Chapter-I: 1. Background of The Study
Chapter-I: 1. Background of The Study
Chapter-I: 1. Background of The Study
INTRODUCTION
1. Background of the study
Leadership remains one of the most difficult topics in Organizational Development,
especially for the purpose of research and finding a consistent approach or model.
Leadership tries to influence people and provide environment to work in order to achieve
individual as well as organizational objectives. In this process, a leader has to play
several and distinct roles from common people, and there is thus an obvious need for
effective leadership in our organizations. It is the ability of a leader or manager to
influence people by designing, teaching, serving and offering environments and
opportunities for the progress or prosperity of people and organizations. Effective leaders
are the creators of vision, manage through communication, empower employees and have
self-understanding. Emerging approaches of leadership include transformational
leadership, charismatic leadership, transactional leadership and attribution theory of
leadership. There are still various issues yet to be investigated by the behavioral scientists
in different areas of leadership.
Thus, leadership is always directed by Vision and goals. It is the ability of influencing
people after developing organizational vision and goals. Some of the past researches
noted that all managers are leaders whereas all leaders are not necessarily managers.
Another research states that an employee may be a good performer at his or her job, but
not be a leader; a good manager may not be an effective leader.
Leadership is both a process and a property. As a process, leadership involves the use of
non-coercive influence. As a property, leadership is the set of characteristics attributed to
someone who is perceived to use influence successfully. (Moorhead, Griffin, Irving and
Coleman, 2000)
Leadership is a special case of interpersonal influence that gets an individual or group to
do what the leader wants done. (Horn, Hunt and Osborn, 2000)
Leadership is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. (Robbins,
1998)
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Leaders should provide the environment to work in order to achieve individual as well as
organizational objectives. In this process, a leader has to play several and distinct roles
from common people, and therefore, we have an obvious need for effective leadership in
our organizations. Taking into account the statement by Senge and Other definitions
given by experts, leadership behavior in organizations refers to the ability of a leader or
manager to influence people by designing, teaching, serving and offerings environments
and opportunities for the progress and prosperity of people and opportunities for the
progress and prosperity of people and organizations.
There is not any single theory to understand leaders’ behaviors. There are different
perspectives of leadership that were developed in different times.
Generally, there are four major leadership styles that are in practice in current world.
They can be briefly discussed in following points.-
1. Directive Leadership: refers to the degree of instruction and clarification made
by the leader explicitly to work for subordinates. It is the same as task-oriented
leadership style where leaders are more concerned with task requirements and
task achievements. Such leaders lead for greater task satisfaction when tasks are
more ambiguous or stressful than highly structured and highly defined. In
contrast, this style is not useful to satisfy subordinates when they have high-
perceived ability or considerable experience.
2. Supportive Leadership: refers to the degree of support that a leader wants to
extend to his or her subordinated to achieve goals. Such leaders are friendlier,
respect all subordinates and are highly concerned for status, needs, problems and
wellbeing of employees. Supportive leaders are successful in getting high
employees performance and satisfaction when subordinates are performing and
satisfaction when subordinates are performing structured tasks.
3. Participative Leadership: refers to the degree of opportunities that a leader
provides to his or her subordinates to participate in decision-making and problem-
solving. Leaders with participative attitudes encourage subordinates and ask for
their suggestions before making a decision. Employees with a high degree of
internal locus of control will be more satisfied with degree of internal locus of
control will be more satisfied with the participative type of leader.
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4. Achievement-Oriented Leadership: refers to the degree of encouragement that a
leader provides to subordinates to reach their goals. In order to make
achievements in the organization, the leader sets challenging goals, expects
employees to perform to achieve them and believes that employees do their best
to achieve these goals. When tasks are ambiguously structures, a leader can
motivate by increasing expectancies of subordinate employees, convinced that
their efforts will lead to a high performance.
Leadership involves “establishing direction”, including developing a vision and
strategies for getting there; “aligning people,” including the communication of the
desired direction and securing cooperation; and “motivating and inspiring,” which
Kotter asserts often requires “appealing to very basic, but often untapped, human
needs, values, and emotions.”
It is clear that the dominant leadership style in organizations undergoing a large-
scale OD effort must feature or move toward extensive use of employee
involvement at all levels. Furthermore, leadership must be of a team and team-
process variety. That is, leadership must be conceptualized as a highly interactive,
shared process, with members of all teams developing skills in this shared
process.
Real, substantive delegation is critical for individual empowerment, and is
particularly important as organizations move toward self-managed teams. Skills in
consensus decision making are needed, and individuals and teams need to see that
they are influencing the course of events.
Until very recently, the general perception of business management was a structure
dominated by males whose leadership style was hierarchical, action-oriented, and even
quasi-military. But now a new generation of women is bringing to business a style often
described as more consensus-building, more open and inclusive, more likely to encourage
participation by others, and even more caring than that of many males.
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Smart companies are making room for a diversity of styles, encouraging the development
of women leaders along with the men.The fortunate businesses are those in which these
differing styles become complementary rather than confrontational. Men and women are
learning the strengths of each other's approach. Many women are incorporating the best
of the traditional styles, such as focus on performance, into their leadership portfolios,
while more men are adopting the so-called "soft" approaches that women use effectively.
The timing may be just right now. Recent studies shows that an increasing number of
business people are expressing agreement that women are especially suited to leadership.
Moreover, according to the studies, leadership based on greater openness and interaction
with people is especially suited to a contemporary work force whose members identify
with such traits far more than previous generations did. That is particularly true, the
experts say, of today's better-educated work force.
The various researches also indicate that in many ways, women are more successful than
men at traditional, day-to-day tasks of management. Co-workers rate women higher in
such skills as hiring the right people for the job, developing and coaching subordinates,
and organizing, monitoring and controlling the work of others. Co-workers also find
women better at creating a vision and setting clear direction and high standards of
performance. They understand that personal success is dependent on the support of
others. Contrary to common stereotype, women are better team players than men. They
are better at communicating and keeping people informed important skills in flat, non-
hierarchical organizations. They are able to put the success of the team first, using
influencing skills rather than authority to accomplish objectives.
• team players
• democratic
• transformational
• reward-oriented
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Managing a diverse workforce may well be an easier and more natural task for women.
Personality testing shows women managers have less traditional values, are more tolerant
of differences and are less bound by social conventions. This is not surprising considering
that twenty years ago when today's women managers entered the workforce, conventional
wisdom said women should not be managers.
Women leaders are seen by coworkers as more inspirational role models than their male
counterparts. With all this going for them, why aren't women moving into the executive
suite at a faster rate? Discrimination and organizational obstacles, supported by historical
and cultural norms, are certainly part of the problem. In addition, women can help
companies be more competitive because they see business opportunities as a result of
their own experience.
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• To study about why aren't women moving into the executive suite at a faster rate.
• To study about the Conflict Management Styles of Women Managers.
• To know about the Obstacles faced by female managers in the context of this
male-dominated society.
1.5. Significant of the study
First of all, it is the fact that this study is undertaken to apply the theoretical concept and
knowledge of leadership styles of women Management to the practical aspect as a partial
fulfillment of the requirement of Master of Business Study (MBS) under faculty of
Management, Tribhuvan University. This study would contribute an overall look at the
coming up women participation in management to be taken by the bank and the factors
that should be taken in consideration while preparing the next year’s policy. The main
significance of the study is:
1. It will be valuable property for the overall banks.
2. The study will be used as a pilot work for the future research.
3. It will be helpful to other Banking sectors as well as other service sectors like as
hospitals, colleges and manufacturing sectors.
1.6. Limitation of the Study
Findings of the study are very useful for both academicians as will as researcher.
However, the present study suffers from many limitations. Only six banks will be taken
as a sample including two joint venture banks, two governmental banks; and two private
banks. This study also included only fiscal year 061/062 to 066/067. This study also
included (opinions of senior female officers) data from six commercial banks that are
situated in Kathmandu Valley. Hence, the results of report cannot be assumed to extend
beyond all commercial banks or to different study periods or different locations.
Future research should be conducted on another banking sector like as
development bank, other service sector like as hospitals, college and manufacturing
organizations.
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CHAPTER-II
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. Introduction
Researcher needs sequential steps to adopt realistic study or studying a problem with
certain object/objects in view. Therefore, through research methodology researcher can
get appropriate guidelines and knowledge about the various sequential steps to adopt a
systematic analysis. Research methodology is the investigation tools of any certain area
and it means clearly observation of certain object.
2.2. Research Design
The main objective of research work is to evaluate the leadership styles of women
managers in Nepalese banks. To complete this study, following design and format has
been adopted.
2.3 Nature and Sources of Data
Mainly, the study is conducted on the basis of primary data. Standard questionnaires of
work quality index (WQI) and multi-factor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) are
administered.
2.4 The Population and Sample
Out of numerous banks situated in Kathmandu Valley, Six banks will be taken as a
sample including two joint venture banks, two governmental banks; and two private
banks. 20 Questionnaires will be administrating for collecting primary data through 100
respondents of six banks. In order to conduct the research work successfully and
effectively, various data will be collected and analysis will be made. There are mainly
two sources of data-primary and secondary. In primary data, 20 Questionnaires
(concerned with Leadership Styles of women manager) will distributing to senior female
officers of banks because it is related with women managers leadership styles of
Nepalese banks. 100 respondents will give their opinion through 20 Questionnaires from
and sample banks.
Secondary data will be collected from annual report and website etc.
2.5 Tools for Analysis
Different tools have been selected according to the nature of data as well as subject
matter.