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high status.As a number of social-psychological studies have shown, people who bring suchsigns of status and influence into a group tend to be better liked—not resented—andto get their way more often. Organization members, as my interviews revealed,prove to be very knowledgeable about who is in and who is out, and when I askedthem to describe desirable bosses, they decidedly preferred those with power tothose with style or expertise.
That preference carries real as well as symbolic payoffs. Powerful leaders getmore rewards and resources to dispense, and their own mobility promises advancementfor the subordinates they bring along. Powerful leaders on the move also pickup a few practices that make them admired. As sociologist Bernard Levenson suggests,promotable supervisors generally adopt a participatory style in which theyshare information with employees, delegate responsibility, train successors, and areflexible about rules and regulations. They also want to show that they are not indispensablein their current jobs, and they seek to fill the vacancy created by their ownadvancements with one of their own lieutenants. Since highly mobile people alsowant to please those above them more than nonmobile people do, they effectivelybuild the relationships that ensure system power.
PUNITIVE, PETTY TYRANTS
Now consider again the stereotype of the bossy woman boss, who is supposedlyrigid, petty, controlling, and likes to poke her nose into the personal affairs of employees.This image is the perfect picture of the powerless. Powerless leaders, menand women alike, often become punitive, petty tyrants. Psychologically, they expectresistance from subordinates. And because they have fewer organizational rewardsto trade for compliance, they try to coerce employees into supporting them. Blockedfrom exercising power in the larger hierarchy, they substitute the satisfaction oflording it over subordinates. Unable to move ahead, they hold everyone back, andpraise conformity to rules rather than talent and innovation
.Burleigh Gardner, a human-relations consultant, reviewed the experiences ofwomen who took over supervisory jobs from men during World War II. He concluded:"Any new supervisor who feels unsure of himself, who feels that his boss iswatching him critically, is likely to demand perfect behavior and performance fromhis people, to be critical of minor mistakes, and to try too hard to please his boss. Awoman supervisor, responding to the insecurity and uncertainty of her position as awoman, knowing that she is being watched both critically and doubtfully, feelsobliged to try even harder. And for doing this she is said to be 'acting just like awoman.'" In truth, she is acting just as any insecure person would.We again come full circle. Those who have a favorable place in the powerstructure are more likely to become effective leaders, to be liked, and thus to gainmore power. Sponsorship, for example, is a typical road to the top for many men.The protege system, whether in academia, politics, or business, is a tough and informalway of keeping outsiders out, and making sure the best insiders keep on thefastest track. For this reason, it has been almost impossible for a woman to succeedin business without sponsorship or membership in the company's ruling family. Butwhen women do get real power, whether in politics like Indira Gandhi or in businesslike advertising executive Mary Wells, they behave just as well—or badly—asmen do.
TOKENISM
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