Leadership and assertiveness

East Asians are less likely to become leaders at US organizations than South Asians or whites partly due to relatively lower assertiveness, a study suggests. As a group, Asians are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions in the United States. To explore the phenomenon, Jackson Lu, Richard Nisbett, and Michael Morris carried out nine studies that included a total of 11,030 participants and compared the two largest Asian subgroups in the United States. The authors analyzed archival data on the S&P 1500 plus companies, administered surveys to Master of Business Administration students as well as employees at large US companies, and conducted experiments. Across studies, East Asians, including Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese, were less likely than South Asians, including Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis, to attain leadership positions; South Asians were more likely than whites to do so. Additional analysis suggested that assertiveness, but not motivation or prejudice, was partly responsible for the leadership gap between East Asians and South Asians. Together, the findings suggest that the phenomenon of underrepresentation does not affect all Asian subgroups equally. According to the authors, the findings underscore the need for organizations to recognize the value of diverse leadership styles.

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Article #19-18896: "Why East Asians but not South Asians are underrepresented in leadership positions in the United States," by Jackson Lu, Richard Nisbett, and Michael Morris.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Jackson Lu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; tel: 413-212-3565; e-mail: lu18@mit.edu; Richard Nisbett, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; e-mail: nisbett@umich.edu