Think transformational leadership – Think female?

Abstract

This study examines whether the behaviors of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership are perceived as being more typical of female or male leaders. In a questionnaire study, 113 participants in Germany were asked to rate the probability of occurrence of a specific leadership behavior for male and female leaders, respectively. A diagnostic ratio for each leadership behavior allows the determination of the direction and degree of gender-specific evaluations. As predicted, transformational leadership is believed to be more typical of female leaders. Nevertheless, inspirational motivation and idealized influence attributed are rated as being gender neutral. For transactional leadership, contingent reward was perceived to be more typical of female leaders, whereas management by exception was rated as neutral. Contrary to expectation, laissez-faire was not perceived as more typical of male leaders, but rather as gender neutral. Implications regarding potential gender biases for selection, training, and performance appraisals of leaders are discussed.

The communality-bonus effect for male transformational leaders – leadership style, gender, and promotability

“…There was no significant difference in the expectation of autocratic leadership behaviours, between female (M = 4.72; SE = .19) and male leaders (M = 4.57; SE = .17), F(1, 44) = .49, p = .487, η 2 p ¼ :01. In line with earlier research (Stempel, Rigotti, & Mohr, 2015), these results suggest that evaluators hold differential expectations about transformational leadership depending on the leader's gender. The finding for autocratic leadership is surprising, because in the past agentic behaviours were found to be expected more of men than women (Diekman & Eagly, 2000).…”

Measuring Transformational Leadership in Establishing Nursing Care Excellence

“…In this study, the female NMs reported higher level of Management-By-Exception (Passive). However, previous studies [58,59] confirmed that female groups tend to show TL styles more often. The discrepancy may perhaps be attributed to the over-representation of female gender (86%) in a small sample (n = 78) in this study.…”

Feminist Ethics and Women Leaders: From Difference to Intercorporeality

“…Women's leadership often focuses on the distinctiveness of female leaders, women's proclivities for particular styles of leadership such as more participation-orientated approaches, or how gender is not a factor in leadership 'effectiveness' at all (Stempel et al 2015). For others, there is novelty value in seeing women in leadership positions, especially in visible spaces such as politics.…”