Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Institutionalization of Status Roles in Task Groups

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Individuals in the disadvantaged category of a social group encounter resistance to influence attempts when they rise to positions of high status in groups. Members of low status groups are expected to maintain their low status, and legitimacy problems arise when a member attains a position higher than that which her social status would indicate. Legitimacy theories attempt to explain the processes by which individuals in the disadvantaged class of a social group. Through increased legitimacy may overcome resistance to influence attempts when they rise to high status leadership positions. However, when individuals with the low state of a culturally evaluated characteristic (e.g. females in mixed-sex groups) attain high status positions on a legitimate basis, problems still may arise. Results indicate that these individuals may possess personal evaluations comparable to those of leaders with the high state of the characteristic, but that the group structure itself may be seen as illegitimate. Institutional theory will be incorporated with legitimacy theories and expectation states and status characteristics theories to address these issues. The investigators argue that when a member in the disadvantaged category of a social group rises to a position of high status, institutionalization of the group structure, as well as legitimacy of leader appointment, are necessary for the structure o inequality itself, as well as the leader's position in the structure, to be viewed as legitimate. This Doctoral Dissertation Improvement research tests theoretically derived hypotheses regarding the legitimacy of leader appointment and institutionalization of the group structure. Specifically, experiments will be designed to test three hypotheses: (1) When working on a gender-neutral task, female group leaders not legitimately appointed to their position will receive lower evaluations for their own performances and for the groups they lead than will male leaders also not legitimately appointed; (2) When working on a gender-neutral task, female group leaders legitimately appointed to their position will receive evaluations for their own performances that are just as high as those of legitimately appointed male leaders, but will have the groups they lead evaluated as less effective; and (3) Female group leaders who have attained their position on a legitimate basis in an institutionalized group structure will receive evaluations for their own performances, and for those of their groups, that are just as high as those received by otherwise comparable male leaders also legitimately attaining leadership roles in institutionalized structures. Data will be collected through having both male and female undergraduate students complete a series of laboratory experiment.