Do Men Who Spill the Tea in Teams Get Burned? Gender Differences in Perceived Competence and Leadership Emergence of Team Members Who Gossip

ABSTRACT Gossip has historically been viewed as a form of deviant behavior. However, research in recent years has offered a more nuanced perspective. We aim to reconcile contrasting perspectives regarding whether gossip is beneficial or harmful to leadership emergence in teams. We do so by integrating role congruity theory and research on prescriptive gender stereotypes to examine how the gossiper's gender shapes these effects. Due to gender role prescriptions, we hypothesize that men who gossip will have lower competence perceptions and subsequent leadership emergence than women who gossip. We conducted three studies to test our theoretical model. Study 1 was a time‐separated, multi‐source study of intact student project teams. Study 2 was an experimental vignette study that manipulated gossip and employee gender in a team context. Study 3 was an experimental critical incident recall study that also manipulated gossip and employee gender in a group setting. The studies supported our theoretical model, demonstrating that individuals in teams give lower competence and leadership ratings to men who gossip compared with women who gossip. Implications for theory and research are discussed.