Transcript Leadership - Widener University | Widener Home

Leadership:
Barriers & Styles
The Glass Ceiling
The set of subtle barriers that are
believed to prevent women and
minorities from reaching the upper
echelons of corporate America,
government, and academia.
The Numbers
• According to the 2000 census, women
represent 50.4% of the U.S. population and
46.5% of the labor force.
• However, women only represent 5.1% of
the top-level executives.
Fortune Magazine 1995 Survey Results
from Male & Female Middle & Top Managers
91% of women & 75% of men believed that
the existence of a male-dominated corporate
culture is the single most important barrier for
women.
Fortune Magazine 1995 Survey Results
from Male & Female Middle & Top Managers
Other barriers cited by women:
• the exclusion of women
from informal networks,
• a lack of female mentors,
• the existence of a glass
ceiling, and
• management’s belief that
women are less career
oriented.
Other barriers cited by men:
• the exclusion of women
from informal networks,
• lack of female mentors,
• few female bosses as role
models, and
• difficulties women have
balancing paid work and
family.
By not using all the potential of female
employees, organizations lose in 2 ways.
1. They do not get the benefit of the talents
and perspective that these women can
contribute.
2. They get a poor return on the investment
they made in these women, because many
of them leave when they can not move up
the executive ladder.
A 1991 Bipartisan Federal Glass Ceiling
Commission recommended that CEOs
1. Demonstrate a genuine commitment to diversity
by ensuring that all written & oral information
disseminated emphasize it as a “core value”;
2. Link pay, promotions, and bonuses of managers
to meeting goals of diversity;
3. Ensure that all qualified individuals have equal
access and opportunity to compete for positions;
4. Expand searches for new employees to include
individuals from “noncustomary” sources with
varied backgrounds and experiences;
A 1991 Bipartisan Federal Glass Ceiling
Commission recommended that CEOs
5. Establish mentoring programs to prepare
minorities and women for senior positions;
6. Provide training to familiarize employees with
the strengths and challenges of gender, racial,
ethnic, and cultural differences;
7. Initiate policies that help employees to balance
the dual demands of career and family; and
8. Encourage workers to participate in decision
making and share information.
Leadership Theories
(discussed in article by
Appelbaum, Audet, & Miller)
Biology is Destiny Theories
• These theories are based on the premise that
leadership ability is biologically determined, an
inborn skill of men that is lacking in women.
• Research results do not support this approach.
• Some studies have found some gender differences
in leadership style. However, other studies have
found that there are more similarities than
differences in the leadership abilities of men and
women, and they are equally effective.
Gender Role Theories
• According to these theories, gender role is a better
predictor of leadership potential than sex.
• There are 3 gender roles: male, female, &
androgynous (a blend of male & female).
• Individuals with masculine or androgynous
classifications are more likely to be identified as
preferred leaders than individuals with feminine
classifications.
The Feminine/Competency Bind
Feminine behavior is often associated with
incompetence.
Competency is usually associated with
masculine behavior.
When women adopt masculine traits, they are
seen as unfeminine.
Furthermore, the same behavior is often
evaluated more positively when attributed
to a male than a female.
For example, what is considered strong for
a man may be called domineering and
overly aggressive for a woman.
Theories About Factors That Potentially
Undermine Women’s Leadership Effectiveness
1. Women’s attitudes are often based on their
traditional socialization to be docile or flexible.
However, this attitude is frequently seen as
incompetent and not leader-like.
Also, when an individual’s mobility is blocked
(as by the glass ceiling), the person becomes
pessimistic and disengaged, whereas indications
of opportunity foster optimism and engagement.
Theories About Factors That Potentially
Undermine Women’s Leadership Effectiveness
2. Women’s self-confidence may be
diminished by second-class treatment they
receive in the leadership hierarchy.
Self-confidence has been found to be an
important component in predicting
leadership potential.
Theories About Factors That Potentially
Undermine Women’s Leadership Effectiveness
3. The Corporate Environment
Opportunities for employment in male-dominated
occupations have increased, but resistance to
women’s presence has resulted in many women
leaving these jobs.
By disproportionately employing women in jobs
that lack regular promotion procedures or less
frequently implementing regular promotion
procedures in women’s jobs, employers not only
reduce women’s chances for promotion but
encourage women to lose hope of being promoted.
Theories About Factors That Potentially
Undermine Women’s Leadership Effectiveness
4. The Old Boy’s Network fosters solidarity
between men but marginalizes, controls, and
divides women.
Male managers who often make decisions
affecting the upward mobility of women have
been found to perceive the characteristics needed
for managerial success as being associated with
those generally attributed to men.
These perceptions can negatively affect women’s
job placement, promotion, and access to
development and training opportunities.
Theories about Gender Differences
in Leadership Styles
The style of leadership
traditionally used by men is
Command and Control. A
style of leadership that has
often been used by women is
an Interactive Leadership
Style.
The Interactive Leadership
Style is based on characteristics
that have been described as
more feminine, such as
1. good communication skills (especially the
ability to be good listener & to be empathetic),
2. good intermediary skills (for negotiation &
conflict resolution), and
3. well-developed interpersonal skills & a soft
approach to handling people.
The Interactive
Leadership Style
•
•
•
•
encourages participation
shares power and information
enhances other people’s self-worth
gets people excited about their work.
Historically, …
• women have lacked both formal authority
over others and control over resources. So
they had to find other ways to accomplish
their work.
• women were expected to be cooperative,
supportive, understanding, gentle, and to
provide service for people.
• The interactive leadership style seems to be a
natural consequence.
Gender
Differences
Women are more likely to describe
their jobs as “transformational,”
getting subordinates to transform
their own self-interest into the
interest of the group through
concern for a broader goal.
Men are more likely to describe
their jobs as “transactional,” a
series of transactions with
subordinates. They exchange
rewards for services rendered or
punishment for inadequate
performance.
Women tend to see
their power as coming
from personal
characteristics such as
charisma, interpersonal
skills, hard work, or
personal contacts.
Men tend to see their
power as coming from
their organizational
position and formal
authority.
Women tend to score higher in orientation
towards production (strong pursuit of
achievement, holding high expectations for
self and others) and the attainment of results.
Men tend to score higher on scales assessing
an orientation towards strategic planning and
organizational vision.
Women tend to score higher on people-oriented
leadership skills.
Men tend to score higher on business-oriented
leadership skills.
Research findings support the ideas that
1. Women’s leadership styles, at the moment, do
differ from men’s but men who are not comfortable
with the traditional “command and control” style
can learn and use the interactive style;
2. Women’s leadership styles are not less effective
than men’s styles and they can be more effective in
team-based consensually-driven organizations that
are becoming more common;
3. Leadership style is based more on individual choice
than on inherent gender predisposition; and
4. Leadership style differences may blur as gendermixed management teams become more common.
Questions for the Future
If women are underrepresented in senior
management because of negative misperceptions
of women’s abilities, how can these perceptions
be corrected?
How can leadership effectiveness training be
modified to make the best use of differences in
individual styles?