Employees are more likely to spring into action when a male leader expresses curiosity than when a female one does, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 8.
The Journal referenced a study published to the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes in September. Researchers from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and University College London surveyed 149 managers and their 1,123 direct reports across four companies, two of which were in the healthcare industry.
They found that male supervisors who exhibit curiosity are more likely to affect employee behavior than female supervisors. Employees with curious male bosses were three to four times more likely to say they felt comfortable giving suggestions or opinions and were two to three times more likely to speak their minds on new processes and procedures.
Men are less likely to admit they do not know the answer to a question, so their expressions of curiosity are rarer, and thus more noticeable from an employee's perspective, one of the study's authors told the Journal.