Leadrship, Process and Organisations - Essay Example

Women in the world of business are lagging behind in leading organizations because of some hidden barriers. Small and medium enterprises only have a ratio of 15% women leaders. In the current society women are trying to make up for their position and increasingly setting up these SMES. However it is seen that men still are dominant in the field of business. This is not the case with small businesses only but this can also be witnessed in the corporate sector where women are lagging behind. In order to find out the reasons behind such a difference several researches have been conducted.

A research carried out by Centre for High Performance Development (CHPD) clearly shows that women are dominant than men when it comes to the qualities of leadership. The research showed that women were effectively able to think, develop and achieve which are the required attributes of a leader. This clearly showed that women proved to be a better leader than men when it came to taking decisions and organizing the team. The chief executive of CHPD put this difference in these words “If you ask the right question, namely what is it you need to do to be effective in a very fast-moving, complex and competitive environment, and you get good ways of measuring that, you find that women are more capable than men” (Thomas, 2005). . A research by the firm Catalyst in 2001 showed that women do not get opportunities to express themselves as do men in real life.

Men at several instances can make up for their promotion by having the right contacts while women engross themselves within their field of job to get a promotion. Similarly self confidence also counts for the less participation of women leaders in the organization. It has been found that the morale of men is higher as compared to their counterparts (Smyth 1989, p. 102). An organization named Renew conducted a research on this to find out that 18% of the girls considered themselves to be leaders whereas 48% of the boys considered themselves to be leaders.

This gives a general image of the girls who grow up to be a part of a minority in the business world (Thomas, 2005). Many researchers have been struggling to define and explain the leadership traits, theories, challenges and related affairs. The importance that has been given to this area of research is the importance of leadership on employees, performance and overall success of the organizations. There have been a lot of facts and myths associated with the concept of leadership. Technological changes also require certain new traits in the people dealing with them.

The technology-intensive businesses may be taken as an example where leadership requires higher flexibility, technical knowledge, adapting skills to change, higher commitment and collaborative approach to work. Grace Hopper worked as a leader in U.S Naval Reserve and is known for her devotion and contribution in the development of programming languages. Her skills and knowledge about technical programming and innovative ideas like foreseeing artificial