Benefits Versus Bias: An Investigation of Argumentativeness, Gender, and Organizational Communication Outcomes

This study examined argumentativeness in the organizational setting and investigated competing predictions about the argumentative woman in the organizational situation. The cultural sex-role model suggests a bias toward argumentative women would be found while the benefits of arguing line of research predicts being argumentative would be positively related to desirable organizational outcomes. The data from a survey were examined which revealed little support for the bias prediction. The benefits of arguing model was bolstered by an analysis which revealed that when the person was more argumentative with a moderate tendency to be older, but not necessarily male, organizational outcomes were more favorable. Implications of the study are discussed, especially in terms of conceptualizing arguing as an important form of organizational communication.