The Ripple Effect: When Leader Self-Group Distancing Responses Affect Subordinate Career Trajectories

As women advance into leadership roles, the gender discrimination they face is a pressing issue that demands attention from a business ethics perspective. This paper considers the downstream consequences of such gender discrimination on their subordinates. Previous research indicates that women leaders in male-dominated organizations often face gender bias, which may prompt them to distance themselves from their gender identity as a coping mechanism (self-group distancing behavior). By integrating concepts from management, psychology, and business ethics, we investigate the following research question: What are the downstream consequences of gender discrimination experienced by women leaders on their subordinates? We hypothesize that women leaders’ self-group distancing responses create uncertainty belonging among women subordinates, which leads to adverse outcomes such as decreased leadership aspirations and increased turnover intentions. Our results suggest that when a woman leader engages in self-group distancing because of gender discrimination, women subordinates experience reduced feelings of belonging, increased differentiation, diminished leadership aspirations, and heightened turnover intentions. In contrast, male subordinates’ sense of belonging, differentiation, leadership aspirations, and turnover intentions do not significantly differ when a woman leader engages in self-group distancing behavior.