Women and Leadership

Women and Leadership

Introduction

     ‘Leader’ a word presents a masculine image when we read it / say it. Generally we believe leader is mostly male, but do we imagine it could be a woman too? Never. But the actual thing is that, there were women leader exist among us, currently many women holding top positions in various sectors in the society. In the world of globalization, equal opportunity, dessolvation of barriers in job position, elimination of discrimination of sex or gender in job selection empowered women. Women are heading many top positions in business world today; still the leading role of women is believed to be less than that of men’s. In today’s society many women heading business, profit-nonprofit organizations. For example Time magazine noted Ms. Indra Nooyi – current chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Company as world’s most influential people (Time, 2009). Many researchers in business field concluded that, there were no gender differences in leadership style (Brukes S. & Collins K., 2001). But the research of Rosener in 1990 in Harvard Business Reviews – “Ways Women Lead” put the old school of thought in question. However the study not provided any conclusive data, the replicated research was performed by Burke S. and Collins K., with obtaining various primary and secondary data collection.

     The article focuses on mainly female accountants who successfully pass overcome male accountants in the leadership aspects and managerial aspects.

Leadership and Management skills

     The authors considered male and female accountants for their study. The leadership style called “Transformational leadership” was measured against seven management skills. Women also found to be more commanding over management skills like coaching, developing and communicating (p.245).

Leadership Styles:

(i) Transformational leadership (Bass, 1985) could be defined as; “positive relationships with subordinates in order to strengthen employee and organizational performance” (p. 245).

Transformational leadership includes encouraging employees to look beyond their own needs and focus instead on the interest of the group overall (p.245).

Other leadership style transactional leadership which is subdivided in to contingent reward and management by exception leadership developed by Bass (1985).

(ii) Contingent reward leadership: It includes establishment of work standards and successful achievements of that will results in rewards for employees. This leadership style includes written or verbal commitment of managers with their employees (p.245).

(iii) Management by exception: Management by exception is based on influence of managers on employees according to their power or positions and finding out errors and disciplining workers for poor performance (p.245).

Management skills:

     Management skills differ from leadership style; the skills included coaching, communicating, resolve conflicts, problem analysis and decision making.

Method of data collection and sample size:

     Population was - collection of women and men from organizations of CPAs, where 2800 women and 2800 men (accountants) were selected, however the response received by only 711 women accountants and 320 male accountants (final sample). Variables included leadership style sub-components and management skill subcomponents as follows (p.248-249);

Leadership Styles	Management Skills
Transformational leadership	Delegating
·         Attributed charisma	Conflict management
·         Inspirational motivation	Coaching and developing
·         Intellectual stimulation	Personal organization and time management
·         Individualized consideration	Communicating
Contingent reward leadership	Personal adaptability
Management by exception (active & passive)	Problem analysis

Methodology

     Management style (leadership style) was evaluated by multi factor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) developed by Bass and Avolio et al. (1996) where as management skills were evaluated by “Management skill profile”, developed by Personnel Decision Inc. (p. 249). The questionnaires given to managers and was noted under self-rating system.

Results

     Results cleared that female accountants were more active in participating different aspects of leadership like to participate in employee motivation and provide intellectual stimulation. In contrast to that, men respondents found to lean towards management by exception (active and passive) side.

     Furthermore leadership components - transformational leadership, contingent reward and management by exception (MBE) was measured against seven management skills including communicating, conflict management, coaching and development, delegating, personal adaptability, time management and analysis and decision making. Among all, transformational leadership was found to be the best suitable management style followed by contingent rewards and management by exception. MBE found to be least suitable variable among female respondents (p. 251).

Conclusion

     The study indicated that female respondents were more enthusiastic and positive towards leadership compared to males. Males were generally found to be more active in MBE side where they like to rule on their power or position. However this survey is not totally full proof of female leadership is superior over male. The limitation of the study is, it was conducted only in one industry, whether the study implies to other sector or not, that’s not clear. Furthermore results obtained were self reported, hence there might be a possibility of inflation of data. Further research is necessary to find out more leadership opportunities for women in different sectors.

References

Bass, B., M., (1985). Leadership and Performance beyond Expectations, Free Press, New York, NY.

Bass, B., M., Avolio, B., J. and Atwater, L. (1996). “The transformational and transactional leadership of men and women”, Applied Psychology: An International Review. 45 (pp. 5-34).

Burkes S., & Collins K., M. (2001). Gender Differences in Leadership Style and Management Skills: Women in Management Review 16 (5) (pp. 224-256). Doi: 10.1108/09649420110395728

Rosener, J., B. (1990). “Why Women Lead”, Harvard Business Review. 68 (pp. 119-125).

Schultz H., (2009). Indra Nooyi: Builders and Titans. The 2008 Time 100. Retrieved on June 15, 2010 from http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733758,00. html