An analysis of managerial helping responses based on social role theory

Social role theory suggests that how managers respond to employees seeking help depends on the manager's gender. Consistent with social role theory, we found that women managers tended to use significantly more gender-consistent helping behaviors, such as understanding, and less masculine-related behaviors, such as evaluating, than their male counterparts. On the other hand, when helping behavior was examined within each sex group, we found that both men and women managers tended to rely less on understanding and more on evaluating, suggesting that the managerial role plays a greater part in shaping helping behavior.