Managing Impressions Of Responsibility For Success Or Failure: Manager-Sex and Observer-Sex Effects

Abstract

College students’ responses to fictitious managers’’ statements concerning responsibility for performance were investigated.  Male managers were seen as having greater control than females over productivity.  While it was generally best to credit others for success and blame oneself for failure, males (but not females) gave subordinate-crediting managers more favorable ratings than superior-creditors.  Males seemed to perceive superior-creditors as self-serving, while females were more apt to take statements at face value.