Gender, affect, and upward influence

Abstract

With the rapid influx of women in organizations, more specifically in the Indian context, “gender” becomes an important construct in the study of upward influence strategies, by which the member is able to influence the attitude, perceptions and behavior of the leader in a desired manner. In this study, we made an attempt to understand gender differences in terms of use of upward influence strategies and the moderating effect of the positive and the negative affect. The sample size comprised employees (N=107) working in a large bank in Western India. We employed both in-depth exploratory interviews and a survey methodology. While the interview data was subjected to rigorous content analysis techniques, regression analysis was performed on survey data. Results indicate that the gender of the agent and the supervisor, as well as the interaction of gender and affective styles, influenced the choice of upward influence strategies.