Leadership among Asian and American Women - Assignment Example

Q 1

The author argues that role models play a critical role in influencing women to become leaders. The role models are the individuals who women admire and they are mostly higher in ranking. For example, a sales manager may admire the chief executive officer who is a woman. The sales manager gets motivated by the chief executive’s role and thus strives to follow the foot prints of the CEO in order to rise in ranking too. As Stead and Elliott (2009) argues, the role models are mainly individuals within the social network of the women. This is also indicated in the findings in the article, which indicate that most Chinese women choose their mothers as role models (Paus, Braun & Knipfer, 2015). This is because these women consider their mothers to be heroes who are able to balance work and family, an act that is difficult in the contemporary world.

Q 2

The studies of cross cultural leadership without taking gender into consideration mainly involves finding out the similarities and differences that exist in leadership in various cultures. These studies ignore the differences in the leadership of men and women in the various cultures (Marturano & Gosling, 2008). Yet, it is clear that most of the leaders in the world are from the male gender. Secondly, women and men adopt various leadership methods because of the society’s expectations. The society expects women to be good mothers and wives even while they are leaders; this causes women to adopt styles such as benevolence and democratic styles. On the other hand, men assume autocratic leadership because the past societal norms shaped them to be dictators both in their families and at work. Therefore, studies that do not consider gender may get different results from those that take this aspect into consideration.

Q 3

Primal Leadership Style

This leadership style that was developed by Goleman argues that a leader should use six dimensions of emotions to encourage others to work hard (Barker, Bormann & Neher, 2013). These dimensions include affinitive, coaching, coercive, pace setting, authoritative, and democratic techniques. The authors would have studied how women utilize these dimensions while managing workers in their organizations. Democracy requires the leader to allow others to state their ideas while coercion involves making workers to do the job. Setting the pace, on the other hand, involves formulating goals and passing them on to workers so that they may understand them and work towards their achievement (Barker, Bormann & Neher, 2013). This leadership dimension also involves creating challenges for workers to help open their minds so that they may become creative and innovative. Coaching and affiliation, on the other hand, involves showing workers how to complete their functions and creating harmony among employees in the company. This leadership style would have therefore enriched the research by showing how women in the Asian states and the US utilize these dimensions and the barriers they experience while using them.

Q 4

The differences in leadership styles in Asian states are noticeable compared to the differences between the US and Asia because of diverging meanings of various dimensions of leadership. For example, in the case of employee development, leaders in various Asian countries give different meanings to this factor. In India, women leaders believe that employee development aims at enabling workers to become leaders in the future; while in China, the leaders believe that this act is meant to enable workers achieve the goals of the company (Peus, Braun & Knipfer, 2015). However, in the US, employee development aims at advancing a person individually without laying emphasis on specific areas.

The differences between leadership in Asia are also more than those between this region and the US because of the differences in care givers responsibilities of women in Asia. For example, in India, a woman is expected to be a good mother and wife by default; whether in a leadership position or not and whether there is a house help or not. In other states such as Singapore, a woman may hire a maid who helps in providing care to the family, for example, by cooking and cleaning. This is similar to the US where most women leaders hire helpers to help them with household chores.

Q 5

According to Huer (2010), individualism is an American culture that lays emphasis on personal development. Collectivism, on the other hand, is a Chinese custom that emphasizes more on the community rather than an individual. Individual successes in the US are defined in terms of individualism because this is the way of life that Americans are used to since the country gained independence. In the US, an individual’s success is considered to be a God given right and therefore, a person must be willing to develop personally so that in the end the state may move forward. Therefore, in US, a person achieves success because of the inner will power to become a better person the next day than today. This is supported by the findings of the article where US women are found to take more risks than the Asian leaders so that they may develop individually.

However, in China, the successes of a woman are associated with groups because China is traditionally a communist nation, which aims at maximizing the interests of the community rather than those of specific individuals (Huer, 2010). For example, in the article, the authors argue that Chinese managers did not feel guilty for spending less time with families than they spent at work; because they believe that the sacrifice is meant to benefit the family or the community at large (Peus, Braun & Knipfer, 2015).

The motivation that drives a leader is another factor that explains why success in the US is individualistic while it is collectivist in China. Peus, Braun and Knipfer (2015) argue that the main aim of women leaders in China is to achieve the goals of the organization. This is opposite in the US where the motivating factor is the drive to advance personally through learning and experience. This is why the leaders in US perform acts that are in line with their career goals that lead to personal advancement.

In china, managers are motivated by organizational goals to achieve success; for example, they embark on employee development so that workers may achieve the overall aims of the company. Therefore, the successes that these managers achieve are associated with the organization, which includes all individuals who work in the company. The drive to achieve organizational goals also motivates Chinese managers to spend less time with their families; and the families understand that this is for the better of the company and the nation.

Q 6

According to Daft (2015), a glass ceiling is a barrier that prevents women from moving up the ranks to become leaders in their countries. This barrier is invisible in that a woman has the opportunity to assume a leadership position, but these circumstances prevent them from actually undertaking these roles. In the article, the author argues that US women are interested in getting children in addition to becoming leaders in their organizations. Although stated implicitly, the author implies that bearing children is a barrier to leadership in this country because one has to step out of the company to go and bear children. That is why some women in Germany decide not to have children so that they may become leaders (Peus, Braun & Knipfer, 2015).

Regret and guilt have also been identified as barriers to leadership among women from Singapore. These individuals feel guilty of spending more time at the office than they do with their families. The women regret assuming the top positions because of not being there for their families. Although some persist and overcome these regrets, some women from this nation quit leadership positions because of the fear of regretting and feeling guilty of their actions.

In china and India, cultural values and expectations deter women from becoming leaders. In these countries, women are expected to take care of their families even if they assume leadership positions (Peus, Braun & Knipfer, 2015). This is a barrier especially to the light hearted individuals who fear to go against societal expectations. Such people end up rejecting leadership positions even if they are offered leadership positions. In India, women have no option but to get married and take care of their families. Since the family is superior to work, it means that one cannot assume a position that contradicts the expectations of the family.

The lack of time to advance knowledge has also been implied to be a barrier to leadership among the women of all the above mentioned countries. This is because after work, women are expected to go home and take care of their husbands and children. This leaves them with insufficient time to read through books and articles that may help them to gain leadership knowledge (Ngunjiri, 2010). The lack of knowledge of women who lack time to read also causes them to be unaware of how leadership is conducted. These individuals end up in the low cadre jobs because their lack of knowledge also translates to lack of skills that may lead to the advancement of a company. These women do not even make it to the point of being considered for top positions in their companies.

Q 7

The four major factors that influence success in an organization are inter-related in the following ways: personal factors are the goals and skills that an individual possesses (). These may be influenced by interpersonal factors in that an individual may formulate goals that are similar to those of peers and supervisors who are within the social network of a person. For example, in the article, women leaders are influenced by their role models to make various decisions and behave in similar ways to these achievers.

Organization factors, on the other hand, influence both personal and interpersonal factors. For example, a person may set a goal to be promoted to the next level based on the structure of the company that they work for. Individuals within the social network may also behave based on the rules and regulations in the company. An example of this occurrence is depicted in the article when the authors argue that Chinese women embark on learning so that they may enable their organizations to achieve their goals.

According to the article, the social system may influence all the other factors. For example, the stereotypes in the Indian culture put off Indian women from management positions; because the Indian society requires this gender to perform the major role of care giving before involving themselves in other activities. The social system also influences interpersonal factors in that these stereotypes held by the society may be used to determine whether a woman should be promoted to a management position. In the Indian case, the culture influences organizations not to hire females so that they may undertake their care giving to avoid what the authors refer to as the double bind (Peus, Braun & Knipfer, 2015). The inter-relationship between these successes factors may cause the conclusion of the article to state that the success of women in leadership is determined by these inter-related and devoted factors; meaning that when one takes place, it affects all the others.

Q 8

French (2003) argues that an article title should indicate the main idea that the author wants to pass on to the readers. The title of this article does not communicate the main idea and therefore, it does not fulfil French’s criteria. The main idea of the article is to find out the factors that promote women into leadership in Asia and the United States; and to reveal variances that exist between these two regions. However, the current title seems to indicate that the authors want to discuss how to become a leader in Asia and the United States. This is misleading and it causes confusion among readers who approach the article with the aim of discovering how they may become leaders in the US or in Asian States. The author has also not revealed that the article aims to compare the US with three Asian States. It would be essential to clarify this to enable readers to understand that the article is not based on the whole of Asia. The appropriate title would be, “A comparison of factors that promote women leadership among three Asian states and between these states and the US.”