Management
The Problem Discussed in the Article
The problem, that is discussed in the research paper “Leadership styles of men and women in the Arab world” by the specialist Zahi Yaseen is quite actual till our days. The author chose the United Arab Emirates for the investigation. Men were traditionally dominated in the majority of issues in Arab countries. In this case, the place of women and their rights in society were limited. The woman’s struggle for equal rights for women and men took place in the most of the Arab countries for a long time. It impacts on the current management of the companies by women and their leadership style in Arab countries. This problem is in the spotlight of research paper. The main purpose that the author seeks to achieve in his paper is to examine leadership style of Arab women, using different approaches. The author uses three main kinds of leadership styles: transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire. It should be noted, that men and women strongly differ in their behavior and effectiveness in the same top management position. Given that, it can be a lot differences in the leadership styles of women and men.
The Hypotheses
It should be noted also, that there is no one universal definition or model of the leadership style. The author of the research makes some conclusions that concern features of women and me leadership styles. For example, as an author found out, women’s leadership style can be considered as more democratic in comparison with style of men. On some measures of the above mentioned approaches women leaders exceed men leaders. There are four such transformational scales. They include:
the attributes version of idealized influence,
intellectual stimulation,
inspirational motivation,
individualized consideration.
On the other side, there are some scales on which men exceed women leaders. For example, men leaders exceed women ones on two transactional scales. The last ones are
management by exception passive,
management by exception active.
At the same time, women exceed men in contingent rewards.
The last, laissez-faire leadership style is more characteristic of men leaders than women ones. Thus, the most important hypothesis of the author is that women can be effective leaders and even more responsible than men leaders in the UAE organizations.
The Importance of Research
As we know, globalization processes significantly impact on the different sides of society life as well as business. The most important principle of the current society system is equality of all people without reference to their nation, gender, age, religion and other factors.
More companies enter markets of new emerging countries and become multinational ones. Staff in these companies can be different and hiring process must be also the same for candidates-women as well as for candidates-men. In this case, the equality of women’s and men’s rights is crucial aspect of effective development of each company. Leadership style is one more issue that can impact on the entire company and its activity. Selection of candidates for the top managers should be based only on their skills and abilities, regardless of gender.
This issue has received special relevance at the present stage, in conditions when the processes of modernization occur the Arab society.
The Methodology
The methodology of this investigation is based on the surveys and questionnaires. There are three main leadership styles which are used by the author in this research. They are:
transformational style;
transactional style;
laissez-faire style.
Questionnaires, which are used by the author in his research, are based on the multi-factor system. Almost all participants were from the UAE. All participants are the managers who often make decisions. The total amount of respondents is 100, in which sixty are men and forty are women. The survey is based on the ratings of manager’s subordinates, peers, other subordinates, or by the managers’ themselves. The purpose of such survey is to indicate how frequently a manager (men or women) is engaged in the behaviors, which are typical of the several sub-scales of different leadership styles:
the five sub-scales of transformational leadership,
the three sub-scales of transactional leadership,
the one laissez-faire scale.
The main goal of such survey is to determine whether Arab women can be effective leaders.
Literature Review
The questions, which are investigated in this article, are also presented in the papers of other authors. For example, most of the Arab specialists agree that traditional values are the main roadblocks behind equality of rights between women and men (Ablah, 2004). For example, schools for boys were opened much earlier than schools for girls.
It should be noted that religious traditions significantly impact on forming of leadership styles and the entire management system of the Arab companies. Islamic tradition has a great influence on the formation of the character of the Arabs. The church is separated from the state in the majority of Western (European) countries. At the same time, public behavior, politics and business are determined by religious norms in the Arab world, including the UAE that is analyzed in more detail in the article.
The Arabs still be convinced that men and women have different personal qualities. Social affirmation of women is possible only within the family. The more sons woman has, the higher respect is for her. Working woman still remains a great rarity even in big cities. Above mentioned norms are changing slowly but surely due to the influence of globalization processes and modernization.
Nowadays there are a lot of differences in behavior of men and women. It can impact on their leadership styles. Such specialists as Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt (2001) indicated agentic and communal attributes to describe above mentioned differences. The agentic behavior focuses on the tasks, problems and influence attempts. The second type of behavior focuses on the relationships and interpersonal problems. Specialist Carli and Ealy (2001) indicated that women display more positive behavior in society than men. As for leadership styles, women usually use a transformational style rather than transactional (Pounder and Coleman, 2002).
Nevertheless, a lot specialists, including Gallant and Pounder (2008), highlight the barriers that face women in employment issues in the UAE. In this case, this problem needs further instigation.
The study’s assumptions, limitations and potential for future research
The results of the research, which are represented in the article, show the following characteristics. The most important limitation is a small sample. The number of representatives is limited by 100 people. There is also disproportion in women and men as respondents: 60% are men and only 40% are women. Another limitation is connected with the lack of real top managers among representatives, It should be noted that there is quite difficult to find such women as top leaders of the companies and interview them. One more limitation is linked to the subjectivism of answers. The investigation is based only on questionnaires and answers of respondents. There is no any information about family, age, education, job opportunities, career growth of each respondent. Such investigation must be based on the interview group of top managers and leaders, who can be classified in the same category (age, education, position at work).
Further investigation must be conducted to test current findings and expand the number of leadership styles and sub-scales, which are used in this investigation.
Conclusion
In conclusion one can say that women can be effective leaders equally with men in the Arab world. Women exceed men in the following sub-scales:
transformational scale: idealized influence (attributed), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration.
At the same time, the men exceed women in scales of transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles:
management by exception (passive);
management by exception (active);
scale of laissez-fire leadership style.
Thus, it can suppose that despite the continuous inequality of men and women in the Arab world, women leaders can be effective as men. Anyway, further investigation is extremely needed to test current findings of specialist Yaseen.
This article is devoted to the issue of leadership styles, which are characteristic of women and men in the Arab world, primarily in the UAE. The chosen issue for the article can be considered as quite actual for our days, because there are a lot of examples of inequality between men and women in the Arab world.
The specialist Yaseen highlights in his article that men and women leaders differ by their behavior and effectiveness in the same job positions. The structure of the article is clear and understandable. It has an introduction and conclusion. The main body of the article is divided into six parts:
women in the Arab world;
leadership styles;
empirical search comparing male and female leadership styles;
laissez-faire, transactional and transformational styles;
research methodology;
findings.
Yaseen chose three leadership styles for his investigation. The specialist has analyzed a lot of research papers of other authors. For example, he highlighted the research that was conducted at the Cairo University in the new millennium, in Iraq and the UAE. The results show that women’s employment in the UAE and the Gulf region still significantly lags behind the world average rates. Thus, the gender equality is still a severe problem in the Arab world.
Next part of the article is devoted to detailed analyze of main leadership styles, their special features, advantages and drawbacks. According to Yaseen, laissez-faire style is more common for teamwork, in which the individuals are very experienced and skilled self-starters. The next style, transactional can be considered as a way of managing rather than a true leadership style. The transactional style focuses on the short-term tasks. In this case, the organization pays the team members, in return for their compliance and efforts. Such leadership style cannot be appropriate for knowledge-based or any creative work. Despite this, it remains the most common style in many organizations.
The last, transformational style differs by that leader inspires his team more than in other styles. Transformational leaders spend a lot of time communicating. Their main purpose is to increase initiatives among staff and add value to the work results of the staff. Yaseen shows that both, transactional and transformational styles must present in the company in order to manage it effectively.
Research methodology of Yaseen is based on the data collection and statistical data analysis. The main method that was used for research includes survey and questionnaires. Specialist investigated all three leadership styles for men as well as for women. The sampling for research mounts 100 respondents. In our opinion, it is a quite small number of representatives. One more limitation of this investigation is that women are less than men among respondents. The age is not taken into account. One more limitation concerns the absence of factors system that must be the main in the selection process of the respondents for the further interview. It should be noted, that there are no any figures or charts which can describe the results of research.
The main findings of Yaseen’s investigation include the following points:
the women exceed men on four scales of transformational leadership style;
the men exceed women on two main scales of transactional leadership style;
laissez-faire style is more characteristic of men: men usually avoid making crucial decisions and they usually delay responding to the urgent questions.
In conclusion Yaseen indicated, that Arab women’s leadership styles can be considered as more democratic that men’s one. But other findings must be tested in further research. It can also help to identify mechanisms underlying these findings, including religion, traditions and the structure of the organization.
Works Cited
Ablah, M. Arabian Women in Work, Arabian Organization for Management Development, Cairo, (2004): 8, 66.
Carli, L, Eagly, A,. “Gender, hierarchy, and leadership: an introduction”, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 57 No. 4, (2001): 629-36.
Eagly, A, Johannesen-Schmidt, M. “The leadership styles of women and men”, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 57 No. 4, (2001): 629-36.
Gallant, M, and Pounder, J, “The employment of female nationals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE): an analysis of opportunities and barriers”, Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Vol. 1 No. 1, (2008): 26-33.
Pounder, J, and Coleman, M,. “Women – better leaders than men? In general and educational management it still ‘all depends’”, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 23 No. 3, (2002): 122-33
Yaseen, Zahi. "Leadership Styles Of Men And Women In The Arab World". Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues 3.1 (2010): 63-70. Web.
