LEADERSHIP AND THE GENDER BALANCE: PAST, PRESENT AND PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

he current paper aims at studying the profile of the successful leader and at identifying the differences that occur when the gender variable is taken into account. Staring from Kouzes and Posner’s model (2002), we investigated the differences in perception regarding the characteristics that favour the success of a leader. We used two groups of subjects: students in the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and managers in Romanian companies. Each group was made up of 50 people. They hierarchized ten descriptors according to their importance for the success of a leader, in more hypostases specified in the study. The obtained results demonstrate the almost unanimous agreement as concerns the most important traits that define the successful leader and also some differences of opinions emerging when the gender variable is introduced.