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to the leader’s level in the organisation and the expectations of followers. Style also is a
function of the particular followers with whom the leader interacts.”
Although it is a general belief that women have a different leadership style to men, some
researchers (Blackmore 1999, Blackmore 2002, Rhode 2003) think it may be a problem
to lump all women together and treat them as if they were a ‘homogeneous group’
without considering differences such as race, class, beliefs, ethnicity, age
and sexual
orientation (Blackmore 1999:57, Rhode 2003: 18). In other words, all women are not the
same and as Rhode puts it, “ sweeping generalisations about women’s experience risk
over-claiming and over-simplifying” ( Rhode 2003:18). These ‘sweeping generalisations’
have to do with what Blackmore refers to as “the popular discourse about women’s’
leadership being flexible, democratic, valuing openness, trust and compassion, ‘humane
and efficient’” (Blackmore 1999:57). Osler’s (1997) study cited by Hall (2002: 23-24)
attests to the existence of differences in leadership priorities between black and white
women educational leaders. For black women, the overall aim
of educational
management is the promotion of racial justice, whereas for white senior educators, the
priority is running an effective school.
Whilst it cannot be denied that women have certain leadership qualities that are different
from men’s, such as the prevalent one of ‘caring and nurturing’, studies conducted so far
have not yet provided conclusive evidence about the dichotomy between male and female
leadership styles. What some studies have been able to reveal is that women seem to have
styles of leadership better suited to certain contexts than others. For instance, Blackmore
(1999:57) thinks that the popular discourse about women’s style of leadership “is
seemingly convergent with ‘new’ and softer management discourses that focus upon
good people management as the new source of productivity in post-modern
organisations”.
This section focuses on women’s leadership styles in the context of the
changing culture
of higher education. The position taken is that the changing culture is likely to have
certain implications for leaders and managers, such as the need to adjust from specialist
to generalist so as “to extend the range of their managerial skills and competencies, to
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manage complex change at a time when their performance is under constant scrutiny and
the resources they have to manage are constantly questioned and traditional career paths
are crumbling” (Dopson & McNay 1996:31).
Women leaders and managers are likely to experience adjustment problems as well as the
challenges of surviving and excelling in a more demanding work environment. They will
need to adopt new leadership styles better suited to the changing culture. Women’s
leadership styles are considered to be more suited to contemporary demands for ‘softer,
more feminine’ qualities. For instance, some studies have found that women leaders tend
to have transformational leadership styles which would
probably make them more
suitable leaders in the new corporate, academic environment which emphasises team-
work and where fresh values and visions are promoted and pursued. rather than
committee-work where, as Dopson and MacNay (1996:27) argue, “positional power and
the purse-strings are used to promote conformity to corporate objectives”.
In Jones’ (1997) study of African-American women executives, the leadership style most
respondents described as their approach to leadership was transformational
characterised
by “participative management, empowerment, team building, vision creation and hands-
on supervision” (Jones 1997:207). There seems to be a shift
in the new management era
towards more feminine styles of leadership which emphasise connectedness and
collaboration. This augurs well for the inclusion of more women in management
positions. Women managers are believed to be a new source of leadership talent because
of their organisational skills, their ability to share, communicate, listen to and empathise
with the needs of others (Blackmore 2002). Their more openly softer characteristics are
thought to be critical to new managerialism in post-modern organisations. Women’s
nurturing nature places them in a better position than men to exercise these more
spontaneously occurring ‘soft skills’ alongside the tougher skills already expected of
managers in a male defined managerial world. The ‘soft skills’ involve “motivating staff,
creating
co-operation, re-defining organisational values and beliefs, and re-aligning
management focus”(Karpin report 1995 in Blackmore 2002:60). What this
characterisation of women means then, is that opportunities exist for more inclusive
leadership in the changed culture of the university organisation. We may begin to see
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more and more women leaders in the academe as universities take on a more corporate
and less collegial structure as events in the external environment begin to shape and
redirect the internal workings of the university.
2.3.3.1 The debate concerning a female style of leadership
This is a disputed issue as indicated in the introduction to this section. To reiterate,
leadership studies have historically focused on male leadership styles. Traditionally only
males were leaders, and the factor of gender in leadership did not exist. But with the
emergence of, and increase in the number of female leaders, gender began to feature in
leadership studies with several researchers attempting to understand the differences in
leadership styles of men and women. Experimental and assessment studies carried out by
Eagly and Johnson 1990, Eagly et al 1992, as well as Adler and Israeli 1988 had
interesting findings. The results indicated that:
Women employed a more interpersonal style of leadership than did men who were
found to be more task-oriented. However in the real world of organisations, no
differences were found in both the laboratory and the organisational settings, in other
styles…women were typically more democratic than men employing a more
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