The relationship between gender and leadership business essay

The Topic of this dissertation is the relationship between gender and leadership in the education industry — how leaders with different gender affect their employees and how employees feel about the gender of their leader, as this could be a good positive effect on the institution or a negative effect. Perspective views from both leaders and employees of an educational organisation are going to be discussed in this dissertation as an organisational study. Moreover, the theories of the gender and leadership topic are from previous research is used as expansion of results from educational organisation are covered in this research. 1. 1: Background of studyThe student body in universities have changed significantly during the last half century. The enrolments rates for female and male university students are about even at 50% for each gender group but in some educational institutions the female rate surpasses the male enrolment rate (HigherEducationStatisticsAgency, 2012). With the number of female student bodies increasing year by year, it might be assumed that leadership in education institution would reflect the demographics of this increased majority. However in reality this has not been the case. According to the statistics shown, 44. 5% of all academic staff in the UK were female (HigherEducationStatisticsAgency, 2011/2012). But when it comes to senior positions such as professorships, only 20. 5% were held by women. Similarly, across all other roles in educational organisation, including management and services, women are well represented but again feature poorly in leadership positions. This means men still continue to dominate in the most coveted leadership positions throughout the education profession. Despite equal opportunities legislation and a gender gap continues to persist in this area of academic profession. Women are still at a disadvantage in becoming leaders. Although there is a trend of a gradually increase in the proportion of women leaders, there is not a significant change (Coleman, 2002). Moreover, Shirley Hufstedler who is the first American secretory of education said, ” The large gender gap in education leadership reflects the large gender gap in every other profession and business.” The reasons for the gender gap have long been debated and many theories have been advanced to explain the existence of the gender gap in leadership and the different leadership styles between men and women. Masculine management model is characterised by power, competitiveness, hierarchical authority, lead from front, higher control of leader, unemotional and analytic problem solving. On the other hand, feminine mode of management is characterised by cooperativeness, collaboration of managers and subordinates, lower control for the leader, and problem solving based on empathy and rational (Loden, 1985). This leadership stereotype theory of Loden was actually first developed earlier by Sargent, Hennig and Jardim. They raised the ideas of sex-differentiated managerial behaviour including those who are managers in organisations (Sargent, 1981, Hennig and Jardim, 1979). On the other hand, most researchers on social science have generally agreed the theory that in fact there are no reliable evidences to prove the differences in the ways how women and men lead. Although a few of them have acknowledged that there are some evidences for gender differences in leadership style among research participants. Those researches have suggested that there are few differences in the leadership and management styles of men and women (Bartol and Martin, 1986p. 278, Brown, 1979) but most of them have agreed that women and men who occupy leadership roles in organisations behave in similar way in leadership styles (Nieva and Gutek, 1981, Stogdill and Bass, 1981; p. 499, Kanter, 1977). In the opinions voiced in popular and social scientific writings is the fact that these two have based their conclusions on quite different kinds of data. Authors such as Loden based their conclusions primarily on their own experience in organisations as well as on the impressions they learned from interviews with practicing managers. Social scientists typically based their conclusions on more formal studies of managerial behaviour in which data were gathered via questionnaires or behavioural observations and analysed. In the views of social scientists personal experience and interviews are not accepted in their conclusions. They only accept data from more formal empirical research on leadership. Even in recent years, there are still some people believe that males were better suited than females to become leaders. It is because masculine leadership style tend to be more autocratic and directive while feminine leaders tend to take more democratic and participative approach (Powell, 2011). The social expected the women to grow with some specific personality, for example, ‘ submissiveness, passivity, avoidance of aggression and competition and reticence to take risk’ (Fondas, 1993). In summary, the background issue is relating to the gender are the most pronounced in the disparity between numbers women or men better as academic leaders. 1. 2: The background of the research organisationLimited company (A) is an organisation that provides quality assurance for all aspects of the educational organisation. Limited company (A) is there to help improve employees’ knowledge, skill set and attitude in order to refine their business performance to their customers. Limited company (A) provides courses on the most comprehensive range of technical, business applications, project management and service management, and management & personal development. As a department of Limited company (A), Business School (A) developed a partnership with the University XX to deliver degree courses that are directly relevant to students’ studies and future employability. On the other hand, the other department of Limited company (A) which is adult IT education department that provides short IT course with proof of certification for those people who at work and need to develop their IT skills through these programmes. Generally, in organisations, when people talk about leadership, they are usually referring to the person or persons in the top most senior positions who have the most power and influence within the organisation. However, department managers are also the formal leaders. They have to be responsible for the work of the members that are under them and everyday activities of the organisation. Even though they don’t have as much power or influence as the senior managers they still have the power to hire or fire staff, inspire and guide the staff that are already working in their department. Thus, making department managers leaders within each area and department with the organisation. 1. 3: Research questionsThe educational access, opportunity and experience of educators in British educational institutions is influenced and often limited by their gender. Gender discrimination impacts the academic, emotional and economic lives of educators. The pivotal role educational leader play in how to improve the issue of institutional gender discrimination makes it essential to examine cultural artifacts for insights into the expressed and implied values, beliefs and commitments of future educational leaders regarding gender issues. This study examines gender focused educational leadership in the last decade as indicated by the dissertation title. As we became aware of the problems of the gender inequality in leadership positions in an educational institution. The research that has been carried out on an educational organisation (A) is to provide a systematic method, quantitative and qualitative integration results of the current view point from the employees in which the leadership styles of men and women were compared and statistical analyses were performed on the resulting data. A set of research questions are listed below: What are the current satisfaction rates of the managers and the leaders in both Business School (A) and IT Training Department (A) from their employees? Which gender of leaders/managers have the higher satisfactory rate from their employees on average in Business School (A) and IT Training Department (A)? Why is there a gender gap in educational organisation? What value do leaders place on different aspects of school leadership generally? What do employees think of their leader’s characters in respect of their leadership styles in Business School (A) and IT Training Department (A)? What are the ways that management of Business School (A) and IT Training Department (A) can do to improve effectively employee satisfaction to their leadership? How do the leaders with different gender affect their employees’ working styles? The management advantages and disadvantages of each gender leading style. What specific knowledge or skill about best practice in leadership do employees suggest their leaders to learn so they can improve to be a better leader? What professional development activities add significant value to the work of educational leader? How do different leaders perceive their leadership roles and what value do they place on them? How prepared are employees for leadership positions? These questions focus primarily on aspects of the view points from the employees of their leader’s leadership capability and perceptions of school leaders, rather than on the leadership capacity of the schools within which they work. The questions also link with elements of different leadership styles of different genders. In particular, they address issues that connect with how best to make provision for school leadership development. 1. 4: Aim and objectives of the studyThe objective of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between gender and leadership in educational business industry. To differentiate whether different gender lead to different leadership style behaviours can be identified in a sample of educational organisation (A)To differentiate impact of different gender of leadership of education administration on educational organisation at both the school reputation and school ranking. To differentiate impact of different gender of school principals on employees’ self-perceptions of satisfaction with their principal, and employees’ self- perceived effectiveness to produce desirable educational outcomesTo identify the unique leadership challenges and opportunities of women facing in educational industries. To understand how gender plays a role in organisation, personal and society as advancement or obstacle. To develop more effective strategies for managing multiple departmentsTo learn how successful woman negotiate for what they need to be an effective leader. To examine the relation between gender of school principals, school learning environment constructs and antecedent variables; and identify, using quantitative and qualitative data gathered from respondents, leadership strategies that enhance teachers’ perceptions of school learning environment, and teacher job satisfaction. 1. 5: HypothesisA several of hypothesis were developed to serve as the basis for critically analysing both the quantitative and qualitative data collected during the investigation. People always think that male and female leaders have different leadership styles and working performances. Even in recent years, there are still some people believe that males were better suited than females to become leaders. It is because women tend to employ a more democratic, participative style while men tend to take a more autocratic, directive approach (Powell, 2011). The society expects that women to grow with some specific personalities, for example, ‘ submissiveness, passivity, avoidance of aggression and competition and reticence to take risk’ (Fondas, 1993). The main prediction of this study is that gender-stereotypic differences in leadership style are less pronounced in organisational studies (of educational organisation (A)) comparing occupants of the same managerial role than in leadership studies of other types. It is because the specific characters of the female personality make them more suitable than men to be the educational organisations leader. Beyond this prediction, our purposes as reviewers are primarily descriptive and exploratory, even though other predictions might follow from the issues we have discussed. For example, if, as suggested, female managers often face a less supportive environment than male managers and these women might strive so hard to overcome anti-female prejudices that they behave counter stereotypically as a result. The ratings of leaders’ behaviour could produce findings that are more stereotypic than those produced by measures grounded more firmly in behaviour. Rather than set forth a series of speculative hypotheses that take these and other considerations into account, we prefer to present our review and to discuss such issues as they become relevant to interpreting our findings. 1. 6: SummaryThis chapter outline the problem, aims, hypotheses and research question to be addressed in the present research. The next chapter describes the research methodology that was employed to address the hypotheses and research questions posed. Chapter 2: Literature review2. 0: IntroductionThe purpose of this chapter is to review literature to the present investigation in order to place the focus areas of this study – the relationship between gender and school leadership. 2. 1: Definition of leadershipIn an organisation, leadership usually defines as the ability to influence other people to move towards and achieve the organisational objectives (Garfield, 1992, Wilcox and Ebbs, 1992, Wall et al., 1992, Covey, 1991). The U. S. Army had mentioned that ” Leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation — while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization”(U. S. Army., October 1983). Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent