Women as leaders: unpacking the perceptions of gender, trust, and organizational performance

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how gender influences the perceptions of women as leaders, and how those affect the relationship between organizational trust and perceptions of the firm’s performance. Results from Latin America and the United States samples show that the more positive the perception of women leaders, the stronger the relationship between trust and performance. These results are important because they provide additional support for enhancing leadership diversity and increasing trust. In particular, they suggest that firms that build strong organizational trust and create leadership diversity by having more women leaders may be associated with more positive perceptions of organizational performance.