Gender differences in leadership style - Dissertation Example

? Running head: GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LEADERSHIP STYLE Gender Differences in Leadership Style Introduction Gender differences in leadership style hasin recent years become an area of immense interest for study in the fields of sociology, management and psychology, especially in view of the increasing number of women that have begun assuming leadership roles in different fields. However, it is known that there are basic differences in the ways males and females function as leaders and the issue arises if such differences are associated with gender. This issue has made researchers to attempt in providing a means to explain why very few women have been able to assume leadership roles. There is no doubt that women are forming a larger proportion of the work force but very few are able to hold top management and administration functions. It is for this reason that researchers have been focusing on determining if women lack the required skills in attaining senior positions or whether they are different in terms of their leadership styles and perceptions. This is a paper on gender differences in leadership styles and examines the relevant literature in focusing on the leadership styles of male and female school principals. The issues to be examined relate to functions of school principals in regard to instructional leadership, ethical practices, interpersonal relationships, decision making and practices of professional development. Main Body Vecchio (2002) conducted research to examine the gender differences amongst school principals. Although the number of females responding to the questions was small, they were still considered to be a significant group. The researcher found some basic differences in the leadership styles of male and female principals. Male principals had much more experience than female principals. In clear indication of the leadership style of women, it was found that female principals conducted more weekly faculty meetings than their male counterparts. Women were not found to be very active in attending national or regional level conventions. The most significant difference amongst male and female principles appears to be that females are more worried about the ways in which a typical school day will be spent. While 77 percent females reported that their main duty was to act as instructional leaders, only 58 percent men reported having similar viewpoints. However, both groups confirmed that most of their day was spent in general managerial functions. In terms of the time spent by each group to allocated activities, both agreed that maintaining contact with teachers and maintaining discipline amongst students were the most important functions of school principals. Lesser time was devoted by both groups on issues of general management. In terms of the manner in which a typical day is spent by both groups, almost 80 percent women principals were found to be involved in teaching as well as administrative work. They used 48 percent of their time in teaching. In contrast, only 47 percent male principals were allotted work related to both administration and teaching. Male principals were found to be using only 35 percent of their time on teaching. It is therefore evident that the notion of instructional leadership is considerably impacted with the percentage of time that is spent on teaching in a typical school day. It is also evident that female principals have greater work load of teaching, which makes them vulnerable in being less effective towards providing instructional leadership as compared to their male counterparts (Eagly and Karau, 2002). Other issues that need to be examined in determining gender differences in gender differences in leadership style between male and female school principals are: The leadership approach that characterizes school principals Whether the leadership styles of female principals considerably different from their male counterparts Although there is some difference in the leadership styles of male and female principals in schools, principals have to often take task oriented decisions. Task orientation is found to be the most important concern of school principals; others being climate and individual problems. Upon comparing male and female principals, both are found to be task oriented although females are involved to a greater extent in this regard. A marked pattern is the difference in leadership styles amongst principals that have served for longer time periods and those that have served for less than five years. It is found that principals that have served for more than five years tend to be more consistent in their leadership styles across their entire careers. Both male and female principals in this category are unmistakably committed towards task orientation. In some aspects, this perception of task orientation amongst school principals becomes conflicting with the patterns of being instructional leaders. This aspect is supportive of the fact that both male and female principals provide for a larger percentage of their time in general management functions of the school (Collard and Reynolds, 2004). It is recognized that the main focus of school principals is to complete daily tasks efficiently and if there are any conflicts in this regard they can be found in the individual self perceptions of principals. Most school principals believe they are instructional leaders but the fact remains that as and when it is imperative, direct and task oriented responses through autocratic approaches become the norm. Most principals are committed people that are actively engaged in varied educational actions on a daily basis. They are mostly contented with their respective administrative roles and are eager to meet the job challenges they confront (Avolio and Bass, 2002). The average tenures of principals indicate that they are not inclined to adopt transient approaches because they perceive themselves to be personally responsible for the smooth functioning of the schools. They mostly strive to improve their performance by getting involved in many school related and staff development activities at local and state levels. But professionally they are not much involved at the national level. They believe they are instructional leaders but spend most part of their working hours on administrative and management functions. They have the tendency to make themselves highly visible in the school environment and enjoy taking part in extra-curricular activities. At the same time, they are not found much in class rooms (Hamori-Ota, 2007). The leadership styles of school principals do vary but when it comes to execute and complete required work, they become extremely task oriented. Because of such attitudes, attention to creating a better climate and to meet individual needs, takes the secondary position in their priority because they become excessively involved in work relative to maintaining discipline, management, teaching and taking part in school associated actions. Such task oriented leadership styles can be considered as being common amongst majority school principals irrespective of whether they are new or experienced. In this context, it is not proper to categorize these principals as effective or ineffective. It is important to note that they have the option to make use of other leadership styles but have to look into the large numbers of daily tasks, which implies that time is a very important resource for them. It is unfortunate that maintaining the organizational structure often proves to be the prime concern of school principals and all other areas take secondary position (Clisbee, 2005). If perceptions of instructional leadership have to become real, school principals have to be given opportunity to become strong leaders. At the same time, they have to realize that a better option in providing time to other important matters is to delegate a part of their daily work relative to management to other staff occupying lower administration positions. It is known that empowering others is an effective leadership style. A major prerequisite for efficacy of school principals is to build levels of leadership so that they get opportunities to become good instructional leaders (Ayman et al, 2009). It is a globally observed feature that there is shortage of women that can take on positions of principals in schools, which is evident from the pattern whereby women comprise of majority of school teachers but very few amongst them are able to rise up the ladder in being appointed as principals. Therefore, gender has so far been an important determinant of appointment of principals in schools. According to Schermerhorn (2008), society has for long had beliefs relative to leadership being the domain of males because of which male domination continues to be supported in several functions including the appointment of school principals. A lot of research has been done through the social role theory in terms of gender stereotypes relative to the area of leadership. Irrespective of the numbers of males and females that match up with male and female stereo types, such stereo types are significantly influential in regard to the ways in which the possible performance levels of male and female leaders are understood by followers. Considerable research has been done in the context of varied stereo types amongst male and female leaders that demonstrate more of conventional leadership styles relative to consideration and initiating structures (Judeh, 2010). Generally, research has revealed that typical male qualities such as assertiveness, courage and sense of competitiveness are more related to stereotypic viewpoints in regard to management roles as against the typical communal feminine qualities such as affection, support and kindness. Smith and Fritz (2004) have found that men and women do not differ much in terms of objective measures relative to performance, which means that gender stereo types impact the male evaluation of female colleagues or peers. Meta analysis conducted by Powell et al (2008) led to the conclusion that female leaders are often evaluated in negative terms in comparison with male leaders in research studies whereby the disparity was found to occur only because of gender bias amongst respondents in sample surveys. The structure styles of males and females were researched by Rohmann and Rowold, 2009) and they found that female respondents rated characteristics of female leaders higher than male leaders. They concluded that female leaders are often in a double situation while demonstrating typical male leadership traits. Moreover, it was also found that when females attempt to emulate male leadership behaviors it has a negative impact on evaluating them as leaders. This dual situation proves to be troublesome for many female leaders because of which females often find themselves to be bound in having perceptions of being incompetent. These perceptions also create attitudes amongst females of being unfeminine. Some researchers have suggested that there are perceptions of incongruity amongst female gender roles and stereotype leader roles. They hold that such inappropriateness leads to bias against female leaders. It is in this context that the social role theory is used in understanding the ways in which gender roles in terms of consensual perceptions about men and women characteristics and social roles in terms of socially shared expectations interact in creating sex differences in social behaviors. In applying this theory to leadership, it can be said that leaders adopt roles on the basis of their particular position in the given hierarchy and thus have to perform with constraints relative to their gender roles (Brown and Irby, 2005). It is generally believed that gender filters act in creating shared understandings among school principals that males are more capable in resolving matters relative to discipline. But the changing atmosphere of increasing accountability has effected a change in leadership concepts whereby principals are hired or appointed. Given the increasing focus placed on improving the academic achievements of students, there is now enhanced focus on the roles of school principals whereby they are perceived as being the main agents of initiating the change process. It is known that schools with commendable performance are said to be adopting good instruction practices and thus have the ability to give added meaning to students’ learning. In order to have good school achievements there is need to have school principals that are accomplished. This will result in focused efforts with teachers, thereby improving school performance and school teaching environment (London, 2002). It is known through research that women school principals have had experiences that can be said to be more alike instead of being different, particularly in regard to perception of leadership and gender and professional balancing. Many of the women principals that were interviewed by researchers held that their past experiences influenced the career choices made by them in regard to opting in favor of education. Some women principals expressed that experiences of negative behavior led to desires of making school life enjoyable for children. Some women believed that they were inspired to take up teaching as a profession in view of their family circumstance because many were in school administration and teaching jobs in schools. Their family and home culture led them to opt for teaching as a career, while other reasons such as value for education and the aspiration to compete in a biased world added to such desires. Women principals have had both positive and negative experiences but one thing in common in terms of perception was the desire to become effective with difficult students (Manning, 2002). Conclusion It is known that there are basic differences in the ways males and females function as leaders and the issue arises if such differences are associated with gender. This issue has made researchers to attempt in providing a means to explain why very few women have been able to assume leadership roles. There is no doubt that women are forming a larger proportion of the work force but very few are able to hold top management and administration functions. It is for this reason that researchers have been focusing on determining if women lack the required skills in attaining senior position or whether they are different in terms of their leadership styles and perceptions. Comparing the leadership styles of male and female school principals it becomes evident that they are both inclined to effectively achieve their daily tasks. The differences in their leadership styles relates to self perceptions of male and female school principals. They mostly believe themselves to be instructional leaders but the fact remains that they tend to adopt a more autocratic related response system when performing direct tasks. School principals are committed to their job and they are actively involved in their respective jobs relative to maintaining the school, teaching and getting involved in other educational activities. They are mostly contented with their activities and take on the challenges as and when they come. They consistently aim at improving themselves and their working systems with the cooperation of their staff. Although they have perceptions of being transformational leaders, a major portion of their time is used in performing general management functions. They are always attempting to be highly visible in school and extracurricular activities although they are not found much in classrooms. Male and female leadership styles amongst school principals are different but they are mostly task oriented in view of their responsibility and the nature of the work. It is noteworthy that worries relative to individual need and the climate take a secondary position in the face of responsibilities of performing daily tasks such as maintaining discipline, management, teaching and taking part in school activities. It is thus evident that the leadership styles of school principals are task oriented and they are bound by their responsibilities to focus on task to achieve the required outcomes. List of References Avolio, B. J.and Bass, B. M. (2002), Developing Potential Across a Full Range of Leadership Cases on Transactional and Transformational Leadership, Lawrence Eribaum Associates, New Jersey Ayman, R., Korabik, K. and Morris, S. (2009). Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective?, Journal of Applied Social Psychology”, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 852- 87 Brown, G., and Irby, B. J. (2005). Increasing gender equity in educational leadership. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada Clisbee, M. (2005). Gender differences in Leadership Style: A literary Analysis. Journal of Women in Educational Leadership, Volume 3, No, 1, pp.38-53 Collard, J., and Reynolds, C. (2004). Leadership, gender and culture: Male and female perspectives, Open University Press Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109(4), 574-597 Hamori-Ota, Virginia E. (2007). Gender differences in leadership style: Predictors of level of agreement between leader self-ratings and supervisory ratings, peer ratings, and ratings by direct reports, University of Michigan Judeh, M. (2010). Transformational Leadership: A Study of Gender Differences, International Review of Business Research Papers, Volume 6. Number 4. Pp.117 - 125 London, M. (2002). Leadership Development. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Mahwah, NJ. Manning, T. T. (2002). Gender, managerial level, transformational leadership, and work satisfaction. Women in Management Review, 17(5), 208-216 Powell, G. N., Butterfield, D. A. and Batrol, K. M. (2008). Leader Evaluations: A New Female Advantage. Gender in Management, An International Journal, vol.23, no.3, pp. 157-174 Rohmann. A. and Rowold, J. (2009). Gender and Leadership Style. Equal Opportunities International, vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 544-560 Smith, K.K., and Fritz. S. (2004). A Review of Gender and Full-Range Leadership Research and Suggestions for Future Research, Faculty Publications: Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication Department, University of Nebraska Schermerhorn, J.R., Jr. (2008), Management, Danvers, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., M Vecchio, R. P. (2002). Leadership and gender advantage. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 641-661 Read More