Sounds of leadership? A mismatch between Asian Americans’ communication style and norms for leaders in the United States Open Access
Lee, Sarah (Fall 2019)
Abstract
Asian Americans in the United States are overrepresented in professional occupations, yet underrepresented in top management. Extant literature in management suggests that leadership potential is signaled through self-expression, confidence, and optimism. However, the cultural psychology and sociolinguistics literatures suggest that communication norms for Asian Americans may conflict with these leadership expectations, because of Asian Americans’ cultural background and minority experience in the United States. I tested whether differential communication norms were observable in aspiring Asian- and White-American leaders’ non-accented, naturalistic speech, and whether these differences would affect evaluations of leadership potential and hireability/promotability. Results supported predictions that Asian- (vs. White-) American aspiring leaders would speak with less self-expression, less confidence, and less optimism (Study 1). Moreover, Asian- (vs. White-) American aspiring leaders were rated lower on communication effectiveness, leadership potential, and hireability, when participants were blind to speaker ethnicity (Study 2). These differences in perceptions were not exacerbated when participants were aware of speaker ethnicity (Study 3). Finally, showing the causal link between communication style and leadership outcomes, interviewees speaking in the Asian- (vs. White-) American style received lower ratings by business professionals (Study 4). I suggest that these culturally grounded communication differences pose an obstacle to Asian-American employees, causing them to be inaccurately perceived as deficient as leaders, and suggesting a possible explanation for the “bamboo ceiling.”
Table of Contents
List of Tables x
Introduction 1
Theory 4
Asian Americans are underrepresented in leadership 4
Leader prototypes in the United States 4
Cultural differences in ideal leadership 6
Communication in leadership 7
Cultural differences in communication 8
Hypotheses 12
Overview of Studies 14
Study 1: Identifying Differences in Communication Style between Asian- and White-American
Aspiring Leaders 16
1.1 Method 17
1.2 Results 22
1.3 Discussion 27
Study 2: Subjective Ratings of Asian and White Americans’ Entrepreneurial Speech 28
2.1 Method 28
2.2 Results 31
2.3 Discussion 37
Study 3: Ratings of Asian and White Americans when Ethnicity is Revealed 39
3.1 Method 41
3.2 Results 43
3.3 Discussion 49
Study 4: Testing for the Causal Link between Asian (vs. White) Americans’ Communication
Style and Interviewee Evaluations 50
4.1 Method 52
4.2 Results 55
4.3 Discussion 58
General Discussion 60
Implications for the Leadership Literature 60
Implications for Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship 62
Implications for Asian-American Professionals 63
Implications for Organizations 64
References 66
Appendix 95
A. Scripts for Study 4 95
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