Microsoft Word doctoral thesis final[1]. doc

 
2.5 SUMMARY 
 
 
This chapter has considered various aspects of leadership in relation to academic women 
in general and to women in academic leadership positions in particular. Having looked at 
the impact of the ‘new managerialism’ on academic women, the discussion continued to 
include women in leadership by examining  aspects of leadership study such as the 
distinction between leadership and management,  and female leadership style. 
 
Kotter(1993) and Zaleznik(1993) take the view that there is a distinction between 

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leadership and management and leaders and managers respectively. The female 
leadership style was discussed within the context of a changing management culture and 
shown to be more suitable than male leadership style as it seems to be convergent with 
new and softer management discourses. Be that as it may, critics believe that evidence of 
female leadership style gathered so far is inconclusive as it is based largely on anecdotal 
evidence and results from contrived laboratory studies. Following on this discussion, the 
theoretical and practical aspects of academic leadership at academic department level 
focused on the roles, responsibilities, exercise of power and challenges of departmental 
headship. The role of HoD is fraught with ambiguity and conflict which are sources of 
stress for the HoD. New demands are placed on the HoD in addition to the existing 
requirements of the job. The HoD is now expected to be both intellectual and 
entrepreneurial. There are now more challenges in the job than ever before. Academic 
leadership now includes areas of corporate management such as budget oversight, 
marketing, personnel management and such like. A case study of women in academic 
leadership positions is used to illustrate how women perform some of their roles and 
responsibilities and how they exercise power differently to men. Women also tend to be 
more transformational in their leadership style than men and their feminine qualities of 
caring and nurturing are what may be required by organisational cultures of the future. 
However, at the same time, there is concern that in the academe the new organisational 
cultures (with their emphasis on business principles of management) may be problematic 
for academic women. There is therefore ambiguity in the fact that on the one hand there 
are discourses of inclusion and arguments for more feminine qualities of leadership, and 
on the other, the male dominated culture of competition and success still persists within 
organisations. From this perspective the ‘new managerialism’ may present an obstacle to 
women aspiring to be leaders.   
 
The literature reviewed in this chapter has highlighted the debate concerning female 
leadership especially female leadership style. It may be concluded that women in 
management face the same dilemmas as their male counterparts. Nevertheless women 
encounter additional dilemmas because of their gender. Their leadership style may be 
viewed with suspicion if it does not conform to the accepted leadership schema, yet in 
this new age of management there are calls for the very female leadership qualities and 

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behaviour which is perceived as weak. Women managers and leaders can only help 
themselves and those under them by exercising the kind of leadership and management 
style that comes most naturally to them.  
 
The next chapter explores the phenomenon of women’s under- representation in 
academic leadership and management positions in higher education in South Africa and 
the UK, with particular reference to their statistical representation and the obstacles 
preventing their advancement. 
 
 

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