Gender, affect and upward influence

Abstract

Upward influence tactics affect the attitude, perceptions and behavior of the supervisors towards their subordinates. This influence may be used both for organizational and personal purposes. With more and more women joining the work place, gender becomes a significant construct given that upward influence tactics may have nuances different for men and women, especially in the Indian context. The hypotheses that made an attempt to understand gender differences in terms of use of upward influence tactics and the moderating effect of the positive and the negative affect, were tested with a sample of employees (N=107) working in a large bank in Western India. The study 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 indicated 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 tactics.