Who is Effective Leader: Male or Female - Research Paper Example

Who is Effective Leader: Male or Female? This paper has been written in order to measure the difference in the ability to exercise leadership in males and females. The method of measuring and comparing descriptive statistics was used to attain the abovementioned goal. However, it was found that there is no statistically significant difference in the ability of leadership in respondents from both the genders Introduction Leadership is defined as an art and science of influence (Emmerik, 2010). In the past, males were believed that they were blessed with the ability to practice leadership and females were considered ideal for occupying the subordinate roles in the organizations (Jogulu, 2006). Nevertheless, with the passage of time, females’ ability to practice leadership grew and therefore, many of them managed to break the so-called glass ceiling in the organizations that are operating in a vast range of industry (Kolb, 2013). The basic and fundamental purpose of the study is to run a descriptive investigation with reference to males and females’ capability of practicing leadership. The study will be conducted in order to evaluate the presence of the glass ceiling in the local corporate market (Mavin, 2012). Following are the research question and hypotheses respectively (Maleki, 2011). The character of the study will be experimental in nature Research Question Who is more effective in leadership role; male or female? Females as Effective Leaders Reports show that male and female leadership styles get influenced for their tasks and considerations based upon the organizational-structure (Maleki, 2011). This structure puts that one’s position in the hierarchy, rather than the gender influences the leadership style. The gender-organization and the gender-organization system develop that the gender and organization system combine to influence the leadership behavior in an independent and interactive method (Jogulu, 2006). Major research in the area of gender and leadership stereo typicality show that workplace is either self -perception centered or subordinate centered, based upon the female or male leadership behavior. In most of the cases, gender differentiation has been more frequently reported by their subordinates rather than by the leaders themselves (Mavin, 2012). Marissa Mayer who is a CEO of Yahoo proved herself as the effective leader as she successfully managed to stimulate growth in the company by taking bold and concrete measures. The removal of policy supporting telecommuting is the most risky decision she took after becoming a leader. The featured lady challenged and nullified the presumption that under her command people can manage to take things easy because female leaders are weak when it comes to implementing discipline. The featured leader proved the common belief wrong by tightening the strings. The females that are leading the show for famous companies are known for their dedication towards discipline whereas; they tend to follow mechanistic philosophy in terms of organizational management. Elena Ford who is Vice President of Consumer Experience at Ford played a vital role in forging the effective and efficient international dealership network of the company. The Vice President has to pay very detailed and close attention towards discipline by activating and making new office rules so that people should take her directives more seriously. The female leaders are not taken seriously until and unless they take support from organizational rules and regulations. Furthermore, it is customary for them to take strict disciplinary and regulatory actions in order to set an example for others before they can fall in line. Studies have equally shown that women leaders are better suited when it comes to creativity, change management and dominance (Kolb, 2013). Some studies have shown that the women leaders from countries in the Far East and the United States believe that task-oriented discussion and needed to focus on the issues rather than the persons involved. They believe dominating strategies are the best as leaders when the issue handling or task managing team consists of people from a diverse background (Emmerik, 2010). Negotiations are however, more operative in the leadership styles when it gets about gender discrimination (Muchiri, 2011). Laboratory research about gender behaviors pertaining to negotiation, one of the major contents of leadership, clearly shows that organization discussions are very important to yield desired productivity. It has been observed that womens leadership in an organization is more focused on the propensity to ask and motivation whereas mostly male leadership negotiates with high thought, style and appetite for risk (Schyns, 2008). Equally, the context of negotiation for a woman leader is more important to serve as a background against which negotiations should occur rather than in the case of mans leadership (Sikdar, 2012). In an organizational structure, women leaders with children are offered less timely assignments or negotiation challenges as compared to the women with no children (Thompson, 2000). The different contrasts of modes, individuals and social status expected from women lead to unfair prejudice in people’s mind and subsequently in their behavior in organizations about the female leadership (Vermeir, 2008). The past 20 years’ statistics show that women, due to improvement in social life and prevalence in improvement of industries, have been largely involved in initiating businesses and taking managerial offices in large organizations alongside men and even at times above men, has increased by 20% in the USA and Europe and initiation of their own businesses have increased by 30% (Schyns, 2008). The masculine characteristics are more focused upon the task and they are believed to be more capable of meeting effective leadership’s requirements as compared to women (Mavin, 2012). As per the very traditional approach, it is believed that female leaders employ a highly versatile strategy to lay out and employee objectives are scientifically very converse in nature when it comes to coalition of goals (Vermeir, 2008). Given the above scenario, many of the researchers have concluded that female leadership style is at times much more advantageous and effective as compared to the masculine trends, pertaining to the new world changes, where globalization has marked its deep footings, and calm and friendly aspects are more in demand than masculine assertiveness and aggressive behaviors (Emmerik, 2010). Both of the quoted examples are famous for their soft personalities in the private lives. However, they had to mould their personalities in order to fit in the new roles. The subordinates in both of the cases had to be informed that who was the boss and then, things initiated to look smoother for the two ladies. Nevertheless, it is valuable to note that females are required to use firm hand over their employees in opening days so that they can understand that the new boss is capable of doing her job well. Male and Female Leaders: A Comparison Leadership comes in trading with traits personality (Kolb, 2013). To that effect, it requires traits like strong ambition where clear path attitude is very important to show the followers where to go; confidence, that shows the leader has the ability to take up challenges; sense of humor, to tackle situations and convey undesirable news or fight unwanted situations with a pleasant attitude and above all the ability to trust the team members. Female Leaders are high on ambition. The male leaders such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs revolutionized the world of technology with the help of their creative and innovative ideas. They did not find it hard to gather followers. The followers readily followed both gentlemen due to their gender and therefore, telecommuting, participative management and delegation became the defining attributes of Microsoft and Apple. Marissa and Elena were not so lucky and therefore, they have to make it clear that who is the boss? Yahoo and Ford’s consumer department have to adopt traditional organizational ideas and concepts of centralization of authority and formalization. Researches show that they have strong ambition as compared to men, they are equally high on confidence as men, and however, they are low on tackling sense of humor since female leaders get easily fed up and they lack the ability to trust the team workers. They could either overestimate some average or weak team member, showing undesirable favoritism or underestimate some capable team members (Vermeir, 2008). Female Leaders need assistance from male leadership to effectively lead team members (Kolb, 2013). Some researchers have evenly concluded that the coming ages would be far off from gender brassiness, success and leading might be more dependent upon energy and drive than even the intelligence (Mavin, 2012). With the invasion of 20th century’s freedom and the introduction of women to the Army and other forces in many parts of the world, women have earned to leave it out, survive and sustain the command and control culture that once was considered too difficult for women to go through (Kolb, 2013). The rule of three that talked about taking in at least 3 members of minority, and which subsequently applied to women pertaining to their low level management roles in the past years, introduced their talent and abilities to lead. That brought out the brighter side of their leadership skills. Transformational leadership has bridged the relationships, focusing on the better good (Vermeir, 2008). The economic and social ramifications of growing female leadership are negligible because the corporate world is focusing on one’s competencies and abilities to perform the roles and gender is being considered as a secondary issue. The companies then, evaluate the performance of their leaders in monetary terms regardless of gender and the effective ones keep their posts while the ineffective ones are removed or asked to continue on probation. The companies’ growing dedication towards job performance has successfully managed to minimize social and economic costs of selecting females as leaders. Background and Setting The literature claims that the phenomenon of the glass ceiling is melting down in the developed parts of the world (Muchiri, 2011). The proposed study will allow the investigator to empirically test the above-mentioned claim. Q.1 who is More Effective Leader: Male or Female? Ho: There is no feasible statistical difference between the ability to demonstrate effective leadership in males and females. Hi: There is a feasible statistical difference between the ability to demonstrate effective leadership in males and females Measures The scale developed by Northouse, (2011) in order to measure the effectiveness of leadership. The proposed measure consists 14 items, and it has the following dimensions:- Abilities Required for Effective Leadership: Administrative Skills: This dimension of the construct is specifically concerned with measuring the ability of the leader to make things done within the deadlines whereas his or her ability to push employees towards the specific objectives and goals is also an integral part of this subcategory (Schyns, 2008). Interpersonal Skills: - This measures leader’s ability to build social relations with his or her colleagues and subordinates (Thompson, 2000). Conceptual Skills: This measures the influences ability to set and establish SMART goals and desired strategic objectives. This dimension is believed to be the heart and soul of the art and science of leadership (Thompson, 2000). Variables The key variable of the study are effective leadership the main dimensions of both the variables are as follows: Data Collection and Target Population The data is gathered with the help of using simple random sampling and 40 respondents (20 Males, 20 Females) will be selected from the target population living in the local state. The researcher will inform the respondents about the purpose of the study. The target population of the study will be local employees working in the indigenous industrial areas. Additionally, researcher will tell them that the data will be used for academic purposes only. Finally, the respondents will be informed about their rights to privacy and withdrawal during the course of the survey. Furthermore, respondents will be contacted with the help of an email survey questionnaire. The electronic version of the survey will be deployed so that investigations cost dimension can be minimized. Every respondent will be asked to rate his or her boss’s ability to demonstrate effective leadership. Research Methodology The data will be analyzed with the help of measuring descriptive statistics from both of gender-based groups. While the group that will demonstrate the highest level of the mean and lower degree of standard deviation will be considered more prominent on the concerned scale. The method of descriptive statistical analysis is ideal for measuring differences in two groups. Therefore, it will be used to scale differences in leadership effectiveness amongst female and male leaders in the local setting. Data Analysis and Results Following is the analysis of data that was collected by conducting survey of 40 (20 males, 20 females) employees that were selected from the target population by using convenient sampling. The male and female respondents scored a mean score of 3.53 and 3.39 with standard deviations of 1.09 and 1.03 respectively. The results of the study show that there are no statistically significant differences between the male and female ability to exercise leadership in the modern era of the 21st century. Discussion In the modern era of the 21st century, the gender differences are getting less and less important in terms of predicting organizational leadership roles. The results show that females are equally capable of exercising leadership as their male colleagues. Conclusion This paper concludes in the light of statistical evidence that there is no difference in the ability to practice leadership between both the genders. The difference is however, present in the organizational structures when males and females become leaders. The males are culturally and socially more popular as leaders and therefore, they can afford to follow organic chain of command. But, in case of female leaders, the organizational structure and culture must be tightened in order make the subordinates understand and respect the authoritative position of the females. However, both of the genders are known to perform corporate leadership roles adequately well in the modern period of the 21st century. References Kolb, K. (2013). Negotiating in the shadows of organization:gender, negotiation and change. Journal on dispute resolution, 241 - 262. Emmerik, H. . (2010). Gender ratio, societal culture, and male . Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 895-914. Jogulu, U. (2006). The role of leadership theory in raising the profile of. Equal opportnities international, 236-250. Maleki. N. (2011). Designing an effective leadership. Journal of knowledge management, economics and information technology, 493 - 514. Mavin, S. (2012). Doing gender well and differently in management, gender in management. an international journal, 218-231. Muchiri, M. (2011). Gender and managerial level . Leadership & organization development journal, 462 - 492. Schyns, B. . (2008). Is there a male advantage in the effects of feedback and leadership on leaders’ occupational self-efficacy. Equal opportunities international, 596 - 612. Sikdar, A. (2012). Gender-role stereotypes: perception and practice of leadership in Middle East. Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 146 - 162. Thompson, M. (2000). Gender, leadership orientation, and effectiveness: testing the . sex roles, 169 - 192. Vermeir, I. (2008). Gender differences in double standards. Journal of business ethics, 281 - 295. Read More