Talking Bossy: The Gender-Based Returns to Managerial Communication Styles

This paper investigates the interplay between gender, communication styles, and professional outcomes. Drawing from extant literature on gender stereotypes and their impact on workplace communication, as well as literature on hierarchies and the organization of knowledge in production, I posit that linguistic elaboration, a communication trait more commonly associated with women, obtains different associations in certain workplace contexts. In particular, due to the greater use of elaboration in down-rank communication, this linguistic quality becomes associated with higher status within knowledge-intensive organizations. Consequently, within such contexts, women’s use of elaboration in communication becomes paradoxically gender-incongruent, and penalized accordingly (e.g., accusations of “talking bossy”). Leveraging natural language processing techniques on two distinct datasets – email exchanges within a technology firm and job application essays – I uncover compelling evidence of gender disparities. While both men and women engage in elaborate communication, women non-managers disproportionately face negative consequences, particularly when communicating upward to managers. These penalties persist even controlling for message content and communication patterns, suggesting a status violation mechanism rather than efficiency standards. These findings contribute to organizational theory by illuminating the context-dependent nature of gender-congruent communication and its divergent effects on career advancement.