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CAN WOMEN BE GOOD LEADERSMUHAMMD UMAR IRSHAD - SAQIB SHOUKAT
Department of Social Sciences
Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall Campus
[email protected] [email protected]
Introduction
It is said that male leaders are more effective in the
organizations and feminine is not
enough to make an organization successful. We have choosen three
research articles
in this regard to make a comparison of these statements. The
research reveals the
gender role stereotypes having different hypothesis for leaders
in leadership styles.
And these stereotypes play significant role for evaluating the
leadership behaviors and
traits if the gender identity is consistently understood.
Research into leadership and gender has tended to focus ont he
inequalities that
women encounter, while trying to raise the business
hierarchy.The purpose of this study is to make compariosn of the
male leadership and female
leadership effectiveness.
Summary
The articles we have choosen for our paper, research has been
conducted in three
areas of gende leadership.
The first one is The moderating effect of gender on leadership
intervention
impact.
Can leader step outside of the Gender box?
The road to the glass cliff. Differences in the percieved
suitability of men andwomen for leadership positions in succeeding
and failing the organiztions.
In these research articles the feminie leadeship abilities are
evaluated and a
comparison has been made between male and female leadership in
different
situations. For example; in well progressing and declining
organizaitons.
1) The Moderating Effect of Gender on Leadership Intervention
Impact
For the last three decades workforce environment has changed
itself rapidly. When
thinking about leadership or managerail roles, one can be more
emphasized on
stereotypical male attribute rather than emphasize on
stereotypical female attribute. It
is assumed that female can not play leadership roles effectively
and can not forcefullyinfluence others. It is due to their kind and
sympathetic nature.
The main difference between male and female is considered that
males are supposed
to be more confident ambitious, courageous, dominant and risk
takers. On the other
hand females are supposed to be kind, caring, friendly and avoid
risk taking. Also
women are viewed as less effective than men, as the number of
their male followers
increase. (Eagly, Makhijani and Klonski 1992).
In this research two categories were formed to be examined.
1. (a) All-male
(b) All-female2. (a) Majority-male (75%)
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(b) Majority-female (75%)
We found the following results
1. The impact of leadership intervention for all male and all
female groups, it
was found that effect size for all-male group was almost equal
to the effect
size of all-female group. This means that leadership
intervention have an equaland positive impact across gender.
2. The effect size for all majority-female group was 18,6%
greater than that of
majority-male group. However, the impacr will likely to be very
depending on
a number of factors and difference is not too much as it
seems.
2) Can Leaders Step Outside of the Gender Box? An Examination of
Leadership
and Gender Role Stereotypes
Second articlessuggested that gender role stereotypes are still
exit and they create the
expectations that how male and female behaves in leadeship
roles. Echiejile (1995)
categorized the leadership styles into masculine maangement and
feminine
management. Male leaders are expected to use transactional
leadership styles andhave the instrumental traits, whereas women
are expected to use transforamtional
leadership style and have the expressive traits.
These two hypothesis were tested:
Hypothesis 1: Participants will be more likely to indicate that
a leader showing a
masculine leadeship style is a man rather than a women.
Hypothesis 2: Participants will be more likely to indicate that
a leader showing a
feminie leadership style is a women rather than a man.
This research examined the efect of using gender-consistent and
gender-inconsistent
style on four outcomes to assessed the leader by their
subordinates which can beexplained as under;
(a) Subordinates perceptions of leader effectiveness.
(b) Subordinates trust in the leader.
(c) Subordinates satisfaction with the leader.
(d) Subordinates motivation.
The result showed that the leader in masculine leadership
condition was rated higher
on instrumental traits and transactional leadreship styles than
the feminie leadership,
whereas the leader in feminine leadership condition was rated
higher on expressive
traits and transformational leadership style than the masculine
leadership. This
indicates that manipulation of leadership style was
successful.3) The road to the glass cliff: Differences in the
perceived suitability of men and
women for leadership positions in succeeding and failing
organizations
Three experimental studies have been presented in this article
for observing that
women are more likely than men to be appointed on leadership
positions where
gender role vaires time to time. Sometimes men were appointed on
top ranks and
sometime women. This diference si based upon demographic
characteristics,
management styles. Ability to manage the crises, career path and
effectiveness as
leaders.
Ryan and Haslam (2005) examined the share price performance of
companies before
and after the appointment of male and female as a board
directors. Share priceperformance was stable when man was appointed
while it becomes poor when a
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woman had appointed. This suggests that women were more likely
than man to find
themselves on a glass cliff. Womens leadership style tends to be
more charismaticthan that of man in times of crises, fear and
uncertainty.
In first experimental study of glass cliff phenomena was
conducted by management
graduates in which men and women are more likely to be chosen
for leadership
position when organizations are in crises. Two hypotheses were
taken which is as
under;
Women would be more likely to leadership position in a company
when its
performance was declining rather than improving (H1)Glass cliff
positions would be well-defined in companies where core business
was
masculine in nature, rather than feminine (H2)
Women were found to be good leaders when the organisation was in
declining stage,
it suggests that women have more leadership abilities when
encountered with crisis
situations.Our results discovered that when company was in
declining rather than
improving male candidates have less leadership abilities. To
examine this issue,
second study was conducted.
Second experimental study was conducted by high school students,
on the base of first
study in which same procedures, methods and evaluation process
were adopted,
revealed that when company performance was declining than female
candidate
perceived more ability than the male and appointed on senior
position. In particular,
counterbalancing ensured that the effect did not reflect
systematic difference in the
main candidates attractiveness or perceived suitability of men
and women for
leadership position and this was confirmed by data obtained on
additional measures.
Third experimental study was conducted by business leaders to
examine the equally
qualified male and female candidates for leadership position in
companys eitherwhose performance was declining or improving. Two
more hypotheses were taken to
test the participants evaluation of candidate suitability.
Leadership position in failing companies might be perceived to
provide a better
career opportunity for women rather than men (H3)Leadership
position in failing companies might be perceived to be more
stressful for
women than for men (H4)
This study describe clearly that women are specially selected
for risky leadership
positions associated with organizations in crises, this
increases our confidence that
women tends to be selected for glass cliff positions because
these positions are
stressful. Glass cliff positions offer women best opportunity to
break into topmanagement.
Evaluation:
Leadership involvement seeems to be neglected some of the
inbuilt differences when
comparing male and female .there is some uncertainty associated
with them. There
may be some demographic differences in these studies. So the
reliability seems to be
doubtful. There is a need to answer a number of questions that
are remained
unsnswered. In one research, data is gathered from the students
that have no
experience of a professional organisation, so it makes the
results unreliable. As the
research should be conducted in professional organisation
inssterd of university
graduates. It clearly remains for future work to investigate the
processes in greaterdepth. The broader task for researchers is to
identify the general social psychological
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principles that affect gender leadership and shape behaviors.
One thing is that these
researches are limited to examin the leadership abilities in
business organisations, not
in the non-profit seeking organisations like Police, Armed
forces, NGOs and social
welfare organisations. An other thing is that there is a large
number of studies
conducted with male leadership than with female leadership, so
the sources for the
evaluation of female leadership effectiveness were less than the
sources for maleleadership, this casts a question mark on the
reliability of the conclusions derived
from the comparisons. But at least we have a better idea of what
is available for
analysis to help the future work in this area.
Conclusion:
These three studies provide us significant approach towards the
gender leadership and
the psychological aspects that contribute to this effect. And
these approaches are
about female leadership abilitites, their capacity to work and
to take a decision under
stressful conditions, and to manage crises. It is stated in the
research conducted that
women can be more effective leaders as compared to men when
there is a crisis
situation and the organization is in declining stage.
However, leadership in some of the professional jobs are said to
be only for the men
where courage and high mental involvement under stress is
necessary. For example,
armed forces.
For the last some decades, women involvement in business
organizations is increased,
and womens have proved themselves as good leaders. That is why
it is not surprising
that female managers constituted the majority in employment
sectors such as medical
and health services, human resource management, social and
community services and
educational sector.
According to U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), women held
about 46% of themanagerial positions by 2004. The increasing number
of female managers in
organizations illustrates that women can exhibit effective
leadership roles.
References:
The Moderating Effect of Gender on Leadership Intervention
Impact: An
Exploratory Review
http://online.sagepub.comhttp://jlo.sagepub.com/content/15/4/325.full.pdf+html
Can Leaders Step Outside of the Gender Box? An Examination of
Leadership
and Gender Role Stereotypes
http://online.sagepub.com
http://jlo.sagepub.com/content/15/1/30.full.pdf+html
The road to the glass cliff: Differences in the perceived
suitability of men and
women for leadership positions in succeeding and failing
organizations
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