Fit for work? A quantitative study on the perceived effects of athletic business leaders

Abstract: In line with a global trend in health consciousness, organizations are investing heavily into wellness. Also, business leaders are found to engage in physical activities more and more. It is argued that athletic interest is used in the construction of leaders' professional identities in business contexts. However, little research has been directed towards the perception of athletic business leaders. This thesis examines if followers perceive athletic business leaders differently compared to non-athletic business leaders in terms of implicit leadership characteristics and transformational quality. Additionally, the impact of gender on these effects is investigated. A two by two factorial between-subject video experiment, with 364 respondents, was used to assess followers' perceptions of athletic business leaders in Sweden. It was shown that business leaders, portraying themselves to be highly physically active, are perceived as less transformational as well as more tyrannical. When comparing male and female leaders, this negative effect was found to be significant only for female business leaders. Furthermore, the results indicate that the negative effect for female athletic business leaders is due to the perceptions of male respondents. The findings of this master thesis contribute towards the development of the construct athletic business leaders by providing a quantitative assessment of followers' perceptions in relation to established leadership theories. In addition, the gender differences highlight another complexity of gender inequality.