Failure is not an option for Black women: Effects of organizational performance on leaders with single versus dual-subordinate identities

By Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, R. Livingston. 2012

221 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We contribute to a current debate that focuses on whether individuals with more than one subordinate identity (i.e., Black women) experience more negative leader perceptions than do leaders with single-subordinate identities (i.e., Black men and White women). Results confirmed that Black women leaders suffered double jeopardy, and were evaluated more negatively than Black men and White women, but only under conditions of organizational failure. Under conditions of organizational success, the three groups were evaluated comparably to each other, but each group was evaluated less favorably than White men. Further, leader typicality, the extent to which individuals possess characteristics usually associated with a leader role, mediated the indirect effect of leader race, leader gender, and organizational performance on leader effectiveness. Taken together, these results suggest that Black women leaders may carry a burden of being disproportionately sanctioned for making mistakes on the job.

Subfields: Gender Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/41347afda920a58d51a92554695ef8de0686c4d3

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Citations in the corpus

A bed of thorns: Female leaders and the self-reinforcing cycle of illegitimacy (2016, background): “Rosette and Livingston (2012) explored the interacting effects of leader gender, race (White vs. Black), and organizational success (vs. failure) on ratings of leader effectiveness.”
Managing to clear the air: Stereotype threat, women, and leadership (2016, background): “Research at the intersection of racial and gender identities is in its infancy (Livingston, Rosette, & Washington, 2012; Rosette & Livingston, 2012), and more work, focusing on a broader array of identities, is warranted.”
Intersectionality in Quantitative Psychological Research (2016, background): “Yet, some have debated whether additive or double jeopardy effects––for example, whether Black women leaders are evaluated more negatively than Black men and White women leaders (Rosette & Livingston, 2012)––are consistent with intersectionality.”
Exploring Identity-Safety Cues and Allyship Among Black Women Students in STEM Environments (2019, background): “Although the current studies focused on STEM, Black women are underrepresented in many domains (e.g., business, management) and face unique challenges in these environments (Cook & Glass, 2014; Rosette & Livingston, 2012).”