Women Leaders: Gender Roles, Trust, and Effects on Organizational Performance in Educational Material Distribution Enterprises

여성 리더의 성 역할과 신뢰가 조직 유효성에 미치는 영향: 교육교재 유통기업을 대상으로

Purpose - Since the early 1990s, it has been observed that the number and substance of studies on female leadership have been increasing. One of the reasons for this development may be concerned with the increasing number of female labor market participants as well as the greater opportunities for them to take higher positions in various organizations. In addition to this, the transition from mechanistic organizational structures that emphasize authority, control, and efficiency toward organic ones that focus on environmental adaptability, equality, and trust has also encouraged research on female leadership. The research tendency is based on the assumption that male and female leaders tend to exhibit different leadership styles according to their gender differences. Recent research has cast doubt on this assumption, by showing that the sociological gender roles of men and women are independent such that some female leaders show authoritative and control-oriented leadership, which were once considered to be male leadership styles. Research design, data, and methodology - This research attempts to carry out an empirical study on the gender-related leadership styles of female leaders and to examine their effect on group performance in the K business organization. This study also focuses on leader attributes such as trust, and it aims to discover whether these attributes should be regarded as independent or as moderating variables between leadership styles and performance. For these purposes, this study generated four hypotheses based on a review of the literature and it tested them using a survey. Female workers in the sales departments of the K Company, all of whom are women, were asked to provide answers to the presented questionnaires. This study hypothesizes that the type of gender roles played by women leaders will affect the job satisfaction and organizational commitment among the members of the sales group, and that the level of trust that is garnered by women leaders will also affect the types of gender roles that they play as well as employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Results - The results of this study show that both androgynous and masculine leadership styles are superior to the feminine leadership style in terms of employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, contrary to our expectations, this study fails to show the superiority of the androgynous leadership style over the masculine leadership style. Moreover, there are no significant differences between these two leadership styles with regard to group performance. Conclusions - This study shows that it is important that different attributes of leaders, such as how trusted they are, be treated as moderating variables between leadership and performance rather than as independent variables. Finally, as this is the first attempt to view the role of the gender in a new perspective, the managerial implications of this study for leadership research, as well as its limitations, are presented. Suggestions for future related research are also proposed.