Gender differences in leadership : leadership styles and subordinate satisfaction within the employment and training corporation

Abstract

An important issue that has becoming a catalyst for researchers when studying leadership is gender leadership differences. The first research conducted on gender leadership differences came from the field of psychology. This has become an important issue due to the increase in females occupying managerial posts. Different studies have been conducted in gender differences in leadership styles to check whether or not there any differences in the way women function as leaders. The conclusions have been contradictory. Some argue strongly that there are differences, while others declare just as strongly that there are no differences. Another issue that research has investigated is what subordinates think regarding having a male or female as their leader. Even here one can find inconsistent results from different studies. Bass and Avolio (1995) developed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Form 5X), to measure to what degree leaders exhibited transformational, transactional and passive / avoidant leadership styles. Various models exists of the MLQ, but the one used to test gender leadership differences consists of thirty-six items designed to measure nine subcategories of leadership styles. On the other hand, to measure the perceptions of subordinates towards gender differences in leadership the ‘Satisfaction with My Supervisor Scale’ developed by Scarpello & Vandenberg (1987). The scale consists of eighteen statements on the performance and ability of the supervisor. This research is primarily concerned with the possible differences in gender leadership styles of subordinate satisfaction related to gender leadership. This research has been conduct within the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC), using the simple random sampling, seventy self-reporting questionnaires which were distributed using the SurveyMonkey application to the ETC employees. The general findings from this research indicated that the gender differences in leadership show a significant and a positive effect for male leaders in the three different leadership styles – transformational, transactional and avoidant / laissez – faire leadership styles. Also it was noted that female leaders only hold lower levels managerial positions. One final finding was that subordinates prefer to have a female leader.