Management Styles of Female Entrepreneurs - Essay Example

Female Entrepreneurs over the last decade and management styles adopted Prepared for Michelle McLauglin Prepared by Nazneen Khan Module : Disertation Project Date : 30th April 2010 Title: The growing number of female entrepreneurs, their management style and how does it differ from their male counterparts. Abstract: The role and responsibility of a business head or leader is not only to lead, but to manage the whole organization effectively so as to make the business a success. Since more and more number of women entrepreneurs are coming up and establishing their own business set-ups globally, the need to have great leading and managerial qualities amongst them has also increased considerably, so that the female entrepreneurs may not only survive in the business arena but also become successful and at par with their male counterparts. This study aims to bring out the fact that an escalating number of women entrepreneurs are coming in the picture of successful entrepreneurs across the world, while also making an effort to find out the management styles adopted by them which takes them high on the ladder of success. The paper has clearly brought out the fact that the managerial qualities of women are entirely different from male entrepreneurs and it rests a great deal on the circumstances that motivate her to establish her own business set-up, apart from her own characteristics and qualities that she has imbibed. The management techniques adopted by them and their impact on the organizational performance are brought to fore by interviewing few female entrepreneurs in UK by providing them with a questionnaire. The result showed that though charismatic and transformational leadership are made use of by the women entrepreneurs, the driving force that makes them into a success story is the relational approach practiced by them, which includes open communication, sharing of information, empathising and nurturing of the employees. The management techniques adopted by women have shown more number of employees in female owned enterprises than others. Consequently, the number of female entrepreneur billionaires has been increasing at a fast pace and we hope to have double the number of women entrepreneurs in the next five years. 1. Introduction The importance of women entrepreneurs has been greatly felt across the globe in the last decade. Interestingly, in developed countries, women own 25% of total businesses and are starting up new ones at a faster rate than men (Woldie and Adersua, 2004). Infact, besides making a contribution to the economy, women through their different management styles have been adding innovation, diversity and choices to the business organizations they own. While studies done in the past have improved the understanding about female entrepreneurs, the issues which have not been addressed in-depth are - What are the management styles adopted by women and how do they affect or have an impact on various aspects of organizational performance. This paper, will, therefore, focus on the growing number of women entrepreneurs in the last decade, their management styles, the impact of their management strategies on the success of the organization and whether their style is different from their male counterparts or not. The purpose of this report is to provide information on this research topic which will be used as a basis for my third year project for the BA Honours for Business degree with a management minor at Croydon College. As a woman in business I have spent over twelve years conversing and engaging in business activities with many other women and it has intrigued and inspired me to investigate, explore and examine a few of the variables that make a woman into a successful entrepreneur. As part of the research, I also want to investigate management styles to understand if there are any particular types of management styles which assist the women in becoming successful and how do they differ from management styles adopted by their male counterparts. I have personally been involved in mentoring and providing guidance to woman in business, as well as understanding the reasons as to what makes a female entrepreneur successful I feel my research carried out will assist me providing a better service and credible knowledge from the research I undertake during the project. I am intrigued to investigate what the views are from an academic perspective and to study and understand the findings and facts given by these academic theorists comparing them to my own personal findings and experiences with the intention of providing a greater insight for other women who are also interested in this area or who may need knowledge and guidance into helping them become successful entrepreneurs. A good definition of a female entrepreneur is a woman who takes on the financial risk of setting up and operating a business entity. The entrepreneur usually carrying the traits of an individual who is creative, self motivating, visionary as well as being a strategic thinker. Government statistics have shown that more women than ever are taking the steps in starting a business of their own. There are numerous reasons and many contributing factors for this but for sure it is changing the face of business and revolutionising the tradition stereotype of the gray-haired middle-aged male entrepreneur. (www.startups.co.uk) Researches carried out in the past have concluded that women entrepreneurs behave differently from men in organizational setups and that there are various factors unique to women which are responsible for determining their success or failure. This also owes to the fact that women have different reasons to enter a business than the male entrepreneurs and hence the management styles adopted too are a lot dependent on their personality, strengths and weaknesses, rather than being similar to men. This paper, therefore, will also explore the management styles adopted by women in their own organizations. It is due to the fact that the independent small business settings provide an opportunity to examine women's management style. Research Questions: Mainly, my project will look at three successful business women in the last decade that will be chosen from three different industries and from this research I will focus my research on the two following areas and they are: Are there any specific management styles that assist in the emergence of successful female entrepreneurs How does the management style have an impact on the organizational performance Are the management styles of female entrepreneurs different from their male counterparts What motivates them to start a business of their own 2. Literature Review Historically, entrepreneurship has been a male-dominated pursuit, but many of today's most memorable and inspirational entrepreneurs are women (Anonymous). Helms explains that women often start their own business for "three types of personal gains: personal freedom, security, and/or satisfaction" (Helms, 1997). In addition, Moore (2003) mentions women business owners cite a number of reasons for becoming entrepreneurs which are: - Challenges/attractions of entrepreneurship; - Self-determination/autonomy; - Family concerns - balancing career and family; Although the mention of female entrepreneurship in the academic research of small firms has been relatively less, researches dealing with impact of gender on small businesses have developed considerably over the past fifteen years. While early research into female entrepreneurship focused on describing women's characteristics, motivations and experiences, the field has progressed beyond these exploratory and rudimentary studies. More recent research has not only developed a degree of methodological sophistication, it has also focused on increasingly specialised issues, such as the role of gender effects on management and the performance of small firms. While the growth in the small firms' literature started a decade earlier, research investigating women's ownership of small businesses essentially dates from the mid-1980s. Prior to the research studies undertaken then, the contribution women made to the small firms sector either as business owners in their own right, or more commonly as providers of labour to family owned firms, was largely unrecognised. While some seminal American studies, notably those by Schrieir (1973) and Schwartz (1976) had attempted exploratory profiles of female entrepreneurs, the growth in interest in the small business sector, coupled with a sharp rise in the number of women moving into self-employment in the 1980s, triggered a number of important research studies investigating the issue of gender and enterprise. Importantly, the growth in the numbers of women entrepreneurs and the subsequent research interest into issues of gender and enterprise were not confined to the UK, but were seen in many developed and developing economies. (Sara Carter, Susan Anderson, Eleanor Shaw, Women's Business Ownership) It was only later, when the research efforts became extensive, that focus was laid on broader issues of management by females in their own organizations. However, despite the increase in the research interest for female entrepreneurship, the area remains neglected and under-researched. Management Techniques of Women Entrepreneurs: (Jayanty Kuppusamy, Communications of the IBIMA) According to Lowden (1987), there are four areas that an entrepreneur needs to develop in order to become a good manager-planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The entrepreneur through leading implements decisions, provides good organizational climate, ensures proper communication and develops the staff through training. In assessing the management practices of entrepreneurs, variations exist on how much emphasis an entrepreneur places on each of the skills. However, what skills are emphasized most or least by the entrepreneurs have yet to be identified with regards to women entrepreneurs. In order for women entrepreneurs to be successful, they have to look at the important aspects of managerial tasks, conflict handling and giving feedback to subordinates (Kouzes and Posner, 2002). Whetten et al. (2000) emphasized the importance of intrapersonal skills for effective management. This means in their perspective developing self-awareness on the basis of a thorough analysis of one's strengths and weaknesses. Understanding the interaction between people's preferences and their day-to-day workplace behaviour is crucial for designing and implementing effective individual development efforts (Berr et al., 2000; Riding and Rayners, 1998). Buttner (2001) reports that the management styles of women entrepreneurs was best described using relational dimensions such as mutual empowering, collaboration, sharing of information, empathy and nurturing. Importantly, these dimensions, which have also been associated with women in different professional occupations, were deemed to be associated with firm performance. According to Heffernan (2003), female negotiating styles have been shown to be different and it has been demonstrated that they are significantly more beneficial to long term business success. The most recent study that explored a genetic basis for special attributes of women in social ability and empathy imply a better performance of companies created and run by women because of their ability to communicate better with employees, suppliers and customers (Valencia, 2006). The increasing importance of women entrepreneurs has raised an argument that their leadership style is different from their counterpart, male entrepreneurs. In comparing the management styles of women and men entrepreneurs, Bruni, Gherardi and Poggio (2004) explain that women display distinctive features and abilities, "transformational leadership". This type of leadership/management style encourages positive interactions and trust-based relationships with subordinates with whom they also share power and information. Gundry, Ben-Yoseph and Posig (2002) describe this as the "relational" practices engaged by women entrepreneurs. This would include collaborative, decentralized decision-making and an empowered team atmosphere. Their management style emphasizes open communication and "their business goals reflect a concern for the communities in which their businesses resided" (Gundry, Ben-Yoseph and Posig, 2002). Charismatic leadership style is found to be more utilized by women entrepreneurs when associated with organizational performance. This could be because women are more in service oriented business which requires charismatic style and also the nature of the gender which has advantage in persuasive skills (Conger & Kanungo 1998). In addition, Conger & Kanungo (1998) describe being sensitive to the environment and member needs are attributes of charismatic style. Transformational leadership is more associated with change and thus, would probably be used if the women entrepreneurs decide to make major changes in their organization. Nevertheless, leadership styles do have an impact on organizational performance. Therefore, a suitable style should be used to ensure success in organizational performance. As part of the government initiative to upgrade women entrepreneurs, leadership and management techniques should be emphasized in the training module. This study had been able to show the leadership styles and management techniques of the women entrepreneurs. Researches done in the past suggest that women may use a different conceptual model than has traditionally been employed in large organizations. In particular, women may adopt a more relational approach in interactions with employees and clients. In their own companies women are unencumbered by the cultural influences and behavioural expectations regarding appropriate management and interpersonal styles that exist in large organizations. It has also been found that women owned businesses employ more workers than the Fortune 500 companies worldwide. (National Foundation for Women Business Owners and Dun and Bradstreet Information Services, 1995) It has been seen that women use a relational approach in working with employees and clients. Relational skills include preserving, mutual empowering, achieving and creating team. (Journal of Business Ethics, E Holly Butner, December 6, 2004) Entrepreneurialism among women has meant that inheritance and divorce are no longer the main circumstances behind women's personal wealth, a new report has shown. Increasing numbers of women entrepreneurs are contributing to a growing rate of female millionaires, according to research by Barclays Wealth Management. This year, the combined wealth of Britain's 100 richest women is more than 33bn and the report estimates that by 2020, 53% of millionaires will be women. However, despite the increasing number of women setting up their own businesses, the report said 'the glass ceiling persists' and an equal number of women and men on company boards is still some way off. "Female leaders in conventional employment are all too often set up to fail," said Diana Robertson, spokesperson for Business Link London. "Now, ambitious women that want to get to the top are proving their business acumen by running their own companies rather than struggling to break the glass ceiling of corporate life." The findings come despite recent research from Catalyst which found companies with the highest female representation on their senior management teams had a 34% higher return on their equity than those with the lowest female reorientation. Robertson added: "The fact is, we'd have 100,000 more businesses in the country if as many women as men started their own business so the UK needs women's business acumen and skills." (Women entrepreneurs climbing UK wealth ladder, 2007) Janette Faherty is the CEO of Avanta one of the UK's leading work-focused training and enterprise companies. She is speaking at our meeting at the House of Commons in November on "The Changing Role of Women In the 21stCentury." Jannette has always been concerned with women and employment and is also on the Board of Directors of Prowess. Prowess has more than 300 members, who help 100,000 women to start up 10,000 new businesses per year. This is achieved by raising the awareness of women entrepreneurs and organisations that support them, networking and sharing best practice. Prowess plays a leading role in educating leading policy makers about the economic benefits of women entrepreneurs and working with its members to promote the quality of women's enterprise support in the UK. Janette Faherty said, "Self employment is often the solution for women looking to balance family commitments with a fulfilling career, yet women are under-represented in business ownership in the UK." "Through my work with organisations such as Prowess, I aim to offer support and advice to women on what they can achieve. Avanta is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all groups of people and aim to help women realise their potential and make the most of their careers and businesses." Avanta is an amalgamation of TNG and InBiz. Janette started TNG and organisation that grew out of the Government Community Programme of the 1980's and has now developed it as a leading training organisation in the UK. It has just celebrated its 25thanniversary. Here's some other statistics and facts on the changing role of women in business: (Source: Female entrepreneurs - the facts) A quarter of the UK's 3.2 million self-employed workers are now women - Labour Force Survey 2003 30 per cent of business owners are women - Labour Force Survey 2003 Female entrepreneurs now account for 6.8 per cent of the UK's working population, double the figure than in 1979 - Labour Force Survey 2003 The difference between male and female owned startups narrowed by 40 per cent in 2002 - Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2003 Four in every 100 women aged 18 to are active entrepreneurs - Global Entrepreneur Monitor 2003 Almost five per cent of the female population expects to start a business in the next three years - Global Entrepreneur Monitor 2003 More than one in five women believe there are good opportunities available for them to start a business - Global Entrepreneur Monitor 2003 A third of the female population would start a business if it wasn't for the fear of failure - Global Entrepreneur Monitor 2003 43 per cent of enquiries to Shell Livewire, the international scheme to help young entrepreneurs, are from women - Shell Livewire 2003 38 per cent of startup business owners contacting The Prince's Trust in 2002 were women - The Prince's Trust Who Women aged 35 and 44 are more entrepreneurial, as are women with graduate qualifications and those from higher income groupings - Labour Force Survey 2003 Where The highest number of female startups are based in London, where 8.4 per cent of the female workforce are self-employed - Labour Force Survey 2003 Female entrepreneurs are least active in the North East - Labour Force Survey 2003 Why 54 per cent of women start a business so they can choose what hours they work, compared with only 35 per cent of men - Bank of Scotland survey 2002 Types of business 25 per cent of male entrepreneurs are engaged in the construction industry, compared with just 5 per cent of females - The Small Business Service. There is little difference in the percentage of men and women attracted to industries such as manufacturing and transport, retail and distribution, but female entrepreneurs are more likely than men to work in sideline businesses - The Small Business Service Where improvements can be made Men are still twice as likely to start a business as women - Global Entrepreneur Monitor 2003 The UK has a comparatively low level of female entrepreneurship with the rest of the world in all categories - Global Entrepreneur Monitor 2003 Entrepreneurial activity is highest among employed males aged 35-44 - Global Entrepreneur Monitor 2003 What the experts say: "There are still too few women starting out and growing a business. We need to eliminate the barriers that remain, be it access to finance or to childcare or because of some other form of discrimination. If women started new businesses at the same rate as men, we would have more than 100,000 extra new businesses each year." Patricia Hewitt, secretary for state for Trade and Industry. "It is good to see the gap between male and female entrepreneurship is narrowing." Will Hutton, CEO, The Work Foundation. 3. Research Design After the field of research developed, the research efforts moved beyond the descriptions of the characteristics and traits of women entrepreneurs to laying emphasis on nature of managerial differences in women owned companies. Although earlier research did not focus much on the management aspect, more recent studies have continued to examine and explore the issues of management in female run enterprises. A recurrent issue now has been the assessment of the handling of management and the leadership skills present in a female. Researchers have gone to the extent of finding out whether women manage their companies in a different style than men entrepreneurs. The main objective of the research is to have an understanding about the management style adopted by the growing number of female entrepreneurs in UK, their impact on the performance of the organization and a comparison of their management techniques with their male counterparts. The paper also studies the factors that led to the females becoming self-employed. In other words, it also focuses on the reason which has motivated them to run their own business instead of working for another organization. Qualitative method has been used as the research methodology to find out the management strategies of female entrepreneurs, what motivated them to start their own business set-ups and the effect of their management style on the performance and success of the organization. The population for the research consisted of five female entrepreneurs of UK whom I knew personally and the survey method was used to collect the data. Questionnaire was used as the research instrument in collecting all the information from them. Hence the primary data was collected through direct face to face interviews with the five females, who are happily enjoying their entrepreneurship experience and feel that they have taken the right move. They all were interviewed at their work places, to clearly bring out the picture of how female entrepreneurship today has taken businesses to a greater height and how their different approach towards employees, as against their male counterparts, has helped developed better relations that have worked for the benefit of the organization. The questions put across them were: a) What has motivated them to set-up a business of their own b) Did they work with any corporate before establishing their own organization c) How long have they been working as entrepreneurs d) Why have they chosen self-employment over working for someone else's organization e) What are the management styles used by them that has helped them to grow as a successful entrepreneur f) How are their management strategies different from their male counterparts Direct interviews with the female entrepreneurs brought a lot of clarity and focus to the research questions and the main reason of doing the whole study. These women, belonging to different age groups and being in different industries altogether, described their experiences as owners of their organization, whist explaining the circumstances, favourable or non-favourable, which led them to start with their own businesses. Every other female had a different reason to have her own organizational set-up. Be it the family tradition, or building one's own individuality and reputation, or balancing the whole act between family and work, so on and so forth. They also described their individual styles of managing their companies or businesses so as to develop the perfect work culture around them and also bring profits to the concern simultaneously. Significantly, all the five ladies wanted to prove something to the world and had a different level of confidence which is not normally seen in women. All these information gathered from them helped to form an opinion regarding the techniques applied at female owned enterprises and the impact it had on the performance and goodwill of the organization. It also brought to fore the difference between the leadership qualities practiced by their male counterparts as entrepreneurs. It made way for other researches which could be carried out in future in regard to subjects like who is a better leader: a male or a female. Apart from direct interaction with the five females I knew personally, the paper also explores the management styles and leadership qualities practiced by three leading ladies of UK. a) Anita Roddick - A British businesswoman, human rights activists and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of the Body Shop, a cosmetics company producing and retailing beauty products that shaped ethical consumerism. b) J K Rowling - A British author, best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. Apart from writing thePotternovels, Rowling is perhaps equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years c) Deborah Meaden - A Britishbusiness woman who ran a multi-million pound holiday business for her parents, and then bought it from them. She is best known for her appearances on theBBC TwoprogrammeDragons' Den. Everybody looks up to the rich and famous. These are three leading ladies of UK who have not only made themselves and their families proud by their doings but also have added to the prestige of UK. The paper thoroughly looks into their lives and examines their case studies so as to portray what led them into being businesswomen and their individual success stories. These three women are from three different industries and have scaled unprecedented heights in their careers by their continuous efforts and leadership qualities. The study, therefore, familiarizes the readers with the three successful self-employed ladies and finds out the areas of their focus and the managerial skills used by them to be able to reach the top and become ideals for the rest of the entrepreneur community waiting to reach their level. The main attractions will be their performance as entrepreneurs. This will greatly be an inspiration for the young females deciding to take the plunge into having their own companies. Although there has been no shortage of research carried out on women entrepreneurs, most of the studies lack cumulative knowledge and are based on descriptive method. A main source of statistical information, however, used was the Labour Force Survey. Another approach used in the paper was a desk-based study which involved critically analysing, reviewing and summarising the research work already done in the field of women entrepreneurship. This was done keeping in mind the fact that a lot of study has already been done in the past to bring out the status of female entrepreneurs. A wide variety of secondary sources including reports, articles and research papers have been used to prepare this paper. All of these were received electronically. A number of web-based information sites have been used during the whole research. Though a huge number of websites have been reviewed for the purpose, most of them included international websites or UK based websites which provided information regarding the status of female entrepreneurs in UK and the management styles that have helped them to achieve success. These sites have been specially picked up due to the large number of websites available on female entrepreneurship. This study is very important for prospective female entrepreneurs since it suggests the tried and tested management strategies by women to not only develop and maintain a healthy and congenial work environment, but also to come at par with their male counterparts and take their business to higher levels of achievement in terms of competition and success. This also provides motivation to females, who due to various reasons, including lack of confidence, pressure by family members, hesitation, lack of support, etc do not come forward to make proper use of their talent while turning them into achievement. This will help them to use these management strategies at work-place to bring about maximum output, profitability and proper use of power to showcase their leadership skills and extract maximum work from their employees. Consequently, ambitious women who want to get to the top will learn a lesson to overcome challenges and turn their dreams into reality by running their own companies, instead of struggling hard to break the glass ceiling of the corporate world. There were a few limitations that occurred during the time the research was carried out. Firstly, a limited number of respondents who could explain their actual experiences were interviewed to answer the research questions. Although, the number of respondents could be greater and would have helped immensely, it was not possible to get the quotes of more such female entrepreneurs through personal contact. Moreover, not many of them had enough time to fix an appointment and talk in depth about their experiences and their management styles. They were too hard pressed for time with their rigorous work schedules. The ones who have been interviewed were available for a short perid of time and were not available for any clarifications or extra details needed during the study. Nevertheless, a larger sample can be used in future studies, in addition to combining manufacturing and service industry. A larger audience always brings in better results and clarity in terms of the findings of the whole study. Another area of future study is to identify the difference between male and female entrepreneurs focusing on two leadership styles. However, there was a tussle between two conflicting things that came way whilst the research was carried on. It was difficult to assess whether female run enterprises worked better or male entrepreneurs had a more demanding position. Ofcourse, there was difference between the style in handling the business, but to come to a clear cut conclusion was something that could not be judged with the few interviews done. The future research could also be done on these aspects. There were no ethical issues though related to the study. Read More

 

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