Why Can′t Men Lead Like Women?

Abstract

While some women have emerged as leaders within contemporary organizations, they occupy one‐third of managerial and professorial positions in Canada while composing approximately one‐half of the workforce. At top managerial levels, they occupy less than 5 per cent of senior positions. Earlier research identified “female deficiencies” as a reason why few women have made it to the top. Other findings have indicated that following a masculine model has both advantages and disadvantages for aspiring women managers. Developmental differences between both sexes has helped to explain some of the problems for leaders and followers. Interactive leadership styles utilized by women have been beneficial in moving both genders towards a solution insofar as this style involves four factors: encouraging participation; sharing power and information; enhancing self‐worth of others and finally, energizing others. The use of an androgynous leadership model has not yielded significant findings but there are common characteristics of successful leaders combining both the masculine and feminine models. Organizations and their top leaders need to expand their definition of effective leadership so that an interactive style can be valued, allowing these organizations to be flexible in surviving within an increasingly competitive and diverse environment.

Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories

“…The use of an androgynous leadership model has not yielded significant findings but there are common characteristics of successful leaders combining both the masculine and feminine models. Organizations and their top leaders need to expand their definition of effective leadership so that an interactive style can be valued, allowing these organizations the necessary flexibility, key to surviving within an increasingly competitive and diverse environment (Appelbaum and Shapiro, 1993).…”

Gender Stereotyping of Leadership

“…Over the years women are acquiring leadership roles, and it is important for organizations to recognize the differences between males and female leaders. As Applebaum and Shapiro (1993) observed that women have a different style of leading compared to men. It is equally critical to understand that these differences are very likely to influence the commitment of employees towards their organization.…”

Examining the Effects of Cultural Value Orientations, Emotional Intelligence, and Motivational Orientations: How do LMX Mediation and Gender-Based Moderation Make a Difference?

“…Furthermore, adding to the long discussion regarding the effects of environmental vs. individual differences in the work context, in the current paper, we investigate both situational and individual factors engaging LMX in the role of a mediator variable while gender was invoked as a moderator variable. Gender's effect is particularly important because previous research has indicated that women tend to display different leadership styles than men (e.g., Barsheshet-Picer and Tziner, 2014), that is, democratic and participative styles of leadership to a greater degree than men (Eagly and Johnson, 1990;Appelbaum and Shapiro, 1993;van Engen and Willemsen, 2004;Eagly, 2005;Eagly and Carli, 2007). Figure 1 portrays the overall research model.…”

“…There is good reason to examine further linkages between gender, LMX, and job-related outcomes. Many scholars suggest that men and women use basically the same mechanisms to create leader behaviors, but there are also subtle, true distinctions (Powell, 1990;Appelbaum and Shapiro, 1993;Eagly, 2005). Specifically, in spite of an amount of gender bias in measuring and defining leadership, there appears to be a basic female leadership style that tends toward a democratic style of relationship enhancement with cooperative and participative leadership behaviors (Eagly and Carli, 2003;Rosener, 2011).…”