【Speaker】Lotus Xu, Doctor Candidate, Department of Marketing, City University of Hong Kong

【Topic】Gender and Leadership Styles: A study of Chinese women CEOs

【Time】9:30-11:00,2007-12-7, Friday

【Venue】Room 501, Weilun Building, Tsinghua SEM

【Language】Chinese

【Organizer】Department of HRM & OB

【Background Information】

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine women’s leadership styles in a country with the longest male-dominant history.Chinais drastically different from the Western societies in terms of its confusion values, communist political system and transitional economy. It provides a unique area to construct the knowledge about female leadership styles. Based on in-depth interviews with female CEOs in four Chinese enterprises, the results of this study suggest that attributed charisma, manager-employee personal relationship, and informalization are three main characteristics of Chinese women’s leadership style. Furthermore, contrary to democratic leadership style perceived by western female managers, the findings also suggest that Chinese female managers are more likely to exhibit autocratic leadership style.