Women in leadership Dissertation

Nobody has been more important to me in the pursuit of this project than the members of my family. I would like to thank my parents, whose love and guidance are with me in whatever I pursue. They are the ultimate role models I blame all of you. Writing this book has been an exercise in sustained suffering. The casual reader may, perhaps, exempt herself from excessive guilt, but for those of you who have played the larger role in prolonging my agonies with your encouragement and support, well…you know who you are, and you owe me. Secondly, in all indicators examined, women discrimination to sit in top positions in organizations is a severe obstacle to social development, but addressing gender inequality will never alone be sufficient for leadership reduction when it comes to women.

After addressing a number of pressing concerns in the literature, I present clear evidence to why women are a definite asset in the world we live in today. This will also enable us to understand the leadership styles that is there between men and women. The same research paper will come up with different challenges that women face in the male-dominated space of leadership. Though this, the level of education and that of how women relate to fellow women workers is explained in details. 5 Research Objectives 7 CHAPTER 2 8 2. 0 LITERATURE REVIEW 8 2. 1 Introduction 8 2. 2 Summary 17 CHAPTER 3 18 3. 0 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 18 3. 4 Summary of Interviews 28 4. 5 Research Questions and Analysis 29 CHAPTER 5 31 5. 0 CONCLUSION 31 5. 1 Conclusion 31 5. 2 recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What was the motivation that drove mothers and wives to leave their homes to seek education? Was it boredom or the need for a challenge, the craving for superiority or simply because much men no longer desired tertiary education? This dissertation answers the question: Why are women passionate about education, why now? 1.

2 Research Issue and Rationale Women want to be seen and heard; they are no longer satisfied staying hidden in the shadows and or doing the behind the scenes work. As women rise academically, they are still seen as being unqualified to lead. Women face barriers that men in leadership don’t face and are often receive lower levels of respect and financial compensation. CEOs often refuse to employ female managers while using the excuse that women don’t have the experience and ironically the experience is lacking because CEOs are commonly willing to hire female leaders. 3 Research Questions 1. Why are women more desirous to hold managerial positions? 2. Is leadership a man’s domain? 3. What is most important to the future development of women careers? 4.

Why are women underrepresented in managerial positions? 5. CHAPTER 2 2. 0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. 1 Introduction When it comes to leadership, does gender matter? Is there a difference between women leaders and men who lead? If so, what are the unique qualities of female leadership that the most effective women leaders possess, and are they unique to women? In 2005, a year-long study conducted by Caliper, identified a number of characteristics that distinguish women leaders from men when it comes to qualities of leadership: According to Caliper (2005), women leaders are more assertive and persuasive, have a stronger need to get things done and are more willing to take risks than male leaders. Women leaders were also found to be more empathetic and flexible, as well as stronger in interpersonal skills than their male counterparts.

Since the focus of this study is grounded on the challenges facing women leaders in a comparative lens between both the public and private sectors, the reliance of the literature will rely on that line. Different motives may be postulated for this, but eventually it demonstrates the intensely held conception of leadership as masculine. De La Rey (2005) lists the qualities commonly linked with leadership as effective communication skills, task completion, responsibility, problem solving, originality, decision making, vision, self awareness, confidence, experience and power. Although it is likely to build up these qualities in any human being in spite of gender, in male dominated societies, as is often the case in African societies, male leadership and styles prevail, and are regarded as the more acceptable forms of leadership.

Growe & Montgomery (2000) defined leaders as people who offer vision and meaning for an institution and embody the ideas towards which the organization strives. From that point of view, leaders are identical and genderless. ” The two definitions listed above show leadership as a process where one (the leader) takes another (follower(s) on a journey where they ultimately improve. Drucker (1979) defines management as signifying a role as well as the people who discharge it, a social position and expert, and also a discipline and field of study. ‘Management is tasks. Management is a discipline. But management is also people. 2 Women in Management In early days, management roles were considerably uncommon in women. However, in the past few decades, women in managerial positions have significantly risen.

It has been the norm for many years that women in the workforce served an insignificant role, basically non-existent. With time, the growth of women in managerial posts has alarmingly increased. However, a number of factors have affected their management position making the organization and different societal factors the most impacted. 262), there are three major components of leadership, and they are (1) leaders must have followers. One cannot be a leader unless there are people following them; (2) leaders have more power to influence followers than the followers have to influence leaders. Leadership consists of altering followers to exhibit specific desirable behaviors, and (3) the object of leadership is to influence followers to achieve group goals. In organizations, the group’s objectives are based on assigned tasks for which the group is responsible.

Graff (2012) debated that historically business has always been a man’s playground and was done by men for men hence the systems were not created to facilitate women. Below are charts that tend to illustrate the share women have in top political and that of business posts. The gender wage gap narrowed, sex segregation in most professions greatly declined, and the percentage of women climbing the management ranks steadily rose. Yet, the progress has been uneven and is slowing—there are significant racial and ethnic differences in terms of women’s success in moving into the top-level jobs, and overall, women continue to fall far short of matching the success of their male counterparts in breaking into the top jobs. 1 Women in the U.

S. Men tend to have a more “command and control style,” They’re more task-oriented and directive, while women are more democratic. That’s often the starkest leadership difference between male and female bosses: Men provide direction for their employees, while women encourage employees to find their own direction.   Women often motivate their employees by helping them find self-worth and satisfaction in their work, which serves as its own reward. This is a core part of the philosophy of transformational leadership: Help employees find their identity in the work that they do, so it’s more than just a job. Men are more likely to use the transactional leadership approach of providing incentives for succeeding and penalties for failing. Ryan and Haslam (2007a) stated that when women broke into high-ranking management, they usually obtained positions such as human resource management and personnel, rather than in positions in production.

Ninety percent of CEO’s list the lack of general management experience (sometimes called line or profit-and-loss experience) as the primary obstacle to women reaching senior management (Wellington, Kropf, & Gerkovich, 2003). Eagly and 8 Executive leadership for women LITERATURE REVIEW Carli (2007) and Oakley (2000) posit that the “scarcity of female corporate officers is the sum of discrimination that has operated at all ranks” (p. 65) The term “hard skills” or core business are seen as being less common in women and therefore more common in men. Women are almost never chosen to be successors in management due to their perceived lack of all-around skills. CEOs must carefully select where women are placed within organizations to avoid conflict with other women and other workplace disagreements. A study of 1,000 women conducted by the American Management Association showed that 95% of the research samples stated that other women had undermined them at some time in their careers (Heim & Murphy, 2001).

“I have become convinced that we aren’t all playing on the same team. In fact, we view the workplace through a lens of gender scarcity. We are pitted against each other, rather than supportive of each other” (Coughlin et al. Understanding the reason for the diminishing number of male MBA holders could have a high impact in understanding the rise in crime as well as understanding many other things, e. g. , women being so passionate about leading while men seem to be demotivated, etc. Women became more interested in an MBA at the same time that men are leading in they are of crime in Trinidad. The issue is not that men are no longer desirous of leading, but it may be that their focus has switched.

CHAPTER 3 3. 0 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 3. 1 Research Paradigm The Pragmatic conducts research bases in a subjective manner rather than objective. It uses of a mix of methods in research, “sidesteps the contentious issues of truth and reality” (Feilzer 2010, p. 8), and “focuses instead on 'what works' as the truth regarding the research questions under investigation” (Tashakkori & Teddlie 2003b, p. Whilst it will not answer a question completely, it will give some indications and allow further elaboration and hypothesis creation on a subject. The case study research design is also useful for testing whether scientific theories and models actually work in the real world. You may come out with a great computer model for describing how the ecosystem of a rock pool works but it is only by trying it out on a real life pool that you can see if it is a realistic simulation.

The approach of this research influences design and provides an opportunity to consider benefits and limitations of information available to the researcher (Creswell 2003). An inductive approach will be taken. To gain understanding as to what encourages women to pursue an MBA. Information as to why they decided to pursue a MBA- what were their drivers? MBA holders and those pursuing an MBA Interviews, Articles To gain insight as to what could be the possible underlying deterrents in women becoming leaders Hidden underlying causes Female MBA holders and those currently pursuing and MBA Interview To Understand a woman’s leadership style and contrast it against the norm. Contrast of women and men leadership. Internet Surveys and Articles To emphasize and identify the value of female leadership Comparing and Contrasting leadership styles of both Men and women Female MBA holders and Articles Interviews, Observations and Articles 3.

4 Data Analysis Plan For this report, a qualitative analysis will be done. All participants will be kept anonymous 5. Data will be stored securely. i. e. locked filing cabinets, password protected computers 6. On the negative side, some were long-winded and wanderered off the topic. The interviewer needed to politely move them back to the matter at hand. CHAPTER 4 4. 0 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 4. 1 Introduction This chapter presents findings from discussions held with women that are either currently pursuing their MBA or holders of an MBA. She is currently in pursuit of an MBA in Human Resource Management. Interviewee 2 is the Vice President of Faith-Based organization for the past eight years and the staff Manager at her job for ten years. She is also the CEO of a graphics company for four years now.

She has worked in management for 25 years and is the holder of an MBA in Business Administration. Interviewee 3 has worked as the Chief Financial Officer at ABC for 14 years, is the CEO of an accounting agency for ten years and was the facilities manager at a Non-Profit Organisation for five years. 3 What they had to say The following shows the discussions held with five interviewees and show their opinions and experiences as Women in Leadership and the push and pull factors that they are faced with. 1 Career Development The interviewees were asked what field they thought that women dominated and why? The answers mostly circled administration as the interviews felt like this was what most women settled for as it didn’t require many fights to acquire these positions.

However, interviewee 2 answered that she felt that the only position that women dominated was pornography because this was the one area that begged women to join and offered great incentives to those that did. Interviewees 1 and 4 expressed that they felt women were forced to work twice as hard because they are not given the same opportunities as men. When asked to explain, interviewee 4 recalled being told by multiple employers that she couldn’t be hired because she was a female and therefore not qualified to do the job required. Similarly, Interviewee 3 spoke of her motivation is her mother. However, her mother was a full-time housewife. She recalled not having a lot although her father’s salary was more than able to provide for their family he would rather splurge on his gambling addictions and female friends.

She saw success as being the only thing that would guarantee her not living the life of lack that she saw her mother live first hand and by attaining it she would be winning one not just for herself but the female population. Interviewee 2 explained that she was raised with six males and would see them achieving their goals and didn’t think it would be any different for her and so she pursued management like some of her other siblings. He father was the owner of a very successful company and herself, and her siblings worked alongside in the family business. As the business grew she was given a department to manage and when that went well her father turned that department into a separate organization.

She says that getting into management was not a tedious process for her as it was all she knew and so it was easy to get into it. She lightly touches on the fact that her father had already but networks with customers and other companies which made her lead efficiently. Four out of the five interviewees discussed obstacles that they faced on their way to management. Interviewee three said that with women being more sociable this is likely to make them better leaders and if men are task oriented this would be a vital trait of a manager. Interviewee 2 felt that owing to Trinidad having a female Prime Minister recently a lot of blocked and lop-sided ideals were shattered in the minds of individuals and showed persons that times are not what they used to be because now women are doing it all! The interviewees were asked what the main factors that influenced women’s rise in leadership were? The response was generally that the interviewees believed that women’s ambition and hard work was paying off.

Interviewees felt that women have always been hard workers and it''s just that employers are finally starting to see the benefit of having women in management as opposed to having men. Interviewee five didn’t agree that there was much of an increase in women leaders and attributed that the women leaders that did exist were long existing workers that knew the ins and outs of the company and acquired those positions because of the knowledge they acquired over the years that they served the organization. The question Do you believe that it is easier for men to move forward in managerial careers? Stirred quite a conversation as four out of the five interviewees shared experiences of how easy it was for them to acquire jobs in supportive roles, they felt like they only encountered issues when they pursued managerial positions.

Interviewee 2 added that even if women are the holders of professional positions they still are known to be the one to rush home to cook because it is seen as being their job so much so that if the man does it is categorized as “helping out. ” Interviewees agreed that this change is heavily dependent on what parents teach their children from young ages. Interviewee 3 suggested that if there were more programs in place where influential women were encouraged to mentor persons, this would greatly assist in breaking the negativity that lies around women in leadership. Interviewee 5 believed that the attitudes of women are great contributor to the slow progression of women in management. She insisted that having more women in professional positions would be dependent on these women’s ability to get along with other workers.

Interviewees were asked what do they believe was most important for the future development of women careers so which they responded experience, attitude, ambition, and academics. They explained that they all go hand in hand and must coexist as they complement each other. Interviewees felt like more female CEO’s would assist greatly in giving more opportunities to women. Interviewee 5 felt like this would be the opposite as she believed that more female CEOs would result in less feminine opportunities as women usually prefer to work with males as they don’t always get along with other females and are often seen as threats which result in workplace competition. Interviewee 5 added that she also felt like it lacked women in managerial positions because women often enter the workplace with the preconceived notion that they would get ahead based on their sexuality and so when this does not work they get discouraged and no longer put in the work to move forward in the organization.

Four out of the five interviewees felt positive about the increase of female cooperate leaders in the future. They seemed enthusiastic about the not too distant future even making mention that the last Prime Minster of Trinidad and Tobago being female was a good sign that we are heading in the right direction. Interviewee 5, however, felt like the future would not be in prospective female manager’s favor as society emphasizes on it being the man’s blame why more women are not holders of co-operating positions, and this works well as women have someone to blame other than themselves. She also believed strongly that there would be no further growth in women in the ratio to men in co-operating office.

Although the interviewees were not familiar with each other and were interviewed separately, 4 out of 5 seemed to have the same view concerning the issue at hand. Why are women more desirous to hold managerial positions? Women are desirous in holding to managerial positions due to the mentality that is there about their incapability. Is leadership a man’s Domain? Leadership is gender neutral as both men and women bring different qualities and areas of competence both of which are greatly beneficial to the organisation. What is most important to the future development of women careers? Most important to the future development of women careers is teaching children that they can be anything and not limiting them to any specific sphere. Children must be prepared to work hard and so would not quit when things are difficult.

Why are women underrepresented in managerial positions? Employers are afraid of the unknown. Since divesity of thoughts leads to better problem solving when  when we collaborate with people of different genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities and race in our workplace, we all do better work. Mentorship and sponsorship can be incredibly important for career growth and job satisfaction, so having increased supply of some women “on the bench” in your company can give your employees an edge. CHAPTER 5 5. 0 CONCLUSION 5. 1 Conclusion In the early years, women were stereotyped as submissive and dependent, and therefore, were seen as lacking leadership skills and qualities. However, the explanations for this situation vary from one nation to another, from one culture and even occupational context to another, but there are common obstacles to women becoming leaders.

The first issue that can be put into consideration to explain this phenomenon is the role of the choices made by the women themselves. Although these choices are crucial in determining the reasons for this phenomenon, they cannot be comprehended in isolation from wider cultural constraints. One great obstacle for any woman seeking a position of influence is the mismatch of the qualities that are traditionally linked to both women and leadership. For instance, some characteristics that are associated with leadership are masculine. These occupations were mostly viewed as being suited for women, and therefore, with the sudden change in the laws and policies, many people, including some women, find it hard that women can lead. It is tough to change history, and therefore, this will be very hard to change in the future.

There are many reasons as to why women are good leaders. Firstly, they are good communicators than men. Women leaders have been noted to communicate well with their subordinates in many workplaces today. The collaborative is effective because it enables the sharing of business ideas and development of solutions that can be used in solving the day to day problems in business. Assertiveness seems to be a significant aspect of leadership; however, it would appear that little or no attention is accorded to the concept or acquiring skills associated with. It is one thing to be a leader and another to be an effective leader. Women in leadership positions have considerable challenges for the singular reason of being women. Exhibiting aggressive, passive or manipulative behavior will only add to their challenges and the suppression of the dominant male figure of authority.

Whether these benefits are family focused or offer more leadership opportunities, executives can no longer expect women to give up everything for their career. Concessions must be made to retain women in the workplace. Institutions should seek to improve the quality of their leadership by creating awareness, understanding, and appreciation of different management styles. This can be achieved through training, self-reflection, and various feedback mechanisms. Diversity training, specifically, is essential in this process Assessment procedures must be redefined to focus on the quality, rather than quantity, of an individual's publications and research output. Women leaders can be seen as very effective if the beneficiaries of the female leader’s efforts are her team members. By reverse mentoring women will be able to create visibility of up-and-coming female leaders to top executives, as well as expose female leaders to the most strategic work at the company.

While the method is informal, it helps break down some of the unconscious bias, while creating visibility for female talent whom the male leaders might not otherwise interact with. Reference List Aaltio-Marjosola I. Naiset, miehet ja johtajuus.  Journal of Social issues, 57(4), pp. Vancouver Daft R. L. & Kendrick M. & Vershinina N. and Schmuck, P. A. Women leading in education. Eddington, A.  The Nature of the Physical World: Gifford Lectures (1927). Naiset ja johtaminen. Helsinki: WSOY Hofstede, G. & Hofstede, J. Cultures and Organizations. Software of the mind. 5th edition. United States: South -Western , Cengage Learning Nadler R. S, Psy. D. Leading with emotional intelligence. W. and Dubois, S. L. Evolution and Sex differences in preferences for short- term mates: Results from a policy capturing study.