Prompted by the findings of gender differences in leadership outcomes, in this study we set out to explore gender differences in managers’ leadership style and behavior (transformational leadership and expressed intellectual humility) as rated by their subordinates, as well as in work attitudes (perceived organizational support and work engagement) of their subordinates. Our results indicated that female managers are perceived by their subordinates as being significantly more transformational and intellectually humble than male managers. However, there were no differences in work attitudes between subordinates of female and male managers. Still, the mediation analysis showed that both perceived transformational leadership and intellectual humility of managers mediated the relationship between gender and subordinates’ work attitudes. We argue that transformational leadership style and intellectual humility might be the basis of women’s, but not men’s, managerial efficacy and call for additional research of gender differences in leadership styles, behaviors and effectiveness.
