Table of Contents
1.
Introduction*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦
*€¦..XX
2. Barriers for Women
*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦…*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦..*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦XX
Glass-Ceiling Effect*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦..*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦.XX
Perception*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦.XX
Womens Perspective*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦.*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦..XX
3. How do Women executive work?…………………………………………………………………..XX
Expressiveness *€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦.XX
Emotional Intelligence (EI)*€¦*€¦..*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦XX
Leadership Behavior*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦…*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦.XX
Leadership Style*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦..XX
Motivation Profile*€¦*€¦*€¦..*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦.XX
4.
Conclusion*€¦*€¦*€¦…*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦..*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*€¦*
€¦..XX
Introduction
Leader is defined as the person who organizes a group of people to achieve a common
goal.
The leader is the agent who is ultimately responsible and accountable for an organizations
strategy, design, and performance (Dalton and Kesner, 1985). Executive roles have mostly
been occupied by males in the past and also today. However, there has been a small but
significant shift in the distribution of the roles positively for women recently. This paper
examines the level of participation of women in executive positions, the difference of
genders in their leadership styles, and the success in executive positions.
Womens participation in corporate life has been rapidly increasing in the last two decades
but their occupation in executive positions is still significantly low. In 2010 46.7% of all
labor forces were occupied by women, however in 2011 only 16.1% seats on executive
boards and 14.1% of executive positions in Fortune 500 companies were occupied by
women (Catalyst, 2011). The ratio of women in executive positions has been increasing
recently but the increment is quite modest; 14.6% board members in 2006, 13.5% CEO
positions in 2009 in Fortune 500 companies. Many researches have tried to find an
explanation why women have difficulty to reach the top levels of a company. Dawley et al.
listed the reasons as;
i. lack of line experience
ii. inadequate career opportunities
iii. gender differences
iv. gender-based stereotypes and males perceptions
v. the good old boy network at the top
vi. differences between female leadership styles and the type of leadership style expected
at the top of organizations,
vii. the possibility that the most talented women in business select an entrepreneurial
carriers instead of being in corporate life
viii. Gender roles
ix. Self-Efficacy (Dawley et al., 2004)
The untold rules of the business may create a hostile environment for women as well.
Cotter developed The Glass Ceiling terminology to define the unseen barriers for women
to reach top positions in corporate life (Cotter, 2001).
While the women experience various obstacles on their way to the executive positions,
they, in fact, play their role as a leader differently than men. And, it is argued that this
difference may even positively affect their management abilities. There are different
leadership models according to different perspectives. In one of them a transactional leader
and a transformational leader are defined. A transactional leader (Burns, 1978) focuses on
the performance of the team to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the teams
achievement. Punishment and rewarding power gives the leader the opportunity to lead the
team and the team agrees to follow his/her leadership to reach the predefined goals. The
leader has the power of evaluating, correcting, and training the members to increase the
productivity to the desired level, and rewarding them when the goals are achieved.
However, a transformational leader (Burns, 1978) motivates and encourages the team to
take more responsibility, to be more effective. The leader has good communication with
his/her team; the communication is the key for achieving the goals. This type of leader
shares his/her vision with the team and the necessary information is given the subordinates
when they are doing the job. The transformational leader focuses on the big picture,
therefore he/she usually needs transactional leaders/managers to overcome the details and
to achieve the predefined goals when he/she focuses on the ideas. In todays world, the
behavior of leaders moves towards the direction of transformational leadership. It may be
advocated that men have heavily occupied the executive seats and have exerted rather
transactional leadership until recently, however, with the transforming world, as
communication becomes more and more important; a need for a different kind of
leadership emerges. It is argued that with their higher emotional intelligence women may
better fit these seats. (Bass and Avolio, 1994; Sarros et al., 2001)
Barriers for women
Glass-Ceiling Effect
Gayle and his colleagues in their research found that the probability of a female to become
a CEO between ages 30-39 is only half of a males probability, and the expected duration of
being in this position almost half of the males; average duration for a woman is 3 years and
that of a man is 5 years (Gayle et at., 2011). The low representation of women in executive
positions can partly be explained by either a glass-ceiling effect. Here, the glass ceiling
effect implies that a female gender becomes a disadvantage at the higher levels of a
hierarchy. It is not only that though; Haslam and Ryan (2006) reveals that women face an
additional, and equally invisible, barrier beyond the glass ceiling. They argue that,
compared to men, women are more likely to find themselves on a glass cliff, such that
their positions of leadership are associated with greater risk and an increased possibility of
failure, and can thus be seen as more precarious.
Perception
Womens perspective
How do women executive work?
With increasing diversity in workplace, women are moving into the roles that used to be
occupied by men. The journey for women in a mens dominated environment has been full
of obstacles which included hostile work climate, stereotyping, denied access to power,
overcoming their outsider status, dealing with stringent male counter parts and getting
accepted in the group.
Women style of leadership is a relatively unstudied area. However, few reports show
women as they tend to demonstrate a transformational approach of leadership (Bass and
Avolio, 1994a, Bycio et al., 1995, Yammarino, 1997). Womens are found to be more
