The Gendered Effect of Leader Family-Related Information Sharing

Sharing family-related information, used by leaders to demonstrate their affinity and concern for their subordinates, has yet to receive systematic investigation with regards to how it influences subordinates. We examine how supervisors’ family-related information sharing is perceived by employees, how such perception further influences employees’ taking charge behavior, and, more importantly, whether this non-work information sharing behavior is contingent on supervisor and subordinate genders. To explore these questions, we propose that supervisors’ family-related information sharing can promote subordinates’ perceived leader relations-orientation, and thus motivate employees to be more willing to take charge at work. We further propose that the gender composition of the superior and subordinate pair will moderate the positive effect of supervisors’ family-related information sharing on subordinates’ perceived leader relations-orientation. Specifically, relative to other gender compositions, when the leader is male and the subordinate is female, supervisors’ family-related information sharing has the weakest effect on subordinates. In a 3-wave survey with 726 employees, our hypotheses received general support. The conclusions contribute to the supervisors’ nonwork information sharing, leader relations-orientation, taking charge, and complexity of gender impact in the workplace literature. Our findings also provide guidance for how leaders may apply family-related information sharing to affect employees’ initiative in practice.