Business Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Publication Title
The Leadership Quarterly
Keywords
Organizational Behavior, Management
Disciplines
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Abstract
The authors tested the hypothesis that leaders' vocal attractiveness is positively related to perceptions of leadership effectiveness. In a first study using vocal spectral analysis on a sample of U.S. presidents and Canadian prime ministers, vocal attractiveness accounted for significant variance in historians' perceptions of leadership effectiveness (β = .35, p < .05), explaining an additional 12% of the variance above that explained by personality, motives, and charisma. A second study of 255 subjects distributed into 85 teams in a laboratory setting found similar results for the relationship between vocal attractiveness and perceptions of leadership effectiveness. The second study also supported the hypothesis that personal reactions mediate the relationship between vocal attractiveness and perceptions of leadership effectiveness. In contrast, vocal attractiveness and personal reactions were found to have no significant effects on leadership effectiveness outcomes.
Recommended Citation
DeGroot, T., Aime, F., Johnson, S. G., Kluemper, D. (2011). Does Talking the Talk Help Walking the Walk? An Examination of the Effect of Vocal Attractiveness in Leader Effectiveness. The Leadership Quarterly, 22, pp. 680-689.
DOI
10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.05.008
Version
Postprint
Publisher's Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in The Leadership Quarterly. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in The Leadership Quarterly, 22 (2011); 10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.05.008
Volume
22
