The Role Of Gender In Leadership Management Essay

The Role Of Gender In Leadership Management Essay As women rise to the top of the organization or management, they encounter a problem with almost half the employees regardless of their temperament, skills or leadership qualities-they are not men. Its often touted that a big percentage of employees loathe working in an environment where the top commander is a woman, however qualified, due to their poor leadership styles. Though the attitudes towards the role of women in society may have changed dramatically, and thanks too to the affirmative action as buttressed by the events of the World Conference on Women 1985 as well as the Beljing Platform for Action; women are still perceived as being less suited than men for managerial and leadership positions. Many local Recruitment Agencies source employees for various organizations in the public and private sector note that some companies prefer men for managerial and executive positions because men are perceived as more confident, dominating, competitive, aggressive and independent compared to women. There is a general perception that women even in leadership are susceptible to being emotional, overly sensitive, moody, easily threatened with a tendency to play favorites and personalize matters no matter their rung or hierarchy in an organization. This trait gives their male counterparts an edge, as being more confident and emotionally balanced. In Kenya the majority of key executives in the private and public sector are held by men. There are a handful of women in key positions such as Supreme Court judges, University Chancellor, the Cabinet, Parastatals Heads and the private sector. The widely accepted explanation for the small percentage of women holding top executive positions globally is the negative stereotyping of women as less able leaders. There are many differing findings from sociologist, management and leadership theories and gender studies on this issue. BACKGROUND As women increasingly take up leadership positions, prevailing leadership styles of women and men continue to attract attention. Historically, gender, precluded most females from becoming leaders and as a result, the assumption was that men were better suited than women for leadership, since the existing models were primarily developed to accommodate men. The Kenyan constitution (Section 27(8)) prominently recognizes that the State shall take proactive measures to implement the principle that not more than two thirds of the members of elective bodies or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender. This is to enhance women participation in leadership and nation affairs that prior to the new constitution were hitherto dominated by their male counterparts. Emanating from this constitutional endorsement, and recent affirmative action, women will actively participate in managerial and leadership matters but it could be an upstream swim in the face of the existing perception that despite being qualified women are perceived as less able leaders. 2.1 Definitions of Leadership Leadership according to Roach and Behling (1984) is the process of influencing an organized group towards accomplishing a goal. On the other hand, C.A Gibb (2000) extends the definition of leadership and states that leadership is a concept applied to the structure of a group to describe the situation when some personalities are so placed in the group that their will, feeling and insight are perceived to direct and control others in the pursuit of common ends. Leaders are those people in groups who are perceived most frequently to perform roles that initiate or direct the behavior of other towards the attainment of their goals. It is the role of a leader to obtain the commitment of individuals to achieving the set goals. However, leadership and management are usually confused and used interchangeably. Management is concerned with planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling the work processes and practices including what the individuals do within the organizational set up. On the other hand leadership is about how one person can influence others to do what is required for the achievement of goals. Nonetheless not all managers are leaders. Leadership itself may have nothing to do with management, it exists in groups rather organizational structures and therefore will certainly also exists in the informal organization where in management terms it may create problems in controlling workers whose influence comes from elsewhere, consequently not all leaders are managers. A manager from a chief executive, director, section head and supervisor has inherent authority to direct the works and behavior of others by virtue of rank, job description and authority. Leadership thrives both in formal and informal settings. The source of power can be based on appointment or on personality. While power in formal leadership emanates from the appointing authority and rank, personal leadership is where power derives from personal qualities of the persona concerned based on charisma, temperament. Personal leadership is conspicuous among entrepreneurs and empire builders such as Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic, James Mwangi of Equity Bank Limited. 2.2 The Interplay of Gender and Leadership According to existing research on gender and leadership, leadership styles can be categorized either as masculine and feminine, (Eagly et al., and 2000). Although there is general agreement that women face more barriers to becoming leaders than men do, especially for leader roles that are male-dominated ( Eagly Karau, 2001), there is much less agreement about the behavior of women and men once they attain such roles. According to Jennifer L. Bendahl (1996), masculinity and agenticism relates to traits associated with male leadership such as being assertive, controlling, aggressive, ambitious, dominant, forceful, independent, self confident, and competitive. Agentic characteristics are ascribed more strongly to men than women. On the other hand feminine or Communal characteristics are ascribed more strongly to women than men and describe primarily a concern of the leader with the welfare of other people-for example, affectionate, helpful, kind, sympathetic, interpersonally sensitive, nurturing, and gentle. Another theory that distinguishes leadership methods is the traits theory, where leadership is centered on the personal traits and characteristics thought to be essential to direct or influence people. The theory propounds that leaders were born and not made. Hence the behavior exhibited by leaders can be traced to their personality and since women are deemed to be more subtle and gentle against the aggressive, dominant male, there is an assumption of male or female leadership approaches to leadership. This theory lends credence to the gender leadership based on character traits. Another leadership theory distinguishes between democratic versus autocratic leadership (or the similar dimension of participative versus directive leadership), (Lewin Lippitt, 1938 and, Vroom Yetton, 1973). Although democratic versus autocratic style is a narrower aspect of leader behavior than task-oriented and interpersonally oriented styles (see Bass, 1990), the democratic-autocratic dimension also relates to gender roles because one component of the agentic norms associated with these roles is that men are relatively more dominant and controlling in other words, more autocratic and directive than women are. In the 1980s and 1990s, many researchers turned their attention to other types of leadership styles by distinguishing between leaders who are transformational and those who are transactional (Bass, 1998). Such leaders set especially high standards for behavior and establish themselves as role models by gaining the trust and confidence of their followers. They state future goals and develop plans to achieve them. The existing concepts and theories of leadership styles to wit: democratic vs. autocratic; participative vs. directive, transformational vs. transactional and laissez faire can be explained along styles that conforms to the gender construct of being male or female oriented. Female leaders exhibit more democratic and participative leadership styles, while men are credited with autocratic behavior perceived as negative when applied by females. That transformational leadership in contrast to transactional leadership is held as a superior form of leadership. Unlike task and relationship oriented leadership, transformational and transactional leadership are view along a continuum allowing individuals to employ both transformational and transactional qualities at one and the same time. A transformational leader is one who provides visions and a sense of mission, instills pride and inspires and excites subordinates and highly motivates them to became better and do better. On the other hand transactional leadership is based on rewards for achieving specified goals and is largely based on directing desired performance and deviations and the need for corrective action. Organizational experiences vary with experiences and it is the ability to be flexible in particular settings that makes one leader better than other not the gender divide. Against this background of different leadership styles, it is observed that men and women exhibit different styles of leading. However it is been stated that cultural conditioning and religion plays a role in elaborating the different perceptions of women and men in leadership. RESEARCH PROBLEM Women face a problem with almost half the employees regardless of their temperament, skills or leadership qualities, when they make it to the top or take up management. They are not a man. According to a survey conducted by the American Management Association, three quarters of men say they would rather work for a man than a woman, while a quarter of women also prefer to work for a man than a woman given a choice. German researchers have also reported a down side from women bosses with employees reporting higher cases of heartburn, depression, headaches and insomnia. Women have been criticized as being easily threatened or intimidated, emotionally unpredictable, indecisive, irritable, moody sharp tongued vain and playing favoritism within cliques. An experiment was conducted at the university of Pennsylvania and tested 50 women in delivering a sad statement and found that all of them experienced pain, however when men were given the same statement they revealed less emotion with 12 not showing any emotion at all. On the other hand it is reported that women make better leaders on the basis of their attention to detail, they are considerate and make good mentors for their employees. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The main objective is to establish whether women make poor bosses and as a result whether employees loathe having women as bosses. The study will also have these other objectives; To find out the qualities that are associated with a good leader To establish what amounts to poor or bad leadership To establish whether employees prefer to work and report to a male or female boss To determine what challenges women face as leaders To find out whether women make poor leaders To determine the preferred gender to head public and private organizations To determine the perception of Kenyans regarding voting for a female presidential candidate RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the qualities of a good leader? What are the attributes of a poor leader? Between male and female bosses, who is the employees preference as a boss? What attributes of leadership do women lack? Which gender is better at running public and private organizations Would you vote for a female presidential candidate in any presidential elections SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY With more and more women now taking elective and appointive posts its paramount to ascertain whether there are any valid stereotyping that will prohibit their ascension of the corporate ladder as able leaders by merit. More and more local and foreign universities are opening their doors to admit a higher number of female students taking up management oriented courses fondly referred to as masters in business administration (MBA). It is important to understand the existing perception and stereotypes leveled against women as commanders of their organization so that it can inform the relevant stakeholders like recruiting agents and human resource departments, the government as well institutions of learning. Furthermore this is an area that would require extensive research to demystify and develop lasting mitigating measures. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY The study shall involve descriptive research design. Descriptive research will facilitate the collection of data relating to the issues under study and the nature of the relations and perceptions of employees regarding their bosses. The target population in this study shall be bank employees. For purposes of the study, most banks have a hierarchical structure with defined reporting lines as below. The unit of analysis will be junior employees (such as tellers, clerks and officer) and their immediate supervisors that report to the branch manager as their boss. Chief Executive Officer /Managing Director Directors and General Managers (oversee head Human Resource, Finance, Credit, IT depts.) Branch Manager ( over see branch activities, policy, performance and employees) Supervisors ( over see and supervise junior staff and report to branch managers) Junior employees-(Clerks, Tellers, Officers that report to and are accountable to both the supervisor and branch managers) c. The study will sample junior employees and their immediate supervisors that report to branch managers through stratified probability sampling

White Shark :: essays research papers

This book is about a man shark that was created during World War two. The man shark was an experiment by the Russians for war. The Russians were transporting it in a u-boat the u-boat was shot and sank by enemy airplanes. The U boat plunged down to the sea floor thousands of feet below sea level .In 1996 two Submersibles went down on a documentary for national geographic. They discovered a brass box that looked like a coffin but It was too ling to be a coffin the rectangular shaped box was about 9 feet long and 3 feet wide. They finally decided to take it to the surface to find out what was in the coffin looking box. When the box was aboard the ship there was a curious crewmember that had wanted to see what was inside the box. The man thought it wouldn’t harm anybody so he lifted the cover a bit and out of the darkness of the box sprang a man shark with metal claws and metal teeth. The creature took the man to the bottom and fed on its kill. The man shark found its way to a p lace called waterboro there it had killed people and sea creatures. Then it had found its way to land and killed a bunch more people and animals. On an island there was an institute for marine life but mainly white sharks. It was mainly by a man named chase he studied the man shark. And then finally the shark man came on the island and tried to kill chase but chase tricked the man shark into going into an air compression chamber. There he turned up the pressure and boom! The man shark exploded into bits. The main character of White shark is chase Simon he is about 5 feet 6 inches tall he has dark hair and he is pretty strong he is about in his twenties. He is a nice person that loved animals especially white sharks and he is also smart brave and nice The main character traits for chase are that he is determined and brave. I choose determined because he was very interested in white sharks so he was determined to learn about them and find out new things about them and why they do things. Chase is brave because he was swimming with great whites and he also killed the man shark and he was the only one that did it.

Rhode Island

Cotton is estimated to have been grown, spun and woven into clothes in Pakistan, in the Indus River valley, 3000 years B. C. The natives of Egypt Nile valley also used cotton to make clothes at the same time. Cotton was introduced to Europe by the Arab merchant about 800 AD cotton was found growing in the Bahamas Islands in 1492, a discovery by Columbus. Cotton became known worldwide, by 1500. Cotton was first planted in 1556 in Florida and 1607 in Virginia. In 1730 cotton was first spun by use of machinery in England.This led to the industrial revolution and later invention of the cotton gin in US that paved way for the modern cotton industry. A patent of gin in 1793 was secured by a native of Massachusetts known as Eli Whitney. The machine would do the work 10 times faster than by use of hand. The gin made it possible for the later fast growing textile industry. The supply of large quantities of cotton fibre led to the growth of cotton growing in the early 1800s. Cotton had its imp ortance in late 1700s and early 1800s; the research paper will be discussing cotton’s importance then.Earlier on James Hargreaves in 1760s invented the spinning Jenny which was later improved on by Richard Arkwright (Waterwheel Spinning Frame). Springing up of textile mills and cottages for imported workers was to follow. This saw the birth of factory system with the first successful system of mass production. Others who contributed to industrial revolution in cotton production included; Fulton’s steamboat in 1807, Stephenson’s locomotive in 1825, Cyrus McCormick’s reaper in 1831, the Howe-singer sewing machine in 1854 and Sir Henry Bessemer’s converter in 1858. DiscussionCotton growing in the early 1800s led to the textile industry development. For example the invention of spinning machines led to further improvement to produce better machines to be used in the textile industry. James Hargreaves invention of spinning Jenny in 1760s resulted to fur ther improvements on the machinery. The inventions led to the industrial revolution, which led to the increased production of cotton. The textile industry grew very fast to produce cotton fibre, which were used by the people in the early 1800s. Cotton growing led to the improvements in transportation system.Coal was required as fuel and iron for the new machinery in the cotton textile manufacturing. Both coal and iron mining increased to provide raw materials for the manufacturing companies. New roads were developed to satisfy the transportation requirements. There was the development of rail roads and steamships for easy access of mines and easy supply of the material to the textile industries. Employment was created in the newly created factories. Between the years 1793-1858, invention of cotton gin, steam engine, steamboat, locomotive, sewing machine and the converter was seen.The cost of producing cotton clothing was lowered by the introduction of the new devices. This created a worldwide demand for cotton. The farm workers in the cotton farms were freed to enter into the newly created factories. This promoted employment of the people in the factories. Cotton enhanced huge amount of capital investment by the south. The south region due to increased rate of cotton manufacturing invested a lot of capital and labor in cotton growing plantations. Profits were made by big planters by use of slaves in labor.For example Mississippi in United States quickly developed an economy based on growing cotton. This led to the growth of the economy in years that followed. Development of electric power was as a result of shortage of waterpower in Mississippi. The advent of steam power later led to the development of electric power. In the given economy electric power increased efficiency and led to rapid growth of the cotton industry in other regions. The economy was able to grow very fast due to increased revenue and investment. Cotton growing led to the growth of the agri cultural economy.New species of cotton were introduced to maximize the yield. Use of slave lab our and poor payment of workers reduced the textile’s industries expenditure. High revenue was channeled back to move production of cotton. The cotton plantations continued to increase in number enhancing growth of the agricultural sector. On the other hand cotton growing promoted the use of slave labor in the plantations for example, cotton manufacturing in the south led to investment of capital and labor in cotton growing. The big plantations used slave labor. The slaves would do a lot of work without payment.Slaves were exploited by cotton manufacturing industries to provide labour in their farms. Worker’s had very poor living and social conditions. Apart from the slave labour, those who were employed in the plantations were paid very poorly. The workers could not afford to live well due to the low income they earned from the cotton farms though they continued working. Thi s influenced the later movement of people from the colonial farms to the urban areas in search of greater income and better working conditions. There was use of child labour in cotton growing.In Rhode Island, Samuel Slater in 1970 reconstructed spinning machines to establish a 72-spindle mill (first successful water-powered spinning mill in America) . Young children between 7-12 years were employed to operate machines. This left cabin and domestic weavers to weave yarn into cloth. This was referred to as â€Å"Slater or Rhode Island system’ and was later emulated by manufacturers in other states. Cotton production increase can be attributed to the inventions of machines in the textile industry, availability of cheap or slave labour and increased investment of capital and growth of the agricultural economy with time.In 1973, the south produced 10, 4510 bales of cotton, then 177,824 bales in 1810 after the invention of cotton gin. This later increased to up to 7 million bales by 1850. In conclusion, cotton had both positive and negative effects on the economy of the states where it was grown in the early 1800s. From those many years, cotton has become one of the most important textile fibre in the world. From few regions where it was grown, it has spread to many areas while technological advancements have increased its productivity. References Paul . S, Neal S, Clifford. C, Kett. F, 2008. The Enduring vision . A history of the American people

Human Rights Abuses Of Fiji Essay - 2466 Words

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