Comparative Analysis
The articles under analysis explore leadership styles from the point of view of their relation to gender (Merchant, 2012) and personality (Yahaya et al., 2011). Merchant (2012) provides a valuable research, which is focused on gender as the major determinant of leadership styles in individuals. Providing an analysis of literature, Merchant (2012) indicates that “many studies analyzing the intersection of gender and influence tactics have resulted in mixed finding” (p. 24). It proves the argument that gender stereotypes play a major role in attributing particular roles for females and males on the basis of their biological sex and what is expected of them. Whereas Merchant (2012) does not present a particular argument
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I happened to work under both female and male leadership, and I should admit that the difference between them is not evident – everything depends on personality, and dissimilarities in influence tactics are attributed “to situational circumstances such as individual setting” (Merchant, 2012, p. 26).
Personal Leadership Style
My leadership style is both Participative and Democratic, and it is influenced by the three variables – gender, personality, and age. “Democratic Leader makes the final decision, only after receiving the input and recommendations of all team members,” (Goetsch, 2002). I focus on getting to the bottom of the problem with working through it.
Effect of Gender
Though gender is a contradictory variable in affecting leadership styles, I should note that gender does play an important role in the way I influence other people. In this aspect, I should agree with Merchant (2012), who indicate, “women value cooperation […] and have a less clear focus on where the boundaries of their friendships end and their individual identities begin” (p. 18). As a female, I feel I have to work harder than a male doing the same job. Even though, I feel that I have to work harder than a man, I also think that it’s not always about your gender, but how a person is a leader. “Kanter, argues that males and females who occupy the same organizational role theoretically differ very
When analyzing leadership characteristics and styles, there are considerable differences in gender characteristics that are identified. Men are considered to have “masculine” traits, such as being
Confidence, integrity, purpose, empowerment, determination, and courage. These are some of the many words associated with leadership. Regardless of gender, these words apply to all leaders. It is no longer a question of what women leaders are, but rather why there are not women leaders. Today’s society focuses on fulfilling leadership positions with males, not because females do not have the same skills and knowledge as men, but because people associate men with leaders. There are various daily obstacles that women face in the attempt towards leadership roles including prejudice beliefs, resistance due to stereotypes, leadership styles, family life demands and underinvestment in social capital. We have found that through depictions in the media, women are not seen as effective leaders in the same sense as men. These media findings and various research techniques provide evidence for the lack of female presence in leadership positions.
Women who do not adhere to the typical feminine role are usually seen as aggressive, assertive, or sometimes even considered a “bitch”. Women leaders come off too hard or too soft but never just right. A woman’s influence in a masculine’s setting could be resisted and ignored because of the double bind dilemma. If women leaders show that they are supportive, warm, and considerate as leaders, they are often not respected. Society expects one thing from women, but then demands another.
The studies observed that women tend to adopt a more transformational and participative initiative style while men were seen to embrace more dictatorial and disciplined styles (Eagly & Johnson, 1990). The research studies likewise found that the style chosen by most women for the most part ends up being helpful for authoritative adequacy, for the most part coordinating the arrangement of reward, inspiration, expectation, and eagerness among others (Mohr & Wolfram, 2008). These differences in gender leadership styles may influence the way the coach approaches his or her coaching method to be more effective. For example, women in leadership are described as having a softer verbal tone than men who often have a more authoritative tone (Mohr & Wolfram, 2008) which can be offensive if a coach uses an authoritative tone unnecessarily or constantly with a woman
Vinkenburg, van Engen, Eagly, and Johannesen-Schmidt (2011) found that gender differences in communication style norms can also impact advancement in careers. While the differences in group collaboration and leadership styles between men and women may be trivial, and perception of gender-based leadership style is not. Women were shown to use more effective, leadership techniques then men. However, men were perceived as being slightly better leaders and more inspirational in the work setting, despite the fact that woman’s leadership styles tended to be more rounded. The perpetuation of gender bias in promotion decisions perpetuates the stereotype that men hold
Men leaders are often praised and rewarded when success comes their way, whereas women see success as coming with a cost (Luscombe, 2013). Data has shown that “success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women”, but this realization has led her to be a more powerful and thoughtful leader in her role (Luscombe, 2013). It explains why her female employees will negotiate hard for their clients, but not themselves, and why women are less eager to boast their accomplishments or go for higher leadership positions (Luscombe, 2013). Changing this way of thinking connects to what we have learned about leadership in class, specifically the fifth element of what leaders do best: encourage the heart (Management, 2017). If women feel appreciated, and like their ideas matter in the workplace, they are more likely to stay and succeed. Women are twice as likely to believe that their gender will make it harder to advance (Sandberg, 2015). Therefore, knowing this correlation between success and popularity as a manager completely changes the review on employees, especially women. Additionally, visions in companies fail when it becomes outdated (Management, 2017). It is becoming increasingly normal and essential for women to play a large role in the leadership of companies, and the gender bias is
Thesis statement: Leadership depends on the leader’s leadership style and there way of communicating ideas rather than the leader themselves. Both women and men believe in similar leadership styles however women prefer a more participative leadership approach.
In contrast, a feminine community possesses tendencies that relate to supportiveness, care, empathy, and relationship-oriented traits (Elsesser & Lever, 2011). A male-dominated culture somewhat influences femininity. Notably, male leaders apply unconventional approaches in addressing organizational players compared to their female counterparts. For these reasons, the expectations of the two leadership types tend to differ, forcing societies to react differently to the two.
In a lot of areas, males are the ones who are supposed to earn money for their families and do the tougher jobs. They “fit the cultural stereotype of leadership better than women, [and] have better access to leadership roles and face fewer challenges in becoming successful in them” (Women in the workplace seen as less qualified and capable leaders than men). This shows how the gender norms for men causes them to be more successful than women in general. In Europe, “this masculine leadership stereotype is weaker now than it was in earlier years” (Women in the workplace seen as less qualified and capable leaders than men). Only just recently, women have finally been able to do harder and more rewarding jobs. This is because the country they were born in had been following a stereotypical pattern in regards to their specific
In Koehane’s book Thinking About Leadership she asked a very interesting question. Does Gender Make a Difference when it comes to leadership? And why is there still such a disparity between men and women in positions of leadership? So does gender make a difference? The answer is off course no. So what then explains the disparity between the sexes? Leadership styles might be the culprit in this case. In Koehane’s book she asked her fellow classmates at their forty-fifth class reunion a simple question: “Do women lead differently from men?” And every single participant replied yes (Koehane 4). The theory is the women in a leadership position will lead in a more feminine way. That they are more compassionate and prefer the use of group work as
In another meta-analysis, Paustain-Underdahl, Walker, and Woehr (2014) used 99 studies conducted between 1962 and 2011, mostly within the United States and Canada. Their goal was to determine how contextual factors including publication date, hierarchal level, percent of male raters, and rating source affect how effective leaders of different genders are seen to be. Their analysis was based on Role Congruity Theory. This theory states that male gender roles and leadership roles are congruent, while female gender roles and leadership roles are not congruent. For this theory, women in leadership positions get disapproval because they are not follow their female gender roles. The researchers found that, while the difference was not significant, men were seen as more effective in earlier publications. All male-dominated organizations favored male leaders over female leaders; however, the difference was only significant in some of them. In female-dominated fields, women leaders were favored as more effective. When comparing different level management positions, female leaders were favored in middle level positions. When the group of people rating the effectiveness of leaders was mostly women, women leaders were favored. Groups of raters that were more gender balanced rated male and female leaders equally. When people were asked to rate their own effectiveness as a leader, the results show male leaders as more effective than female leaders. However, when people rate the
The hypothesis of this paper must be defended from both sides of the argument in order to be properly investigated. Anyone has the potential to be a leader, be that male or female. Leaders are not born to one gender or the other specifically. A leader develops an identity through relational and social processes and comes to see oneself through these processes. This would apply to either a woman or a man. If one receives positive validation for one’s self-view as a leader, it bolsters self-confidence and increases one’s motivation to lead (Chan & Drasgow, 2001; Kark & van Dijk, 2007). As one’s leadership opportunities and capacity to advance in leadership grows, the likelihood of advancement and endorsement within an organization grows as well. The recognition and respect gained by these experiences, further fuels the search for new opportunities, growth, and so on. These qualities and opportunities are available to either gender. Contrary to this, if one fails to receive validation for leadership attempts diminishes, so does self-confidence and the motivation to seek out other opportunities or to experiment, and take on new leadership roles (Day et al., 2009) thus weakening one’s
The purpose of this article was to examine women’s and men’s leadership styles, the effectiveness of the different leadership styles, and the true determination of effectiveness as a woman leader (Appelbaum et al, 2003, p. 43). The article present research conducted for theories examined. Comparing this week’s work assignment to this article, I notice a linkage to a few items. The comparable list that is closely related to parts of theories in the reading assignment are gender stereotypes; different leadership style effectiveness; developmental opportunity, and experience. All of these different topics are related to the Leadership Labyrinth.
Another factor in attaining a leadership position is the level of motivation that the pursuant possesses to obtain power. Individuals that are power motivated invest their time to seek opportunities to acquire the skills and experience necessary to be promoted to a leadership position. Results of a research study conducted by Schuh, et al. has shown that female employees reported lower levels of power motivation than male employees (Schuh, et al., 2013, p. 375). The results of this study show that approximately 26 percent of gender differences in leadership occupancy roles could be attributed to power motivation (Schuh, et al., 2013, p. 376). This reflects a link between leadership and a desire for power. However, it is important to consider that power motivation is not the sole contributor to gender differences in leadership. In spite of the many reasons that result in fewer women in management positions, it does not have to remain that way.
Looking back at the historical development of corporations and firms, one can find that these organizations are once created by men (Rao et. Al, 1999). Nowadays, more and more women become very successful in the organizations and they work hard to act at the high management levels in the corporations. In spite of it, the proportion of women leaders in the organizations is relatively low than men leaders. Then it has emerged a statement that “women must adopt male characteristics to succeed. The purpose of his report is to analyze “must women adopt male characteristics to succeed?”