Leadership and Sex‐similarity: A Comparison in a Military Setting

In a study of the possible impact of leader and follower sex‐similarity on leadership criteria, survey responses of 1,974 military cadets in 167 squads were analyzed at the completion of a month‐long field training exercise. Analyses (which included a series of hierarchical linear models that explicitly accounted for the nested character of squad membership relative to a leader) yielded results that indicated that same‐sex leader–subordinate pairings had more positive working relationships than different‐sex pairings. However, leader ratings of subordinate performance did not yield clear evidence of such an effect. In addition, increases in the proportion of female members in a squad were not associated with differences in squad‐level cohesion, while being associated with decreases in squad‐level leader–member exchange (LMX). Subordinate reports of participation in decision making, although correlated positively with LMX, were not significantly different as a function of leader–subordinate sex‐similarity. Implications are derived for managing demographic diversity in order to enhance within‐unit functioning.