The role of organisational culture in role incongruity effects of women leaders

The role congruity theory states that women are deemed incongruent to the leadership domain because it is often aligned with the agentic qualities that men are typecasted to possess. This causes the role incongruity effects which hinder women leadership progress. Although the role incongruity effects are often investigated in various industries, studies looking at the influence of contextual factor like culture on role incongruity effects is still scarce. This paper uses the integrative approach of literature review to unravel two aspects. First, it explores how role incongruity effects are currently faced by women leaders in different industries within the agentic and communal setting. Second, it discusses whether the contextual factor of culture at the organisational level (i.e., organisational culture), is likely to interact with role incongruity effects in causing gender leadership bias. With a sample of 28 studies, this review concludes that role incongruity effects is prominent at the organisational level, but the outcomes derived are different in the two settings. To explore this difference, masculine defaults in organisational culture was examined. Focussing on the agentic and communal setting of industries, the review concludes that organisational culture moderates the relationship between role incongruity effects and gender leadership bias of women. This review contributes to the expansion of role incongruity theory by first, proposing that the role incongruity effect is context-dependent. Second, it incorporates organisational culture into role congruity theory as the moderator, suggesting that organisational culture could reduce role incongruity effects. The practical contributions are further discussed.