Presentation prepared by: Ryan Murphy

Presentation to: Claire Furlong

Date: XX/XX/XX Presentation prepared by: Ryan Murphy. Date: XX/XX/XX

Women in World

Athletics Seminar

12th – 15th April 2013

Supporting partners

Women Leaders in Sport

Professor Christine Coupland

Loughborough University

School of Business and

Economics

Presentation prepared by: Ryan Murphy. Date: XX/XX/XX

Supporting partners

Aims of this session

• To examine the meaning and nature of leadership

• To outline the different theories and approaches to leadership

• To question why leadership is gendered

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ

What do academics think leaders

‘do’

–They influence

–In a group context

–Towards a desirable goal

–To an extent leadership is like beauty; it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it’ (Bennis, 1989)

What are the differences between leadership and management?

Leadership

• Instigate change

• Strategically align people

• Motivate people

Management

• Deal with complexity

• Organize staffing

• Control the day to day

organization

• Solve problems

Roles of a Leader Roles of a Manager

nMotivate and inspire

nSet direction/vision

nAlign employees

nPlan and budget

nOrganise and

staff

nControl

Managers and Leaders

Where are the leaders in sports?

• Is a coach a leader?

• Is an official a leader?

• Is a board member a leader?

• Is a sports person a leader?

• Do you need status to be a leader?

Academic views on the nature

of leadership

• Trait theories (popular until the 1940s)

• Style approach (popular until the late 1960s)

• New leadership theories (1980s onwards) – Transformational leadership

– Superleaders, post-heroic leadership

– Distributed leadership

• Who needs leaders? (moving into the early 21st century)

Trait theories

• Influenced by great man theory

– Strong drive for responsibility

– Focus on completing the task

– Vigour and persistence in pursuit of goals

– Venturesomeness and originality in problem solving

– Drive to exercise initiative in social settings

– Self-confidence

– Sense of personal identity

– Willingness to accept consequences of decisions and actions

– Readiness to absorb interpersonal stress

– Willingness to tolerate frustration and delay

– Ability to influence the behaviour of others

– Capacity to structure social systems to the purpose in hand.

– Stodgill, R. (1974)

• Developed out of personnel testing movement in the period following WW1

• ‘Great Man’ model

– Leaders are born, not made

– Possess a combination of innate traits

• Assumes cannot train people to be leaders

• Focuses on personal characteristics of leaders

– Personality traits

– Intelligence

– Motivation

Problems with trait theories

• Limited evidence that personality traits, intelligence or motivation is related to effective leadership

• Contextual & cultural differences ignored

• Focuses on heroic leaders

• Doesn’t consider followers as well as leaders

• Has a gender bias

Gender bias in trait theory

• Traits that are supposed to be characteristic of

leaders have been historically attributed to men

– Assertive, influential, independent

• Traits that are supposed to be characteristic of

followers have been historically attributed to

women

– Accommodating, responsive, collaborative

• Socialization – not genetics!

• Stereotypes of typical man and typical

manager/leader are almost identical

• Effective leadership is related to ‘so-called’ masculine

traits (aggressive, forceful, independent, decisive)

• Men are more likely than women to have negative

views of women managers

• Women’s performance is judged more critically than

men

• Male culture is prevalent- power rests in men’s hands

• What options are available to us?

Style approach

• It is not who/what you are it is how you do it that

matters

• Two ways to get people to do things:

– Employee-centred behaviour

– Job-centred behaviour

Behavioural differences in style

•AUTHORITARIAN - power rests with the leader for

decision-making, arbitration, control and reward or

punishment, who alone exercises this authority

• DEMOCRATIC - these powers and responsibilities

are shared with the group in the same way

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=jSw_FyUyFMg&NR=1

New Leadership

• Leadership in the 21st Century

• 2 related trends:

– 1) Recognition of the role of heroic, powerful,

charismatic, visionary leaders

– 2) Recognition of the role of informal

leadership at all levels

Transformational leaders

• A charismatic inspirational figure motivating

followers to superlative levels of achievement

• Transactional leader

• Transformational leader

• Charismatic leadership is about persuasion

• Framing: defining the ‘vision’ in a way which produces excitement

• Rhetorical crafting: using metaphors, language, emotions - politicians are good at this!

• But

• We are not cultural dopes, but ‘imaginative consumers’ of leaders’ visions

Super leader

Is a leader who leads others to lead themselves

• Develop leadership capacity in others, making them

independent from formal leaders

• Argue for ‘real teams’ - small number of people with

complementary skills, working towards common goals

for which they are mutually accountable

• Leader is a facilitator, who builds confidence,

commitment, removes obstacles and creates

opportunities

• So, leadership, is this a legitimately gendered

occupation?

The double standard

• He’s ambitious

• He’s having lunch with the boss he must be doing well

• He gets on well with people at work

• He’s moving on – he must be a good worker

• She’s pushy

• She’s having lunch with the boss, they must be having an affair

• She’s always gossiping

• She’s moving on - women are so unreliable

• (Dawson, 1986)

Some argue

• Androgyny is the way to go!

• Best characteristics from both gender stereotypes

• Research says there is no convincing empirical

support of there being a difference in

effectiveness of males and females

• But males are evaluated as more effective

• Why might that be?

Research shows

• People respond more favourably to men who are self-promoting but the opposite is true for women

• (Wosinka et al, 1996)

• Women have a choice they can convey modesty and be more appealing but appear less competent

• (Carli, 1999)

• Clear bias against women in promotion, development and supervision

• (Rosen and Jerdee, 1974)

• Imagine a socially skilled, physically attractive,

successful and intellectually competent person

How do we challenge the stereotypical

assumptions around leadership?

• Women fail to assert themselves

• Women fear success

• Women are unable to speak in public

• Do these stereotypes apply to you?

How do we challenge the stereotypical

assumptions around leadership?

• Are we complicit in acting out stereotype?

• Consider how identity works in everyday life - three

distinct ‘orders’

– The individual order

– The interaction order

– The institutional order

So, taking that into account

• If we consider that gender is a performance

• Then we can perform differently in different contexts

• Knowing this is possible might be all we need

• Believing the stereotype is our biggest barrier

You are here because you like what you do and

are good at it

– Aspire to do more

• Women bring to board level activities:

– Different experiences and perspectives

– Different knowledge and connections

– Are representative of some of the members

– Are good for business

Tell yourself – I can do more if I want to

• Thank you for your time

• Good luck with your future choices

• Any questions?