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OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare mean scores in the LPI Self from male and female MBA students in the city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, to identify possible differences between males and females on transformational leadership self- efficacy. METHODOLOGY Three of the six MBA programs in Tijuana, Baja California agreed to participant and distributed the LPI (in Spanish) to their students (N = 513), and 153 returned the survey (30% response rate). Forty-eight percent of the respondents were men. Internal reliability in this study was .72 Model, .84 Inspire, .78 Challenge, .67 Enable, and .87 Encourage.
KEY FINDINGS No significant differences were found between males and females on any of the five leadership practices. This finding “is meaningful because it supports the notion that gender does not account for differences in leadership self- efficacy among the individuals in the sample” (p. 81). The author notes:
Rather than providing an argument to justify female underrepresentation in leadership roles, the people with the information derived from this study may use it to argue that gender does not moderate leadership self-efficacy in terms of the behaviors associated with Kouzes and Posner's (2012) model. This can be taken to suggest that organizational leaders responsible for promoting and developing top managers in organizations need not be overly concerned with the gender of potential applicants. The information…can also be taken to suggest that aspiring female leaders do not need to adapt their behaviors to fit male patterns (p. 82). Making this information available to aspiring female leaders, organizational stakeholders, and educational decision-makers can help remove potential concerns that women may not be able to lead as effectively as men. This would in turn help reduce the gender gap in leadership roles (p. 83).