Debates about the effectiveness of female leadership and whether followers’ perceptions of leader charisma are differential between male and female have been continuous and escalating. Catering to the trend, we explore the relationship between leader gender and followers’ perceptions of leader charisma with pair data collected from upper-level leaders and their followers. Specifically, according to social role theory and the power shield hypothesis, we hypothesize that female leaders, compared to male leaders, are evaluated as more charismatic. In this process, dialectical leadership behaviors could effectively mediate the effect of gender differences on perceptions of leader charisma, where female leaders are appraised as exhibiting more dialectical leadership behaviors than their male counterparts. Furthermore, we consider followers’ perceived leader support as the boundary condition, which could weaken the extent to which gender differences influence perceptions of leader charisma via dialectical leadership behaviors. Data analyses from 156 upper-level leaders and 661 direct followers support our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future directions of current research are also discussed.
