Relationship between sex and leadership behavior of department heads in physical education

Abstract

This study assessed perceptions of actual and ideal leadership behaviors of male and female department heads as described by themselves and by their faculties in university physical education departments. Responses to the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ-Real) and Ideal Leader Behavior Questionnaire (LBDQ-Ideal) provided data on these perceptions by faculties and department heads. Data were gathered from 49 department heads and 427 faculty members from four types of departments—segregated departments with male heads, segregated departments with female heads, integrated departments with male heads, and integrated departments with female heads. The findings indicated that (1) Male and female heads of department did not differ in their perceptions of the desirable attributes of an ideal leader, their perceptions of their own actual leadership behavior, or in their proneness to view their leadership behavior as ideal. (2) There is a mutual tendency for faculty of both sexes to perceive consideration behavior of the heads differently when the head is of the same sex. Women faculty viewed female department heads as providing more initiation of structure than male heads.