The Impact of Education, Gender, Age and Leadership Experience On Preferences In Leadership

Abstract

Meta-analytic studies have found that men and women are different in areas such as how they approach morality, forgiveness and leadership, Similarly, meta-analyses have found that increased education is related to increased self-esteem, job attitudes and social capital, In this study, 577 working adults from the state of Texas completed the Project Globe Leadership Questionnaire. The participants indicated to what degree 24 leadership behaviors contributed to or inhibited outstanding leadership. This study found that both gender and education were related to the intensity with which participants believed particular leadership characteristics contributed to and inhibited outstanding leadership. Women held stronger opinions than men about the benefits of five aspects of leadership generally considered to contribute to outstanding leadership: integrity, team-oriented, participative, humane-oriented and diplomatic, Women also held stronger opinions about the liabilities of four aspects generally considered to inhibit outstanding leadership: conflict inducer, self-protective, autocratic and malevolent. Formal education was related to stronger ratings of the importance of integrity, charisma, performance and team orientation. Formal education was also related to stronger ratings of the degree to which self-protective, face-saving, autocratic, self-centered and malevolent behaviors inhibit outstanding leadership.