The Effects of Leadership Style, Organizational Outcome, and Gender on Attributional Bias Toward Leaders

The current study examined the effects of leadership style (charismatic or autocratic) on followers' internal and external attributions for their organization's success or failure. In addition, role incongruence between the leadership style and gender was examined within the context of attributional error. Confirming the hypotheses, the results showed a three‐way interaction between leadership style, gender and organizational outcome. Supporting the role incongruity theory, when there was role incongruence between the leadership style and gender (i.e., the female autocratic leader), the attributions for failure were more unfavorable toward the leader. The effect of leadership style on internal attributions for failure was mediated by likeability of the leader. Overall, the current study was the first experimental investigation of the effects of leadership style, organizational outcomes, and gender on attributional biases within a single design.