Research Objectives

It is evident that in order to reach the top of the management women experience some traits and barriers. On the other side it is popular belief that in political or organizational sphere, men dominate the leadership positions. However this research primarily focuses on the women leadership style and performance in the higher position of the organizations. Though the research tries to analyze the women leadership in large organizations it is also important to consider the lower level women business professionals and the managerial level aspirants. Through the research various aspects of women leadership in organizations will be explored. How women deal with leadership problems, how the women leaders takes certain strategies to improve organizational culture and how they develop leadership culture in order to manage the subordinates (Rhode, 2016). It will be useful to explore how the women leadership develops the characteristics like competent, knowledgeable, progressive and purposeful in the professional competitive world of business. The research also aims to demonstrate essential information and data that would highlight the issues and guide towards a solution.

• The objectives of this research are as follows
• To define the women leadership style in higher organizations.
• To find out what strategies women leadership implement to manage the work force.
• To investigate the difference and similarities between men and women leadership.
• To highlight the challenges that leadership face in the organizational culture.
• To examine the principles and theories that discusses the women leadership and present useful information.

Women leadership is a specific area that this research paper focuses on and following are the research questions that it would try to answer.

1. What leadership style do women leaders most often follow?
2. What are some challenges that women leadership experience? Are those challenges external or internal?
3. Are women leadership style is different from leadership style of men?
4. How successful are women leaders in large organizations?

This research will explore various existing theories and ideas that have been discussed in literature regarding the women leadership in business. The investigation will highlight certain information that would fulfill the research objectives. The exploration of the organizational challenges for the women leadership will not only help women business professionals to identify certain forthcoming issues but also to find out solutions for them. The research will also help to gather adequate knowledge over the chosen subject that will help the future professionals to analyze the area more effectively.

How are women represented in the higher institution? 

Does Gender Matter? Female Representation on Corporate Boards and Firm Financial Performance – A Meta-Analysis (2015)

This report by Peltzer et al. (2015) meta-analytically investigated the relationship between the financial performance and representation on management boards. The meta-analysis covered 20 studies related to 3097 organizations that have been discussed in peer reviewed journals. The studies demonstrated that only 14% of the corporate board members are women. 38% of the studies dealt with developing countries where rests of the studies are from developed countries. The study also presented that relationship between the women presence on the boards and firm performance through a random effects model. The result showed that the correlation mean weighted non-significant. The report concluded that if other organizational factors are not considered the women on the corporate boards cannot result in effective financial performance.

The number of women in leadership in higher institutions is lower than that of their men counterparts (2015)

According to Catalyst (2015) the trend for women leadership is progressing globally and about 4.6% of CEOs are women. In USA 16.9% of the head of corporate organizations are women and 8.1% of them are top earners. Though progress is happening now, it should not also get unnoticed that by 2013 the mentioned percentage did not progress for previous eight years. Catalyst also highlights that this static condition of women leadership from previous years underlines the lack of progress which led to a greater problem. Catalyst demonstrates that there was only one woman in the CEO list of Fortune 500 of 1998 but the number was 24 in 2014. Though the number has grown but once it is compared to the male counterpart or the stability of the growth rate for previous years the result is not as it should. However the situation is even better in Canada than other developed countries. The Statistics Canada (2012) reported that women hold 35.4% of all management positions and 22% of all senior positions of Canada. However the report also highlights the other side, where it shows that the number of women graduates has increased twice in last 20 years but the women leaders did not increase at the same rate.

Research Questions

Which factors influence women and men’s leadership in the most elite leadership positions? 

Gender and Perceptions of Leadership Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis of Contextual Moderators   (2014)

Underdahl, Walker and Woehr (2014) in this report primarily focuses on the gender differences in the top management level of large organizations. In the quantitative analysis the report addresses the male-female relationship with leadership effectiveness. In the meta-analysis the report selected 95 studies and took 99 samples. The report finally demonstrates the leadership effectiveness does not differ much for men or women leadership if the leadership contexts are judged. But this result also shows that in the self ratings men put themselves in the higher position than the women. The research also applied Role Congruity Theory to examine the contextual moderators.

How is education for women aligned with their career goals?

Understanding women’s experiences with women-only leadership development programs in higher education: A mixed methods approach (2016)

Geary (2016) explained that the women at top leadership have mentioned that the early childhood experiences and leadership exposure have developed their perceptions to the leadership ability. The professional women at the top management level expressed that their academic background and smart growing up were their origin of leadership capability. 86% of the women stated that they were taught to act nice towards others that help them in the leadership management. 44% believed that their education taught them to become a good leader and 34% learned during this phase that sharing point of view is an effective communication strategy (KPMG, 2015). However a significant number (76%) of the women in the leadership position believe that they feel they could have learned more about their leadership strategies during the academic years. 67% of the leaders also believe that the academic curriculum should have incorporated confidence building curriculum more.

Which are the experiences of those women in top-tier institutional leadership?

KPMG Women’s Leadership Study Moving Women Forward into Leadership Roles. (2015)

The women leadership has experienced many challenges and they had to overcome many fears but as the President of Nasdaq Adena Friedman explains that the any challenges she experiences, turns into motivation and finally that motivation grows to be her confidence. It is not like that the women leaders are always concerned about overcoming the challenges the management performance might get affected. Dalynn J. Hoch CFO, Zurich North America, Zurich Insurance Company believes that the stakeholders also put their credibility and capital on the line for them that help them to perform well in the leadership role. Maggie Wilderotter believes that the stretch assignments help them to utilize their full potential and maintain their high performance. However some believe that the performance of the women leadership must be appreciated more. Michelle Kydd Lee Chief Innovation Officer, Creative Artists Agency states that the coworkers, employees and business partners should recognize, celebrate, appreciate and reward when a woman leader does great work.

Organizational culture, traditional culture, and social systems, society, education, knowledge, and experiences are factors that influence leadership in higher institutions. 

Research Purpose

Women and Leadership: Factors That Influence Women’s Career Success (2013)

The thesis paper by Elsi Lahti (2013) investigates the factors that help women to reach in the leadership positions and the advancements in the career. This paper also presented data that state that globally male leaders are more in number than female leaders. The influential factors are also discussed factors that could increase the number of women leaders. The qualitative research is conducted in the empirical study in the thesis. The researcher interviewed four women leaders of large organizations in Finland and a number of digital questionnaires were delivered to other top women leaders.  The thesis demonstrated that factors like individual, organizational and societal influence the women leadership.  The paper extensively researched on the factors and highlighted that women’s competence, perception, traditional gender roles and organizational culture have influential role in the top level corporate career development.

Women and Leadership in the Church: insights from Gender and Management Literature (2015)

Kirkpatrick (2014) argues how the cultural and social practices ascribe specific roles for women.  In his qualitative study she highlights how media portrays certain occupational categories for women. The women are mostly represented in the domestic settings but if they are in the professional world they are often stereotyped. The women are rarely shown in the leadership position. Graveling (2015) argues that the social forces often play significant role for the women business professional which developed their self perception rather than their natural perception. The social role theories define the gendered messages that often decide the career development of women.

Women on Top: A Systematic Review of the Barriers and Challenges Facing Female Employees Before and After Entering Leadership Positions (2016)

Hampden (2016) highlights that women leadership in the workplace experience barriers and challenges that restrict their mobility. The women professionals fail to develop effective skills because of those restrictions. These barriers also affect the opportunities that they need for professional advancements.

I really didn’t have any problems with the male-female thing until…: Successful women’s experiences in organizations (2015)

It is important to refer what Demaiter and Adams (2004) argued in this context. They highlighted that most male dominated professions are historically designed by men for men. The job positions are supported by masculine strengths and supported by masculine strengths and focused on characteristics of men.  This results in positions for women that deserve unfavorable conditions and more working hours (Blau & Winkler, 2017). The general work environment was never focused on women professionals and often presents women with operational, structural and perceptual challenges. The gender biasness and discrimination have always been a part of male dominated professional world.

Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead (2013)

According Sandberg (2013) the female professionals tend to compromise with the career because of their partners or families.  Through her qualitative and quantitative research approaches she states that women professionals lack the aspiration to reach the senior position. The lack of women in the leadership position can be understood from two organizational aspects that are organizational culture and strategy. Sandberg concludes that the lack of organizational policies for supporting the career development of women and effective gender policies are two principle factors for causing such condition of women leadership in higher organizations.

Literature Review

Women and top leadership positions: Towards an institutional analysis (2014)

Cook and Glass (2014) discussed the value of organizational support and leadership opportunities in the progression of women leadership The explained the “Old Boy’s Network” where the men at the management leadership position tend to prefer friends and colleagues to take their positions and in this process the deserving women for the leadership position get left out. The men who attended the school or university together favor each other to ride up the corporate ladder.

Glass Ceiling for Women: A Barrier in Effective Leadership (2014)

They create the organizational structure such a way that enables men to reach the higher position easily. In this professional world of male dominance, women struggle to enter the leadership position, fight to destroy the gender bias and achieve the professional progression. Cormier (2006) with her interviews with the women corporate leaders demonstrates that the fight does not end with the women reaching the top position (Sharma & Kaur, 2014).

Women and Barriers for Upward Career Advancement (2016)

Saadin et al. (2016) applied quantitative approach to measure the decision making role in management.  The researcher conducted a survey to analyze the relationship between the gender stereotyping and work life balance.  The author chose 63 women members in the public service and used SPSS or Statistical Package for Social Science Version 20.0. The result represents that the factors play significant role in the career advancement of the women leaders.

 Why women still can’t have it all  (2015)

Slaughter (2015) discussed that the undervaluation of women leadership in the business world also affect their decision making capabilities. The author also talks about the invisible barriers that women face during the advancement to the next level. Slaughter (2015) points out now women from professional world not only aim for the top leadership position and demands equal treatment and opportunities. The women aiming for leadership also do not want to select one option between profession and family. The women who have achieved the leadership position are now more focused on sustaining the success and work not to lose the credibility.

People’s attitude towards women in society might have changed but the women in the business world are still considered to be less suitable for managerial positions. The main cause of this must be addressed otherwise the position and participation of women in the leadership position will remain in the lower side. The organizations must realize that resisting women from managerial progress is harmful for the organizations too, because they not only lose effective leadership potential but also the profit that their leadership could have generated. The researcher will be collecting primary data from the selected group of women business professionals.  Secondary data will be collected from researching websites, books and journals (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The researcher will be using existing data and previous knowledge in this research.

The research design will be exploratory in nature. Exploratory research is useful for researches where research problems are not identified clearly (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). The researcher uses questionnaire as the principle tool for collecting primary data from a selected group of women employees and managers. The questionnaire is developed to evaluate the women leadership styles, strategies in organizational culture and the preconceptions and attitudes about women leaders.

Survey questions will be used to gather necessary data from direct interviewing 40 women business professionals of business organizations. A structured and systematic questionnaire is used as a survey tool with three definite sections. The first section is designed to evaluate the participant’ opinions and attitudes focusing on areas like women leadership styles, characteristics, resistances, acceptance and expectations. Second section is designed to understand their awareness about progression and stability in the leadership positions. The third section will focus on the demographics of the participants.

The report will be applying qualitative approach. Qualitative elements will be used in this research to develop the mentioned approach. Qualitative data collection includes action research, interviews and observation (Myers, 2013). This research method will provide more in depth knowledge on the selected subject as it is more subjective in nature. Through this method the researcher will collect first-hand information from the interview participants who are capable of sharing experiences from real life.

The research will be focused on four month long exploratory investigation on women leadership system in 6 large organizations in Canada. From October, 2017 to December, 2017 about 40 women business professionals including few CEOs participated in the investigation. In empirical study of the research consists of corporate documents, in depth interviews and published document related to those selected organizations. All respondents from the data collection process were active members of the business organizations and many of them aspire to become CEO.

The research will be interacting with 3 women CEOs either telephonically or face to face. The researcher might find it challenging to manage the interviews as it is difficult get the appointments. However, the questions will be open ended and with more emphasis on the interviewees’ leadership styles, challenges and strategies. In this interviewing process non probability sampling method will be used.  The researcher will follow the ethical principles while conducting the research. The researcher will inform the respondents about the research aim and purpose. The ethical conducts will also be considered during the secondary data collection as well.

Activities	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
Selection of topic	ü
Literature review		ü
Research methodology			ü
Collection of primary data				ü	ü	ü
Collection of secondary data					ü	ü
Results and findings						ü	ü	ü
Analysis and interpretation					ü	ü
Conclusion and recommendation							ü	ü	ü
Final submission							ü	ü	ü

References

Blau, F. D., & Winkler, A. E. (2017). Women, Work, and Family(No. w23644). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Catalyst. (2013). Census of Fortune 500: Still no progress after years of no progress.

Catalyst. (2015). Pyramid: Women in S&P 500 companies. Retrieved from

Cook, A., & Glass, C. (2014). Women and top leadership positions: Towards an institutional analysis. Gender, Work & Organization, 21(1), 91-103.

Demaiter, E. I., & Adams, T. L. (2009). I really didn’t have any problems with the malefemale thing until…: Successful women’s experiences in organizations. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 34(1), 31-53.

Geary, D. (2016). Understanding women’s experiences with women-only leadership development programs in higher education: A mixed methods approach (Doctoral dissertation, Marquette University).

Graveling, L. (2015). Women and Leadership in the Church. Ministrydevelopment.org.uk. Retrieved 29 October 2017, from https://www.ministrydevelopment.org.uk/UserFiles/File/TRIG/Gender_and_management_review.pdf

Hampden, M. (2016). Women on Top: A Systematic Review of the Barriers and Challenges Facing Female Employees Before and After Entering Leadership Positions. Islandscholar.ca. Retrieved 29 October 2017, from https://www.islandscholar.ca/islandora/object/ir%3A12088/datastream/PDF/view

https://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-sp-500-companies

Jakobsh, D. (2012). ‘Sikhizing the Sikhs’: the role of ‘new Media’in historical and Contemporary identity Construction within Global Sikhism. Sikhs Across Borders. Transnational Practices of European Sikhs, 141-164.

KPMG Women’s Leadership Study Moving Women Forward into Leadership Roles. (2015). Womensleadership.kpmg.us. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from https://womensleadership.kpmg.us/content/dam/kpmg-womens-leadership-golf/womensleadershippressrelease/FINAL%20Womens%20Leadership%20v19.pdf

Lahti, E. (2013). Women and leadership: factors that influence women’s career success: female leaders’ reflections on their career development and leadership.

Myers, M. D. (2013). Qualitative research in business and management. Sage.

Paludi, M. A. (2013). Women and management: Global issues and promising solutions (Vol. 1). ABC-CLIO.

Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., Walker, L. S., & Woehr, D. J. (2014). Gender and perceptions of leadership effectiveness: A meta-analysis of contextual moderators. Journal of applied psychology, 99(6), 1129.

Pletzer, J. L., Nikolova, R., Kedzior, K. K., & Voelpel, S. C. (2015, January). Does Gender Matter? Females on Corporate Boards and Firm Financial Performance-A Meta-Analysis. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 12370). Academy of Management.

Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/media/catalyst-2013-census-fortune-500

Rhode, D. L. (2016). Women and leadership. Oxford University Press.

Saadin, I., Ramli, K., Johari, H., & Harin, N. (2016). Women and Barriers for Upward Career Advancement – A Survey at Perak State Secretariat, Ipoh, Perak. Sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567116000708

Sandberg, S. (2013). Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead. Random House.

Sandberg, S. (2013). Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead. Random House.

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Sharma, S., & Kaur, R. (2014). Glass Ceiling for Women: A Barrier in Effective Leadership. International Journal on Leadership, 2(2), 35.

Slaughter, A. M. (2015). Why women still can’t have it all (p. 100). OneWorld.

still-no-progress-after-years-no-progress

Thompson, N. (2016). Anti-discriminatory practice: Equality, diversity and social justice. Palgrave Macmillan.