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SINGAPORE, Apr 6, 2010 - (ACN Newswire) - Testosterone (T) has always been associated with strength, maturity and even risk aversion. There has been a lot of debate on how T affects human behaviour. This idea that T is related to leadership is an old one dating from studies of primates. Yet, to date, there has been no direct way to test this hypothesis.
In a collaborative study at NUS involving both the Business and Medical Schools, a large scale study was conducted to study the relationship between T and leadership. The study involved 579 Singaporeans (259 males and 320 females), averaging 21 years of age. The results were recently published in Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, a leading journal in Management.
Participants were assigned to groups of four to seven. They had to meet twice weekly for 12 weeks to work on a variety of tasks. Within each group, participants were allowed to naturally form status hierarchies and adopt roles. At the end of six weeks of interactions, participants rated the status of each group member.
Testosterone was also measured via saliva samples. Then six weeks after that, at the end of the project, the group's collective confidence in their ability to succeed was measured.
Key Findings
- The research found that people pay attention to cues in endowing leaders. In other words, mere dominance behaviours such as staring down a colleague, hogging air time at meetings, thumping the desk in emphatic tones and so on, does not make a leader.
- However, when the leader of the group has high T, the group as a whole feels more effective and successful.
- In certain competitive contexts, the effects might even be stronger. When groups compete with each other, for example in sales-driven environment, the presence of a leader with high T might serve as a motivational function to employers. However, this is an open question that needs to be examined with further research.
- People with high T may find it uncomfortable when not placed in a leadership status that they crave. Similarly, for those with low T, placing them in leadership position may make them uncomfortable. The testosterone-status mismatch within a group may have a negative impact on the group's collective confidence.
This study is one of a few involving interdisciplinary biological and managerial research on how biology affects us at the workplace. While the results of this study are interesting, more research will be needed to ascertain the relationship between testosterone levels, leadership and group efficacy. A possible next step of the research will be to examine these questions at the workplace. However, this is not without its challenges, given the issues of measuring T with organisational employees.
The Researchers
- Dr Jayanth Narayanan, NUS Business School
- Dr Gerald Koh, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
- Dr David Koh, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
- Dr Michael J. Zyphur, University of Melbourne
About NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine was established in 1905 as the first institution of higher learning in Singapore and the genesis of what would become the NUS.
The School strives to fulfil its tripartite mission of providing excellent clinical care, training the next generation of healthcare professionals, and fostering research that will transform the practice of medicine. It plays a pivotal role in producing future leaders in healthcare delivery, discovery and public service, as well as in Singapore's Biomedical Sciences Initiative and Singapore Medicine.
The School's 17 departments in the basic sciences and clinical specialties work closely with the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, and Centre of Excellence for Health Services Research to ensure that teaching and research are aligned and relevant to Singapore's healthcare needs. For more information, please visit www.med.nus.edu.sg.
Contact:
Dr Jayanth Narayanan
jayanth.narayanan@nus.edu.sg
+65-6516-3125
Lee Ling Ling
leelingling@nus.edu.sg
+65-6601-1206
Topic: Research / Industry Report
Source: NUS Business School
Sectors: BioTech
http://www.acnnewswire.com
From the Asia Corporate News Network
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