Do feminist values define certain leadership, or management styles?
Can we describe the leadership and management tasks that may reflect feminist values, and therefore, feminist styles?
Will the expression of feminist management and leadership styles be influenced by factors that define the diversity of feminist leaders? If so, in what ways?
How effective are feminist management and leadership styles? Does the context matter?
If feminist leadership, or management, styles can be defined as the set
of behaviors used in managing and/or leading people or organizations that
reflect feminist values, then it is likely that those styles will be as
diverse as the women employing them. However, this is not the same as
saying that any style that a feminist uses is a feminist style. On the
contrary, because women, including feminist women, often are very good at
understanding, analyzing, and working with the diverse management behaviors
of others, they quite commonly use those styles themselves ? regardless of
their feminist orientation to life.
To determine what actually constitutes a feminist style, then, may
require us to look at the various taskS of leadership and management, and
to suggest what kinds of behaviors would, or would not, reflect feminist
values. Some of those leadership tasks would include: planning,
decision-making, persuasion, and allocation of resources. Clearly, in the
case of each of these tasks, one could be more or less inclusive, more or
less collaborative, and more or less deferential. One could make choices
that maximize profits long-term or short-term, that place a higher priority
on interpersonal relations or efficiency? Are these the kind of values
that define a feminist style. Finally, can we describe how cultural values
might shape, or shade, those behaviors? Do those values make the
management style any more or less feminist?
If feminist management and leadership styles are more effective, we need
to be able to demonstrate that in terms of measurable objectives and
outcomes? Yet can those be selected outside of a value orientation? In
other words, will feminist goals not be different from goals set by
non-feminists, and if so, does that not bias our evaluation.
A recent study of women of color in corporate management suggests that
while the numbers of such women are increasing, they are expressing even
greater frustration in their roles, seeing themselves as unable to access
power networks or to rise above certain levels. Does this suggest that
feminist management styles are counter-productive within the usual
corporate context?
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