Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Term Paper (1325 words)

On

Do women make better leaders than men in organizations?

Submitted By:

Priti Jha

MBA (2nd trimester)

Section: B

Submitted To:

Ms. Barsha Rana

Lecturer: Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Ace Institute of Management, Pokhara University

May 12, 2021

Women of today are making a significant impact in the national economies through their

active participation in organizations and ownership of enterprises. Women are widely

taking up the roles of managers and leaders and performing exceptionally in these roles.

The increasing impact of women in workforce has stimulated research on the leadership

style of women. Many studies show that women outperform men at leadership roles. I

believe women perform better at leadership roles than men because of their preferences

for a particular style or model of leadership and emotional aspect associated with it.

Leadership, according to John Sculley, as cited in a book by Bennis (1989), revolves

around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction

and goals than with day-to-day implementation. According to Dorfman & House (2004)

as cited by Koohang & Hatch (2017), effective leadership is about influencing,

motivating, encouraging, and recognizing employees to ensure the organization’s

advancement; organizational productivity; and enrich self-awareness, self-development,

and self-improvement. In organizations, leaders play a significant role in directing the

whole organization towards a common goal in the most efficient and effective manner.

Leadership style refers to the relatively stable patterns of behavior used by

leaders[ CITATION Bas90 \l 1033 ]. In a study by Evkall & Ryhammar (1997) conducted

among the teachers in the university colleges of Sweden, as cited by Martinez et al.

(2020), they explain that the leadership style determines the behavior of the company’s

employees, affecting teamwork, the organizational environment, and outcomes. Thus, it

has a direct effect on decision-making and organizational results.

In recent years, the transformational-transactional leadership constructs has become a

popular theme in leadership literature. Transformational leadership is generally held to be

a superior form of leadership, built on transactional leadership but not vice versa

[ CITATION Bas90 \l 1033 ]. Defining the two leadership styles, transformational

leadership is characterized by a charismatic leader with a visionary, inspirational, and

trusting rapport with followers and transactional leaders have a take charge authoritarian

attitude, focusing on finding mistakes and intervening when necessary as defined in a

study by Val & Kemp (2012) conducted in Toronto, Ontario on the influence of different

leadership styles on group dynamics.

Linking leadership styles and gender, we can see that many authors claim, leadership

style adopted by men and women considerably vary because of their differing genders.

Male gender qualities characterized as aggressive, independent, objective, logical,

rational, analytical, decisive, confident, assertive, ambitious, opportunistic and

impersonal are distinguished from female gender qualities described as emotional,

sensitive, expressive, cooperative, intuitive, warm, tactful, empathetic and submissive as

explained in a paper by Osland et al. (1998) conducted in Central America to compare the

managerial styles among female executives in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In a study by

Rosener (1990) as cited by Martinez et al. (2020), she concluded that “women as a group

possess a different set of values (they value relationships, collaboration and discussion),

and this leads them to implement a different leadership style than that of men.

Various researches have suggested different conclusions on the notion that gender

determines the preferred leadership style. In a paper by Rosener (1990) published in

Harvard Business Review where she analyzed the survey by International Women’s
Forum on a number of unexpected similarities and differences between men and women

leaders, as cited by Martinez et al. (2020), it was explained that there is a line of

argument in the literature on gender and leadership contending that female leaders tend to

be more transformational than male leaders. In a research by Greg Young (2018)

conducted in UK among 161 individuals to identify the differences in leadership between

and women, he broke down the four EI (Emotional Intelligence) competencies of Self

Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management, into a

number of EI Capabilities to check where each of the genders performed better. Results

showed that in the four Capabilities where men scored better were Emotional Self-

control, Self-confidence, Accurate Self-Assessment and Adaptability and where women

scored best included Service Orientation, developing others, change catalyst,

transparency, empathy and Inspirational Leadership. In a study by Bass & Avolio (1994)

conducted in US among the target managers that came from six fortune 500 firms, it was

found that female managers are seen as more transformational than their male

counterparts – a leadership style that has been shown to have a strong positive impact on

individual, group and organizational performance.

In a 2008 study examining high-achieving women-leaders cited by Mamadou (2019),

Stern found women are more likely to use a leadership style that is relationship-based,

collaborative, and team-building. Mamadou (2019) in her case study regarding the gender

differences in management styles, explained that women are more respectful of business

ethics, more patient, communicate better than men and exercise empathy. These traits can

be better associated with a transformational leader. In a book section by Bass & Avolio

(1994), it was explained that the MQL (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire) survey
developed to allow individuals to measure how they perceive themselves and how others

perceive them with regard to specific leadership behaviors, was conducted among the

target managers from six Fortune 500 firms and it was noted that women managers tend

to be more transformational and more proactive in addressing problems. As a

consequence, they are likely to be seen as more effective and satisfying leaders by both

their male and female followers.

Similarly, in a comparative study by Conner et al. (2016) in southeast Alabama, data was

analyzed from 72 participants and it was found that females rated the relationship

building domain of leadership higher than males and male rated the strategic thinking

domain higher than females. Hence, the results suggested that employees tend to follow

women leaders more than men. Likewise, in a study by Koohang & Hatch (2017),

conducted in UK, data was collected from 197 managers to investigate leadership

effectiveness in IT-centered organizations giving attention to gender. Results showed that

in all three leadership effectiveness groups (leading organization, leading people, leading

self), women leaders scored significantly higher than men leaders did. Women also

significantly scored higher on all levels of management than men did with respect to the

three leadership effectiveness groups.

However, there are also some studies which provide evidence against the argument that

women perform better at leadership than men. In a paper by Tulică & Loredana (2019)

conducted in Bucharest, focus group participants unanimously agreed that the leader has

no gender, in the sense that women leaders and men leaders, once at the top of an

organization, must achieve the same goals. So, women leaders are not better than the men

leaders and vice versa. Similarly, in a study by Maher (1997) that surveyed
undergraduate evening students employed by a variety of organizations in the US, as

cited by Pounder (2002) indicated that conclusions on whether or not female managers

are more transformational than male managers need to take account of the context.

Maher’s study indicated no difference between male and female managers on

transformational-transactional leadership dimensions across a number of organizations.

Likewise in a research conducted with 114 cooperatives by Martinez et al. (2020) in

Spain, it was found that transformational and transactional leadership are similarly used.

It has also been proven that there are no significant gender differences in their use and the

nature and values of cooperatives have more importance in the development of leadership

styles than gender stereotypes.

Most of the findings of various studies support the argument that ‘women do better than

men at leadership roles in organizations’. Female gender qualities characterized as

emotional, sensitive, cooperative, warm, tactful, empathetic and submissive are in line

with characteristics of a transformational leader which is considered a better form of

leadership by employees. Similarly, a relationship-based, collaborative, and team-

building style of leadership as exercised by most of the women is proven to be a better

form of leadership making women leaders more effective. Hence, we can say that

organizations where women are in leadership and management roles, their teams

performed better and are well motivated as well.

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