Analyzing Leadership and the Role of Sex and Gender Research Paper

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Leadership and the Role of Sex and Gender

Previous studies have revealed that gender roles and gender may both be predictors of the emergence of leadership. This paper will examine the impact of the above variables, using role congruity and expectation states theories. With respect to gender, males will most likely emerge as the leaders in case of gender-neutral and masculine tasks, while females more likely dominate the domain of feminine tasks. The process may be explained in terms of performance expectations the society has for females and males with regard to specific tasks. In the gender role context, androgynous and masculine personalities will most probably come forward in the leadership role across a range of tasks. This arises out of congruence between androgynous and masculine gender roles, as well as the stereotypical example of the leadership role. It appears that (in western societies, at least), model leaders remain stereotyped in male/masculine terms, with the prototype best matching with an androgynous/masculine or male leader. Further research into leadership emergence ought to integrate gender role as well as gender for examining which variable represents a more powerful predictor of the emergence of leadership.

Introduction

A vast number of studies have been dedicated to the understanding of factors linked to the emergence of individuals as group leaders. Two characteristics identified are gender role and gender. Previous studies have consistently proven that males typically bag or assume the leadership position. This trend has been ascribed to external and internal obstacles that limit the emergence of women as leaders. But recent studies indicate that a shift has occurred in society's acceptance of females in the leadership position; some obstacles that historically kept women from assuming leadership positions have, perhaps, already been surmounted (Kent & Moss, 1994).

Further, changes seem to be taking place in societal views regarding the significance of stereotypically feminine and masculine leadership characteristics. Prior studies have overwhelmingly linked masculine characteristics to leader emergence. However, latest studies exhibit slightly divergent views. According to researchers, female managers are considered successful middle managers having stereotypically feminine as well as masculine characteristics. Also, studies indicate that adoption of an androgynous style of leadership can help females get over stereotypes that earlier kept others from viewing them as leaders (Kent & Moss, 1994).

The American military is witnessing an ever-growing number of female employees. Previously, women's functions and roles were largely limited. However, improved military opportunities for them, together with the accompanying demands over a decade of conflict, have led to a historic growth in proportional representation as well as absolute number of females in all services in the U.S. Just like in the military field, females in private sector jobs have witnessed a growth of opportunities within the past 40 years. Now, females head the top management teams of as many as twenty-six Fortune 500 firms, compared to just one firm in the year 1972. Further, the number of women in executive posts -- once an area reserved exclusively for males -- continues to rise (Catalyst, 2016). Just like with females in military organizations, women in business have encountered considerable challenges when progressing to top private sector ranks and continue being underrepresented there, in spite of gradual improvements. Of late, appreciable focus has been given to the gender dynamics element in corporate USA. However, a vast gap exists in literature, with regard to women's experiences in military organizations. A majority of female leader scholarships have concentrated on gender issues or workforce integration; this paper will concentrate on females in leadership roles. It will build on available literature, closing the gap existing between civilian professional and military women's experiences. Moreover, it will integrate findings from a large number of individual and group interviews of females in military as well as private sector organizations, at all career stages.

Literature Review

In spite of a recent growth in the number of females holding leadership/managerial posts, they continue to be underrepresented in highest military and business levels. Genders of the leader and evaluator are typically related to recommendations for leadership. A 2004 study performed by Looney and colleagues at the U.S. Naval Academy researched into whether the evaluator's gender and attitudes pertaining to gender role had any relationship with recommendations for promoting female or male lieutenants in the navy. Participants comprised of 39 females and 69 male midshipmen, who were made to complete a "Male Masculinity Role Norm Scale" and "Attitudes toward Women Scale" many weeks before commencement of experimental intervention. In the course of the intervention, participating naval officers were assigned on the basis of gender to look into a female/male lieutenant's fitness report and rate him/her for leadership qualities and suitability for promotion.

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Compared to female leaders, the males reportedly possessed fewer leadership traits with an associated emotional element. Irrespective of the evaluator's gender, support for officer promotion was linked positively to emotional traits and leader attributes, and negatively to 'felt' negative leadership traits.

Gender-role Effects

Owing to conventional gender stereotypes, possessing feminine traits is apparently detrimental to leadership emergence, while possession of male/masculine traits is considered beneficial. But, with the recent female movement, increase in the number of women managers, mass entry of females into the labor market and workforce, and a shift in the society's perceptions of gender roles, a blurring definition has been witnessed in the previously unambiguous and explicitly defined gender roles. In principle, femininity and masculinity do not essentially denote exact correlates of gender. Hence, people can possess either feminine or masculine traits, or both. Considering the changes to society's attitude towards women's roles and their advancement into leadership posts, one can safely state that modern women possess more male characteristics than their counterparts of previous generations (Kent & Moss, 1994). A large number of research works corroborate this argument. Research has revealed that female students in MBA (Master of Business Administration) courses self-reported higher masculine traits than feminine traits. Moreover, females who have opted for managerial or traditionally masculine careers have quite likely spurned conventional gender stereotypes and more likely grew up in households where the mothers held full-time jobs. Also, they possess attitudes that aren't correlated with an interest in the conventional feminine professions.

Numerous research works have depicted that masculinity is linked to leader emergence. A semester-long research on college-goers carrying out gender-neutral activities assessed the impacts of gender role as well as gender on leadership emergence. Study outcomes indicated that gender did not affect leader emergence, while gender roles did. In specific, irrespective of their gender, masculine participants would more likely become leaders than undifferentiated, feminine, and androgynous people. Similar results were produced by a field research. Female and male participants in the research who held high posts in an organization scored substantially higher on masculinity measures compared to lower-level employees. The above significant findings surfaced after control of numerous key demographic variables by the researcher.

Sex Effects

In the last thirty years, innumerable studies have been carried out in the area of leader emergence and gender. One classic 1969 research by Megargee explored the impacts of gender and dominance on leadership emergence. In an intended-gender-neutral activity, 69% of study participants who exhibited high ratings on dominance (which was measured using California Personality Inventory's dominance scale) and worked in same-gender dyads became leaders. In case of mixed-gender dyads with low-dominance females and high-dominance males, 88% of males became leaders. But in case of mixed-gender dyads characterized by low-dominance males and high-dominance females, only a fourth of females became leaders. A similar trend was observed through utilization of a masculine activity in the study. Megargee's original 1969 study has been replicated numerous times. Expecting shifting expectations of gender role by society to impact female leader emergence, a study that used a fairly gender-neutral activity generated similar results. A replication using a masculine task indicates that just 30% of high-dominance females in mixed-gender dyads became leaders. Females depicted slightly greater likelihood of emerging as leaders if feminine tasks were employed, though not likelier than males (Ozlen & Zukic, 2013).

Leadership Styles

In his 2011 research, Laurence underlined leadership jobs in current complex, unstable military duties. Further, he emphasized how leader growth is affected by sociocultural information. Military leaders need to vacillate between leadership styles and interpersonal collaborations as demanded by different conditions. Research endeavoring to ascertain if Fiedler's Contingency model can predict effective military leadership reported that this model proposed two styles of leadership: relationship-oriented and task-oriented. It further reported that, while some leaders were better-matched for the former style of leadership, others favored the latter. A research into determining leadership styles that are suited to individual branches of the American Army claimed that the USMA (United States Military Academy) could recommend appropriate branches to individual cadets. Further a recommendation was made for graduating army cadets to identify their preferred style of leadership, thus increasing military career satisfaction in general. Hence, fewer graduates of the Academy would retire from the military prior to satisfying their Army career. Lastly, it indicated that future researchers into this area could pursue a study….....

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