Gender Congruence and Work Effort in Manager–Employee Relationships

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12355
Published date01 May 2015
Date01 May 2015
John D. Marvel is assistant professor
in the School of Policy, Government, and
International Affairs at George Mason
University. His research focuses on work
motivation, public sector organizational
performance, and citizens’ evaluations of
public sector performance.
E-mail: jmarvel@gmu.edu
Gender Congruence and Work Effort in Manager–Employee Relationships 455
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 75, Iss. 3, pp. 455–468. © 2015 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.12355.
John D. Marvel
George Mason University
Abstract: is article uses data on public school teachers and principals to examine whether teachers who share the
gender of their principal work more overtime hours than teachers who do not. Findings show that gender congruence
is associated with overtime hours for female teachers but not for male teachers.  is result holds between schools and
within schools: female teachers with female principals work more overtime hours than female teachers with male prin-
cipals, and female teachers with female principals work more overtime hours than male teachers who work in the same
school, for the same female principal. In light of multiple competing explanations for this f‌i nding, the author explores
why gender congruence matters for female teachers but not for male teachers.
Practitioner Points
Female teachers with female principals work more overtime hours than female teachers with male principals.
Female teachers with female principals work more overtime hours than male teachers who work in the same
schools, for the same female principals.
Gender congruence is not associated with overtime hours among male teachers.
Female teachers’ overtime hours are associated with female principals’ overtime hours, suggesting that female
teachers emulate female principals’ work behavior.
competing explanations for this f‌i nding, we empiri-
cally explore why this is the case.
We have two reasons for pursuing these questions.
First, we hope to extend and elaborate on the recent
work of Grissom and Keiser (2011) and Grissom,
Nicholson-Crotty, and Keiser (2012), who have
shown that gender congruence is associated with
higher work satisfaction and lower turnover prob-
abilities among public school teachers. While these
f‌i ndings are of great theoretical importance and
substantive interest, Grissom and Keiser (2011)
and Grissom, Nicholson-Crotty, and Keiser (2012)
do not extensively probe their underlying causal
mechanisms. We do so in the present article, and in
doing so, we aim to tell a more complete story about
how and why principal–teacher gender congru-
ence matters. Second, we hope to contribute to the
empirical literature on public sector work motivation.
Motivating employees to work diligently in pursuit
of organizational goals is a crucial problem for public
organizations. Our analysis, which measures work
ef‌f ort using the number of hours worked by teachers
exceeding contractually obligated minimums (i.e.,
overtime), speaks to why public sector employees may
go above and beyond standard work requirements in
doing their jobs.
Gender Congruence and Work Ef‌f ort
in Manager–Employee Relationships
Recent public management research suggests
that public school teachers are more satisf‌i ed
and less likely to leave their jobs when
the principals they work for share their gender
(Grissom, Nicholson-Crotty, and Keiser 2012). One
possible explanation for this f‌i nding that is drawn
from representative bureaucracy theory is that
principals advocate for and confer benef‌i ts on same-
gender teachers, thereby increasing these teachers’
satisfaction and decreasing their turnover probabil-
ity. In this view, the direction of the exchange f‌l ows
from the principal to the teacher—principals do
something for, or give something to, same-gender
teachers.
We build on this research by asking the following
question: do teachers do something in return for
same-gender principals? A more specif‌i c question
is whether teachers reciprocate by providing same-
gender principals with more ef‌f ort.  e results suggest
that gender congruence matters for female teachers
but not male teachers: female teachers who work for
female principals log more overtime hours than female
teachers who work for male principals. By contrast,
male teachers who work for male principals do not
log more overtime hours than male teachers who
work for female principals. Because there are multiple

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