LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS OF ... - Drake University

5. Female hospital CEOs, while statistically more transformational and
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less passive-avoidant than their male counterparts3 do not demonstrate
practical differences in their leadership styles.
A statistically significant correlation between gender and leadership
style was established in this study; however, that statistical significance
did not translate to a practical difference. This study revealed significant
findings for both the aggregate scores of the 290 associates (N=290) and
the mean scores of the CEOs mean ratings (N=61). Two different
analyses of the data (separating and clustering the population) indicated
significant differences in the leadership styles of males and females. This
interpretation served to strengthen the statistical validity of the findings,
but did not change the practical findings. While statistically significant, the
effect was less than three-tenths of one degree on a 0-4 Likert scale.
Female CEOs were rated as exhibiting transformational behaviors and
traits "fairly often" (mean of 3.44) and male CEOs were also rated as
exhibiting transformational behaviors and traits "fairly often" (mean of
3.15). Therefore, while the means represent a statistically significant
difference between the genders, there is no practical difference in how
their behaviors and traits are perceived by others.
These findings are somewhat consistent with others (Bass &
Avolio, 1994; Eagly, 2003; Helgesen, 1995) who suggested that female
leaders had higher mean transformational scores than males. Yarnmarino