0 Whether A Relationship Exists Between Gender And Styles Of Leadership Adopted By Managers Within Formal Organizations?

Introduction to the problem

As many people, so are winds; each blowing to its own direction. There are unique attributes in every individual which affects the manners with which relations are formed between the individuals (especially within the context of formal organizations) therein affecting performance of these individuals as well as influencing the aggregate productivity of the organization.

This diversity and flexibility is essential for an organization’s survival and growth as it ensures that there is an adequate space for blending and forming of working teams that are a strong-point both within the organization’s structure as well as serving as an incubator for creativity and innovation within the organization. However, these differences also serve to create variations in the manner of leadership and management within the organization.

Different styles of leadership have become evident through time between the two genders. Therefore, the question that begs to be answered is whether a relationship exists between gender and styles of leadership adopted by managers within formal organizations? If so, to what extent do the personality differences impact in the choice of a leadership style as well as sustaining its use through a finite period of time?

This does not imply that there is a certain optimal leadership style that appeals most to a given gender. Certainly not; there lacks consensus that one leadership style is most effective although there is evidence through research that demonstrates a sharing of common characteristics and preferences by those in leadership positions, which tends to exerts pressure upon those who are different (Carpenter & Sanders, 2006).

This proposal examines the leadership characteristics and preferences in relation to gender. It aims to evaluate, specifically, whether successful women simply clone the leadership styles of men (considering that historically, management and leadership were a male-dominated arena).

Literature review

Leadership refers to the ability to influence the actions and directions of these actions towards a desired outcome (Dubrin, 2008). In its exercise, it concerns the ability of forming a long-term vision for the firm, communicating this vision with both depth and clarity to other members of the organization and directing and sustaining their concerted efforts towards the attainment of this vision.  During the early periods of the industrial revolution, leadership was focussed on primarily ensuring profitability for the organization. This approach favoured poor governance structures and often led to gross misconduct and abuse of managerial authority by those in managerial capacities.

Modern leadership utilizes the wide berth of theoretical models that have been developed and tested through time. Management’s leadership function also takes cognisance of emergent concerns and issues such as ethics and corporate social responsibility, in addition to an emphasis of core principles of accountability, responsibility and fairness (Dyck & Neubert, 2008).

Is there a better leader in men than women or vice versa? This has been a source of intense controversy and much interest of most theorists and managers alike. There have been two approaches to this fundamental question in management: Firstly, that men and women fundamentally differ in the way they lead others within an organization (Carpenter & Sanders, 2006).

Secondly, and which is the widely accepted position by most social scientists is that there are relatively no significant differences in how men and women lead given a controlled environment  (Dubrin, 2009). Those who subscribe to the former school of thought, mostly attribute this difference to the “female voice”. This has, however, been overlooked by most mainstream researchers.

Empirical research into these approaches has only served to further the controversy and confusion in this managerial area. Studies carried out between 1961 and 1987 have been cited by Eagley and Johnson in their 1990 meta-analysis on how gender differences influence leadership styles. A major conclusion in the study identified that, in organizational studies, there were no significant differences in both interpersonally oriented style and task oriented style. Women leaders were found to incline more towards democratic or participative style than men who preferred more of an autocratic style.

More biological and psychological-based researches have assessed gender differences in relation to behaviour and leadership; the focus of which was to evaluate why women could demonstrate unique strengths necessary for organizational and people growth and operations. Due to the biological and hormonal differences, men and women experience the world uniquely and differently due to hormonal influences holding the impact of culture constant i.e. the impact of hormonal influence extends beyond the external sexual characteristics (Eagley et al., 1995).

These assertions were supported by other varied studies such as Jo Durden Smith who did a neural analysis of sexual hormones on the brain. It was found that the female brain is organized to operate more readily as compare to the male counterpart’s. As a consequence, the female brain is able to shift swiftly and easily between the use of the left and right hemispheres thus increasing the reasoning process. The brain process offers an active reinforcement to the process of decision making and, as such influences the leadership style adopted (Wade, 1994).

The prevalent concern for research in this area should not be simply the interconnectivity of the left and right hemispheres of the brain-and dominance of either side if present-associated with effective demonstration of specific skills; rather it should be the basis of evaluating testosterone on the functions of the brain connectivity (Eagley et al., 1995). The connections in the male brain are significantly affected by testosterone hormones before birth versus female brain that does not. The ability to process information and the speeds, with which it is done, therefore, enhances significantly in women than in men.

The resultant of this increased cognition and processing capacity leads to a better ability to communicate effectively. Gender differences in communication have been identified to pose challenges in interacting with one another. As leadership is heavily dependent on the elements of proper, reliable and timely channels the biological differences described identified and discussed above impact on the style of talking, discussion, presentation and motivating others. This brings in the social theorists notion of the “female voice” enhancing the efficacy of women leaders.

The female voice is not only powerful in the manner of interaction but also in its ability to understand relations herein. The manner of male interaction through the choice of communication styles was found to create an opportunity for misunderstanding (Alemie, 2011). It is, therefore, presumed that the autocratic leadership style that is common to most male managers is an attempt to curtail against such misunderstandings that otherwise would cause dissonance within the organization and greatly impair the organization from effectively performing its set-out tasks and objectives.

Even here the impact of genetically-based gender differences weighs heavily on the leadership style adopted. Females were identified as sensitive to context with the ability to detect incidental information to tasks that are set to them. Equally, they were found to be easily distractible from these very tasks. There seems to be an almost innate connection between genetics and such skills that can best be described as intuition. A reason why women are believed to have developed better intuitive abilities than the male counterparts is believed to be as a result of the physical differences between the genders (Alemie, 2011).

It is identified that this trait was developed from a very earlier age as a response to her inability to cope with the physically overpowering characteristics of the male sex. Consequently, as a survival tactic and a means of achieving her ends through non-physically aggressive means, women foster this skill with an ‘always prepared’ motto. Would it follow that the leadership styles adopted by most women are intuitively chosen, let alone administered? What of the men? Are their leadership styles primarily meant to suppress any dissenting opinions so as to build adherence to the organization’s chosen course of action and targets?

The subsequent sections provide a methodology for which data for research on relations between gender and leadership style will be collected, analysed and presented.

Research design

The research would require the use of qualitative data. The data collected would more descriptive of the gender characteristics as well as professional characteristics of both genders, as opposed to quantitative variables. The sample population would comprise 600 managers drawn from at least 200 medium-sized firms in the manufacturing sector, in the United States.

The sample population would represent 20% of the population within the entire manufacturing sector. The sample size was expressly selected so as to increase the validity of generalizations made from the researched sample group to the entire population in the United States economy. Additionally, the research would make use of select samples of peer reviewed studies published from 1988-2012 so as to increase the global approach to the research problem and seek if there is congruence between the local situations versus the international scene. A cross validity test is, therefore, ascertained through this wider approach and makes the research findings more relevant.

The peer-reviewed articles would be selected based on a key words sex differences or gender differences and combined with leadership. The Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) can be used to find articles associated with Eagley and Jensen. These two authors restricted their work to one of these dimensions: Task oriented leadership, interpersonal oriented leadership and democratic versus autocratic leadership.

The research design is explorative and would additionally require the use of a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) questionnaire to collect data on the preferred leadership styles amongst the managers. The design of the questionnaire would have three sections that are designed to generate data on three ends: personnel information, academic qualification and professional awards and recognitions. There is a need examining whether the personal attributes of the genders have (in)congruence with the professional accomplishments.

Since the peer-reviewed articles are most likely to yield scattered findings on the considering that each study was done based on different sampling strategies, samples and meta-analytic approach, analysis of the sources would be done in a narrative manner.

Data collected from the MBTI questionnaire can be analysed using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) preference scale which examines the preferences and temperaments that can be correlated with the psychology type. It measures numerous elements within the leadership premise including judgements, values, interests, needs and motivational preferences. The scale has four indices namely: Extroversion (E) or Introversion (I), Sensing (S) or Intuition (I), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) and Judgement (J) or Perception (P) and organizes the preference indices for behaviour in 16 possibilities. The preferences can then be compared to leadership data to identify important strategic leadership characteristics and personality.

Practical and ethical issues

The researchers are bound to face major challenges that may limit the overall findings of the proposed research:

Sex Differences in Leadership

The study of sex differences in any characteristic often yields two parallel and competing streams of evidence: One that minimizes the sex (gender) differences and another that maximizes or shows the gender differences. This is referred to as the similarity-difference controversy.

The feminist theory bases the ‘similarity’ tradition assumes that there is fundamental equality between both genders and that the differences-if any-are a consequence of outstanding inequality against women. The ‘differences’ tradition upholds women’s essential difference from men in terms of behaviour, emotions and thought processes.

The researchers face the dilemma of either minimizing or maximizing such differences when some claiming equality as a too-little a goal of social change.

Same-gender Studies

Findings regarding women’s “unique” values, behaviour and managerial styles are often arrived at from studies of only women. The same applies with mainstream leadership research that focused mainly on men. Consequently, through the systematic ignorance of gender itself as a confounding variable, these researches have generated gaps in theory and research design, therefore, questioning the validity of its conclusions (Steinberg, 2008).

Generation of Strong Conclusions from Mixed Findings

This addresses the basic question of which type of results can conclusively establish that a gender difference in leadership style exists. What happens when differences are found on some characteristics while on others there is none?

Impact of Confounding variables

Confounding variables are those variables that often correlate with the dependent variable in a research. Detailed analysis is necessary to specify the impact of each confounding variable prior to a conclusion that the difference identified is exactly gender-based (Gibson, 1993).

Leadership Style

There are various classifications of leadership styles. Similarly, the patterns of leadership behaviour also vary. The popular dimensions of leadership are two, i.e., autocratic and democratic leadership styles and behaviours.

However, the intermediary range between the two principle leadership styles and behaviour provides a wide berth for the emergence of other forms in both such as the laissez-faire.

Alteration in Gender-differences through time

There is the alarming concern about the ability of gender based differences changing through time. Moreover, the age of the manager plays an active role in assessing the population sample in which leaders were found to be more stereotypical in their interpersonal role and interpersonal oriented.

Plan and timetable of activities

The planning process involves three several areas in this succession:

1. Acquire research team members
2. Generation of a research proposal
3. Outlining of a tentative period for carrying out the research
4. Organize financial resources necessarily to complete cover for the carrying out of the research
5. Acquisition of necessary material for use in the research
6. Train the team on the research intended to be carried out
7. Carrying out of research project
8. Report presentations

The time schedule for the proposals development between its formation to actual conducting of the research and presentation of findings will be carried out over a period of 16 weeks. The table below gives the table for the schedule.

Activity	Week 1	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 16
Selecting research members
Development of proposal
Identifying of research window period
Financing the proposal
Purchasing necessary tools and equipment
Training of research team
Carrying out research
Analysis and presentation

Appendix A: Data collection instrument

Questionnaire

For each of following statements select the alternative that you agree with most.

For the statements where you agree or disagree with both, select the alternative that is more like you.

1. I like to

a.       Comfort other people

b.      Objectively determine what is emotionally affecting other people

2. I really enjoy

a.       Getting to know a person/thing better

b.      Nurturing relations that are fruitful within the given context

3. I would rather

a.       Work separately in quiet places

b.      Be right in the midst of the action

4. I prefer

a.       Getting others involved and better organized

b.      Doing things that I believe are important

5. I want a boss

a.       Who identifies and applies decision criteria

b.      Who considers a balance between individual and task needs versus expectations

6. I really enjoy

a.       Thinking about new ways of doing things

b.      Successfully performing tasks as provided

7. I get upset when

a.       People change methodologies that are working well

b.      People need to be furnished with full information before undertaking new tasks

8. I place importance

a.       In my personal convictions

b.      Following the rules

9. I take great satisfaction in

a.       Formulating a unique vision of the future

b.      Taking effective immediate action to emergent issues

10. I get irritated when

a.       Much effort is placed on things that will soon become obsolete

b.      Much effort is placed focusing on the future as opposed to tasks at hand 

Appendix B: References

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