Leadership and gender in the Arab World : the case of Lebanon

Author

Abd Allah, Yara

Source

الندوة الإقليمية حول : المرأة في مراكز القيادة و اتحاذ القرار بالبلدان العربية، الكويت 10-11 مارس 2013.

Publisher

Arab Open University

Publication Date

2013-03-31

Country of Publication

Kuwait

No. of Pages

26

Main Subjects

Social Sciences (Multidisciplinary)

English Abstract

Purpose-this study aims to tackle the issue of female leadership in Lebanon and to address the existing research gap in current literature on the topic.

The main research question seeks to test the preference, acceptance and views of employees in Lebanon towards female leadership, and to test the potential role of certain demographic variables in shaping the views of employees.

Design / Methodology-the research method adopted is quantitative.

A questionnaire was designed based on existing and validated scales, to collect data from 263 Lebanese employees in different economic sectors.

The measure included two sections.

The first one covers several demographic variables deemed relevant for the research, and the other section included a 14 items questionnaire testing respondents’ views on female leadership.

Findings-descriptive and inferential statistics were used to test and analyze the collected data.

The findings reveal that female employees generally have more favorable views on female leadership across the different demographic variables, in contrast to male employees who tend to have less favorable views.

A good percentage of respondents had a neutral position on the issue which indicate raises the need for further exploration in future research.

Practical implications-existing research tends to address the barriers preventing females in Lebanon from progressing towards higher managerial positions.

Empirical research has focused on interviewing female and male managers about their personal experiences.

This study is one of few which interviews employees from both genders and from different organizational positions, in order to determine the existing attitudes and views towards female leadership in Lebanon in light of the ongoing efforts and developments towards female empowerment.

Originality-this research adds to the limited body of knowledge on female leadership in Lebanon and the Middle East region.

Data Type

Conference Papers

Record ID

BIM-764587

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