Leadership Styles of Women Managers and Women Owners of Manufacturing

OBJECTIVE
To examine how women owners or managers in manufacturing companies lead.

METHODOLOGY
Seventy-five females in upper management of a manufacturing firm or an owner of such were identified from a stratified random sampling of 2,000 such women. A total of 12 participated, completing a copy of the Leadership Practices Inventory (Self) and the Leadership Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD - Self; Center for Leadership Studies, Inc., 1993), and providing demographic information. The women were Caucasian, all over 30 years of age, and most had been in their current positions for more than five years.

KEY FINDINGS
Generalizing from a very small sample the author reports that the participants saw themselves engaging in a relatively high degree of the leadership practices of challenging, inspiring, enabling, and modeling, and a moderate degree of encouraging.