یک چارچوب صلاحیت رهبری زنان از منظر رهبران مرد A female leadership competency framework from the perspective of male leaders

Introduction Despite governmental guidelines and growing evidence that diversity at the top management benefits overall performance, globally, the gender gap in top leadership positions remains significantly high (Masters, 2017, Catalyst, 2016; Doldor and Vinnicombe, 2015). While exceptions exist and a number of women do successfully attain senior leadership positions, they then face the challenge of operating in a working environment that is dominated by male leadership styles and shaped by the understanding that women are less capable leaders (Ryan et al., 2016; Cook and Glass, 2014). Furthermore, women are confronted with stereotypical thinking because executive leadership has long been associated with, and successfully carried out by, men (Chizema et al., 2015; Jackson et al., 2014). A major problem that female leaders face is the contradiction between the expectations which people have of women and how they expect a leader to behave (Broadbridge and Fielden, 2015; Ely, 2015). More precisely, the keycompetencies shaping the success of male leaders may not align with those that women in similar positions require (Gartzia and van Engen, 2012). Therefore, arguably the specific set of competencies required by female leaders operating in a male-dominated industry is shaped by not only contemporary leadership challenges but also social gender role bias and how female leaders are perceived and respected by their male peers. Within this context, it is imperative to look at the specific competencies female leaders require to succeed in male-dominated business environments, especially because the understanding of effective leadership is seen to be changing in the light of the contemporary and fast developing business environment (Chin et al., 2016). While many gender-related leadership studies take an emancipatory stance to highlight the discrimination of women in leadership, this study will provide a different perspective on the gender debate by focusing on the complexity of the competencies required of women in male-dominated leadership environments. The purpose of this study is to develop a competency framework that incorporates the key competencies required of female leaders working in male-dominated industries by putting particular emphasis on the male leaders’ point of view. Opinions of male leaders have been given very limited attention in this context so far, despite their high impact on the challenges that female leaders face and the correlated competencies required to overcome these. Therefore, this supplementary viewpoint provides unique and valuable insights and a new lens for the debate why only few women reach the top of organisations.