El derecho a la vivienda en la normativa internacional

Another potential determinant of exposure’s effect on implicit attitudes toward female leadership can be subjective interaction with female leader (Uhl-Bien et al., 2014). My research model suggests that the quantity and quality of interaction with leader might moderate the effect of exposure to a female mayor on context dependent implicit stereotypic attitudes toward female leadership. The quantity of interaction refers to the frequency of direct and indirect conversation with mayors. The field observations revealed that municipality employees are having a variety of opportunities to interact with the mayor. Especially in small municipalities, the employees are observing and communicating with the mayor on the daily basis, whereas in the larger organizations, the interactions are on monthly basis or less. I, therefore, expect that the quantity of interaction with the female mayor might intensify the exposure’s influence over implicit stereotyping and implicit prejudice toward female leadership.

The quality of interaction with the leader refers to as a) the level of leader- member exchange (LMX; Graen, Novak & Sommerkamp, 1982; Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995) and b) the perceived interactional justice of mayor (Bies & Shapiro, 1987; Moorman, 1991). LMX is usually identified to explain the quality of relationship between leaders and their subordinates (Dulebohn, Bommer, Liden, Brouer & Ferris, 2012; Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995; Uhl-Bien et al., 2014; Thomas et al., 2013). Accordingly, leaders tend to have varying degrees of relationship with different followers. Leaders may interact with some followers in a formerly agreed way (low

66

LMX relationship), whereas they might develop a relationship in which both leader and follower feel mutual obligation and reciprocity (e.g., trust, loyalty, commitment) toward each other (high LMX relationship). A recent meta-analysis on LMX reveals that high interaction frequency and mutual positive feelings such as liking coincide with high LMX relationship (Dulebohn et al., 2012). High LMX relationship between the leader and his/her subordinate was found to predict favorable work outcomes for subordinates, and positive evaluation of leaders, such as satisfaction with supervisor (Dulebohn et al., 2012). The following passage is an excerpt from my informal conversation with a municipality employee in a relatively small municipality and demonstrates the relevance of exchange relationship in the current research context:

“She (the mayor) is like our elder sibling. We do not call her as “Başkanım” (Mrs. Mayor, formal term used to address a mayor), but as “Sibling (Abla)” even in our formal meetings… I feel comfortable to ask her about anything – including my official paper work or my private issues. For example, if a doctor prescribes a medicine to me, I first ask her whether to use it or not before taking it. If I have a problem, for example, with my child, I first consult to her how to behave to him/her. And I am not an exception, most officers are like that.” (Male employee, finance department, 42).

In addition to exchange relations with the female leader, employees’ perception about her fairness might also influence the subjective positive or negative interactions with the leader. I focus on leader’s interactional justice and particularly its interpersonal variant (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter & Ng, 2001), which is related to beliefs and perceptions about leader’s treatment of one with dignity, respect and courtesy (Bies & Shapiro, 1987; Bies, 2001; Moorman, 1991). Employee might perceive the leader as just or unjust if they directly or indirectly associate the leader with fair or unfair interpersonal treatment of employees (Umphress, Simmons, Folger, Ren, & Bobocel, 2013). The perceptions on the interpersonal fairness of the leader can lead employees to experience positive feelings toward the leader, such as trust (Colquitt & Rodell, 2011).

I contend that frequent and high quality interaction with the leader through exchange relations and perceived fairness of the leader in interpersonal relations can increase exposure’s effect on context dependent implicit stereotyping as well as generalized implicit prejudice toward female leadership. Frequent interaction can provide opportunities for personal interaction with the leader and the observation of leader behaviors. More frequent and closer interaction with a female leader on daily work basis might make female leaders familiar to the person as suggested by

67

interpersonal contact hypothesis (Pettigrew, 1998) and hence familiarity can challenge stereotypical attitudes toward female leadership. At implicit level, such frequent experiences can lessen the probability of prototype-based categorization of leaders, easing the change in cognitive schemata (Hogue & Lord, 2007). Indeed, past research showed that one’s positive affective experiences could promote cognitively flexible judgments /evaluations and increase one’s openness to new ideas about the attitude object (Forgas & George, 2001).

Employees’ positive experiences through perceived high quality exchange with the female leader and the perceptions regarding her personal fairness can further make the mental associations of women’s leadership positive and therefore can aid lowering implicit prejudice against female leadership in a longer term. The argument on positive experiences is one of the basic optimal conditions of Allport (1954/1979) for prejudice reduction and found as a facilitator of the exposure effect on challenging prejudice against social groups (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). At the implicit level, a relatively long period of pleasant contact with female leadership can alter the valence of association between female and leadership. This is one of the basic predictions of EC model (Olson & Fazio, 2006) and APE model (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006) in implicit prejudice reduction as discussed before. After contact with a female leader, the cumulated and repeated pleasant experiences can make the association of female leaders and positive cues in the connectionist leadership network stronger in mind. Such positively conditioned cue is expected to elicit more positive conditioned response toward female leadership. We can observe it as less implicit prejudicial attitudes toward female leadership. I propose that the negative image of the female manager, on the other hand, might not challenge the prevalent implicit prejudice toward female leadership. In fact, the repeated association of female leaders with the negative image of female manager can increase the negative valence of women’s leadership, which we can observe through higher implicit prejudicial attitudes toward female leadership.

Considering these arguments, I, first, contend that the frequent and high quality subjective experiences with the mayor might increase the relationship between exposure and lower levels of context dependent implicit stereotypic attitudes toward female leadership. As discussed previously in detail, pleasant experiences with a woman leader can cumulatively increase the activation of female and leadership in mind, and therefore

68

resulting in lower implicit stereotyping against female leaders at the immediate work context.

Hypothesis 6a. Frequent interactions with a female mayor (Phase 2) will moderate the relationship between exposure and context dependent implicit stereotypic attitudes toward female leadership (at Phase 2). The higher the frequency of interaction, the more positive will be the relationship between exposure and automatic association between female and leadership in municipality context.

I, second, suggest that positive and frequent interaction might increase the likability of female leaders (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Frequent pleasant experiences can make the valence of female leaders in general positive from the perspective of EC (Olson & Fazio, 2006) and therefore can increase the probability on the generalization of context dependent implicit stereotyping. I predict that, in a longer-term exposure, the accumulation of frequent and positive experiences could moderate the relationship between context dependent implicit stereotyping and generalized automatic association between female leadership and positive cues (implicit prejudice).

Hypothesis 6b. High quality interactions with the female mayor (Phase 2) will moderate the relation between exposure and context dependent implicit stereotypic attitudes toward female leadership (at Phase 2). The higher the high quality interactions, the more will be the positive relation between exposure and automatic association between female and leadership in municipality context.

Hypothesis 6c. High quality interactions with the female mayor (Phase 2) will moderate the relation between exposure and generalized implicit prejudicial attitudes toward female leadership (at Phase 3). The higher the high quality interaction with the female mayor, the more positive will be the relationship between exposure and automatic association between female leadership-positive cues.

69