Content area
Abstract
This research examines college students’ perceptions regarding women in leadership positions. It explores the body of research done previously in the contexts of corporate organizational environments for training and leadership development purposes and educational leadership research in the academic arena. The study re-examines perceptions of women in leadership in both the corporate organizational and the higher educational contexts in order to gain a greater understanding regarding women in leadership roles in the current complex and dynamic leadership environments of these two areas. In addition to higher education and corporate America as research variables, relationships between context, transformational and transactional leadership styles, and congruent and incongruent gender roles as they related to leadership preferences, were explored. Three male and three female focus groups were conducted presenting different leadership scenarios with response questions in order to conduct qualitative thematic analysis of findings. Findings included themes of male camaraderie in the workplace, traditional context leadership roles, men and their thoughts about the “glass ceiling,” women who favor male bosses, the military and transformational leadership, and women’s status as it relates to transactional leadership.
