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Gender equality and sexism in business
Challenges of women in leadership
Theory on women leadership
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Recommended: Gender equality and sexism in business
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” (Peter F. Drucker). This is a famous quote about leadership that myself and one of my interviewees agree on. I chose to interview two leaders about their role in leadership and their opinions of gender in the workplace. The two people I chose to interview are very genuine individuals who have been leaders in their work for years. The first one is David Lanzon. He currently owns several local small businesses around Metro Detroit and the Maumee Ohio area, leading hundreds of employees. I know him from when I worked at one particular location that he owns. He has been involved in business his whole life, since he was an early teenager, and has thus excelled tremendously. The second interviewee is Virginia Milliken. She started up and helped her husband, Pat, run a car dealership in Redford, Michigan for over 50 years. Virginia’s husband Pat Milliken is the uncle of my mother. Both people have ambitious leadership skills so there is so much to learn from them about the workplace.
During the interview ...
The different leadership styles of men and women was discussed. Women prefer democratic and participative styles while men preferred autocratic styles (Landy & Conte, 2013, p. 508). Women can tend to be more interpersonal where men are more focused on tasks versus worrying about how their staff
The gap between men and women produce three important concepts that reason the difference. First is the discussion of the better leader- men or women? It has been studied that women approach their followers with an interactive style with the encouragement of sharing power and information with others, participation, and self-worthiness to others. On the other hand, men have a consistency to be more task-oriented in their leadership styles and emerge in short-term conditions. The simple claim that women are just different than men, can be argued with the idea that men have effective traits for leadership. Women are less likely to negotiate and as a leader, this leads to lack of communication. And as discussed, leadership’s main ingredient is communication. Without it, nothing gets across to followers, and nothing is reciprocated to leaders. As a leadership position becomes larger and larger, (such as a CEO’s leadership position) there are fewer and fewer women holding these positions. The biggest question is why? Generally, females and males share the leadership values, work equally as hard to accomplish their goals, and react accordingly. Society plays a huge role in the gender gap. Some jobs aren’t even offered to women because of their gender and women
Powell, G., Butterfield, D., and Bartol, K. (2008). Leader evaluations: A new female advantage? Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23, 156-174.
Walker, Henry A., Barbara C. Ilardi, Anne M. McMahon, and Mary L. Fennell. "Gender, Interaction, and Leadership." Social Psychology Quarterly. V59 n3 p255, 1996.
When we think of leadership, many people may think of current or former presidents. They could also think of their boss at work or coach from whatever sport they participated in throughout grade school and college. What were the traits that distinguished them for their role as a leader? One of the most common traits that exist in many areas is that leaders are typically males. Even looking back in history leadership roles where highly monopolized by male figures. Washington, Napoleon, and even God is identified as male. One of the most resistant areas that this discrimination exists in is the military and more so the Marine Corps. It is important to develop an understanding of the benefits of equally
Dictionary.com defines moral as “Founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations.” Different theories have surfaced throughout the years to attempt to answer questions like, what are morals, what make some people have more conscious thought than others, and how do we acquire them. According to Estep & Kim (2010), the moral values have been separated into four moral definitions, “Psychoanalytical, Conditioning, Moral Potential, and Cognitive/Moral Reasoning.” These different types of moral reasoning helped Billy Graham to achieve, project and maintain the excellent Christian Leadership skills he exhibited throughout his life. Billy Graham saw leadership as a privilege, and became more conscious of his role as a Christian leader to avoid even the appearance of evil. This mindset helped Billy Graham to avoid situations where he could be tempted to engage in activities against his moral standards, and helped him to grow into a leadership role ordained by God.
Powell and Graves’s study shows that “the gender gap in leadership is a global phenomenon whereby women are disproportionately concentrated in lower-level and lower-authority leader ship positions compared to men” (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 399). I couldn’t have agreed more with the statement; I have come across all of people from different aspects of lives. I have noticed that females’ interactions and how they are perceived and or accepted are quite different from males, whether at the workplace, school, in social gathering like religious services, around families and friends, etc. This includes the communication, uncertainty that arises in a professional environment that must do with our
As I sat down with Jordan Fisher, on April 30th, we looked out the window to a gloomy, rainy day. It was wet and nasty day, but Jordan agreed to sit down with me to discuss his position as an HR officer. Jordan started with the Federal Government, 30 years ago at the age of 20. Now 50 Jordan is looking forward to retiring with his wife, stating “I enjoy it here, I really do—but I can’t wait to retire.” While Jordan plans to work for one more year before retiring, the knowledge and experience that he has gained from the position will never leave him. Jordan has been a very successful H.R. official because he has integrity, used effective communication and proper documentation.
I chose to interview Regina Geis, who holds the administrative role as acting supervisor for the County Mental Health adult day program, which provides services for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Ms. Geis has held this position for 15 months. This is her first managerial position within a human service agency. Her style of management has changed over this short period of time. She feels that she is now more direct with her direction with staff. She stated, “Maybe now I come across as a little bit cold. But I have learned that I now have to use the least amount of words to get my point across.”
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Leadership is increasingly important in today's society. Many experts and scholars point out that the current leadership crisis concerns moral and character problems in many leaders (Ahn, Ettner, & Loupin, 2012; Callahan, 2004; Wright & Quick, 2011). The following interview report is intended primarily for exploration and comparison of the traits and characteristics of leadership. A leader of a clinical medicine centre was interviewed for this report. The purpose of this report is to explore the leadership characters and traits, and how they can be developed in this turbulent environment. First, I make a brief introduction regarding the background of the respondent and her working environment. The report also describes this leader's personal and subjective perceptions in relation to a literature review which investigates the traits and characteristics of leadership. The report concludes with a comparison and discussion of the results of the clinical condition on the basis of the interview and literature review. At the same time, the report aims to put forward feasible and effective advice and specific programs for present and future leaders and managers in the health care system.
To inspire and influence others, a leader must possess many skills and abilities. As motivational speaker Peter Northouse, states, “a leader should be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant” (Northouse, 2013) Moving an entire group of individuals toward a singular goal is a considerable undertaking. Without effective communication skills and a clear vision of what needs to be accomplished, one will feel like they are trying to herd cats rather than leading.
The reading assignment for this unit included reading several articles and one book in particular, The Female Advantage, by Sally Helgesen as an introduction into varying leadership styles. Leadership, as a honed craft is practiced continually in different ways and varying circumstances, no two individuals will have the same leadership style. Certain distinctive traits brought into the forum and on display for followers to observe. Some traits can be visible, clothing or skin color as examples, others, however, are not as visible such as upbringing or family situation. Each of these factors could play a role in the leadership style of a leader. One trait that the author of the book uses to distinguish leaders is gender. As much as men and women must be treated the fairly and equally, it cannot be denied that outside of the biological aspect, men and women are slightly different. Each gender brings a unique approach to leadership situations.
The article begins with a subject that many women are already familiar with- the “delicate balance” required to hold a leadership position. Experts have shown that being too aggressive can lead to negative consequences while being too “feminine” causes the individual to be seen as weak. This concept is known as the “double blind.” This leadership dilemma, according to the article, is due to the lack of female leaders to be observed; this causes male leadership styles to be observed and adopted by women. After identifying this obstacle, The Wall Street Journal discusses an essential strategy to overcome these struggles; finding a mentor. Since leadership is largely learned through experience, finding a successful female role model to learn from has been proven to be highly beneficial. Whether it is within the workplace, or through a community of leaders; women can freely receive feedback of their efforts without being portrayed as weak. With this opportunity, upcoming leaders can become more comfortable in the workplace and find their balance of an assertive, yet feminine, leadership
Many people associate leadership with a specific job title or form of power within an organization. However, through personal experience, I have concluded that leadership can come in many forms and position as well as from multiple sources of roles and job titles both with and without power. Based on the definition of leadership, anyone can be considered a leader as long as they have the ability to influence people to achieve a particular result or goal which benefits the organization or group as a whole. Individuals with a secure sense of self and understanding, acceptance of diversity within an organization tend to be the strongest leaders that not only make others want to follow, but they also encourage other leaders to gravitate to their