Chapter 6: Embracing Context in Leadership Theory: Lessons From Negotiation Research

Many prominent leadership theories discuss leader behavior or style but pay less attention to how context may influence the effectiveness of different leadership approaches (Dinh et al., 2014). While it is useful for theories to consider universal themes, it seems that the “devil is in the details” as far as understanding women’s advancement in leadership. This chapter encourages researchers to attend to the specific role of context for theory building. For us, context refers to the interrelated conditions or circumstances in the environment that vary across organizations, settings, people, and time. We call for increased theorizing that integrates contextual variables in the design and testing of interventions that advance women leaders. To do this, we use examples from research in workplace negotiation to illustrate that contextual variables are crucial to understanding the role of gender in the workplace. Increased attention to context in leadership theory can lead to testing strategies for equalizing workplace outcomes between men and women.