Gender and leadership style: Transformational and transactional leadership in the Roman Catholic Church

Abstract

Gender differences in transformational and transactional leadership style are assessed. Research that explores women's values and their relationship to leadership style is reviewed. Organizational context is argued to play a deciding role in the leadership style exhibited by women leaders. Traditionally masculine organizations are presented as less conducive to women's display of transformational leadership. Research findings are presented from a large-scale survey conducted in a nontraditional context. Subjects were 6,359 subordinates of leaders in all-female and all-male religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church. Subjects completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to measure frequency of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors. Subordinate ratings revealed both female and male leaders exhibit more transformational than transactional leadership behaviors. However, female leaders are rated to exhibit significantly more transformational leadership behaviors and significantly fewer transactional leadership behaviors than male leaders. Both female and male subordinates rated themselves as more satisfied with transformational leadership.