Kriz dönemlerinde, giriş seviyesi çalışanların, cinsiyete göre performans göstergesi algıları

Abstract

Bu çalışma, işletmelerin karşılaştıkları kriz zamanlarında, giriş seviyesi çalışanların gözünden kadın ve erkek yöneticilerin performans algılarını, örgütsel liderlik teorileri, cinsiyet çalışmaları ve kriz yönetimi alanlarına göre incelemektedir.

This paper investigates the role of women managers versus male associates' leading performances during the economic crises faced by the organizations through the lenses of junior level employees' perception within an integrative approach of organizational theories of leadership, gender studies and crisis management. In accordance, the research question of 'Do the junior level employees perceive women to be the 'better leaders' in times of crisis and men to be the 'better leaders' in times of tranquility? is addressed and two hypothesis are tested to find out this relationship on the axis of favorably evaluation and recommendation for leadership positions. By the end of the 19th century, research on leadership theories revived and a variety of approaches such as the trait, behavioral and the contingency started to form. From these approaches, the transformational and the charismatic leadership were developed. These theories shared the idea that an appealing and commonly shared vision is a leader's most important attribute (Strange and Mumford, 2002) and that this vision becomes even more important in a crisis situation (Berson et al., 2001). Furthermore, there is general agreement among theorists that charismatic leaders are more likely to emerge when a company's performance is in a state of crisis (e.g., Conger & Kanungo, 1987; Yukl, 1998). Dimension of gender differences is also included within the domain of leadership in an effort to differentiate leader form others. Although some theorists found no significant differences in the leadership styles of men and women (e.g., van Engen et al., 2001,) and disregarded the gender stereotypes other theorists like Loden (1985) argued that men have a more masculine, agentic leadership style (with traits such as competitiveness, hierarchy and power), in contrast to women who prefer a more feminine, communal leadership style (with traits such as cooperation, equality and support). Since the end of the 20th century, the research on the gender differences literature mainly concentrated around the question of why women are not able to make it to the top with 'glass ceiling' phenomenon. Many researchers describe glass ceiling as the actuality that women and minorities do get hired by firms dominated by Caucasian males but do not get promoted as fast as the Caucasian males, and when they have almost reached the top they are passed over for promotion (e.g., Arfken et al., 2004; Maume, 2004; Ridgeway, 2001). In 2004, Ryan and Haslam went further and introduced the 'glass cliff phenomenon'. According to Ryan and Haslam (2007), this phenomenon explains that more and more women are breaking through the glass ceiling, but are only offered positions that are riskier than the positions offered to men. While men turn these positions down (in order not to fall short in case of failure) women accept it, and when failure does occur, they have to face the consequences and get blamed much more often than men (Ryan and Haslam, 2004). Both leadership and management theories surround gender differences that compose the infrastructure of the research question imposed in that thesis.To examine the hypotheses, an online questionnaire was created based on the research conducted by Ryan and Haslam (2007). This was to test the perceptions of employees who have maximum 3 years of experience in their fields, and if indeed they view females to be the better leaders in times of crisis (hypothesis one). The current study did not find any support for hypothesis that claims women as the preferred leader during the crises time. In times of crisis, the respondents were indifferent about the gender of the leader. However, this study did find support for hypothesis that claims that in times of no crisis-tranquility, males were perceived to be the more suitable and recommended leaders by the respondents. Keywords: Leadership, perception, glass ceiling, position, management, female, male, employee, crisis, tranquility