How leader gender influences external audience response to organizational failures

Across 3 studies, we examine how leader gender affects external audiences' reactions to organizational failures, and under what conditions such effects are likely to occur. We find that leader gender and failure type (ethical, competence) interact to affect individuals' perceptions of, and propensity to support, an organization after a failure. People respond more negatively to ethical failures when an organization has a female versus a male leader. In contrast, competence failures generally elicit a less negative response for female-led versus male-led organizations. These effects are mediated by trust in the organization. We also show that these relationships are moderated by factors that influence evaluators' communal perceptions of leaders (e.g., leader descriptions) or their expectations regarding organizational competence (e.g., gender congruence). Our findings contribute to the literatures on female leaders, organizational failures, and the influence of norms on evaluator judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).