Sex Differences in Nonverbal and Verbal Communication With Bosses, Peers, and Subordinates

Relatively little is known about differences in either the nonverbal or verbal behavior of male and female managers. The present study examines both nonverbal and verbal behavior of male and female master's in business adminis-tration (MBA) candidates as they speak on the telephone to their boss, peer, and subordinate. Ratings of the competence and warmth of their tone of voice and of the transcript of the conversation yielded parallel measures of both nonverbal and verbal channels. A repeated measures analysis of variance for the competence variable yielded a significant interaction between sex of speaker and status of person spoken to (i.e., boss, peer, or subordinate) such that females ' voices were rated as sounding more competent both verbally and nonverbally when they were speaking to their bosses, whereas males ' voices were rated as more competent when they were speaking to their peers. The results are discussed in terms of sex rote stereotypes of males and females in management positions. The fact that larger numbers of women have entered the management ranks has pro-voked a flurry of research about female man-agers (Terborg, 1977). This flurry may have occurred in part because (a) traditional sex role stereotypes indicate that men and women are perceived to possess very different traits and attributes and (b) the male traits are valued more highly than the female traits by people in general (Broverman, Vogel, Brov-erman, Clarkson, & Rosenkrantz, 1972). More specifically, the traits associated with the male sex role are perceived as crucial for success in positions of managerial power, whereas the traits associated with the female sex role are perceived as incongruous with the traits associated with being a good man