur primarily during the college years. A survey was employed to gather data regarding participants’ demographic characteristics, sex-role identity, leadership self-efficacy, prior leadership role experiences, and willingness to assume a leadership role in a group setting.

In this study self-efficacy was used as a theoretical framework for a causal model that tested proposed external (participant’s sex) and internal (participant’s leadership self-efficacy perceptions) factors that were thought to be contributing to the glass ceiling problem. Results showed that females reported significantly lower self-efficacy for the leadership task, and that this had performance consequences. Analyses indicated that leadership self-efficacy (an individual’s confidence in his or her leadership capabilities) had a direct impact on functional leadership behavior. The higher a person’s belief about his or her leadership capabilities, the more likely the person would take on a leadership role. Furthermore, leadership-related developmental experiences affected leadership efficacy perceptions. Of significance was the finding that respondent’s sex had no effect on the leadership self-efficacy development process. Rather it was respondent’s sex-role identity, the socially communicated expectations regarding the appropriate behaviors, personal qualities, and social roles for men and women, that was involved in leadership self-efficacy development.

Findings from this study have implications for future glass ceiling research and for organizations concerned about increasing the number of women in leadership roles. The results indicate that the glass ceiling problem may not be entirely the result of externally erected barriers to women’s management advancement. Low leadership self-efficacy, an individual difference factor, may be contributing to the situation. A possible strategy for addressing the glass ceiling situation is the use of training specifically designed to enhance women’s beliefs in their leadership capabilities. A training program that includes content instruction, guided mastery experiences, role-modeling, and positive performance feedback followed by a module on developing a post-training, self-management plan is the most effective training design to increase trainees’ self-efficacy for the task. Another strategy is attributional re-training. Such interventions have been successful in causing women to interpret the reasons for their effective performance differently, with resulting improvement in self-confidence, motivation, and job performance. In conclusion, although the findings in this study should be regarded as preliminary and need to be replicated in other settings before definitive conclusions are made, they do suggest a different perspective on the glass ceiling research, and gender differences in beliefs about leadership capabilities.