Leadership Experiences of Women Executives in Public Sector Organizations in Ghana.

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the leadership experiences of women executives in selected public sector organisations in Ghana. The study adopted qualitative research methods to gather data from twenty (20) participants from six (6) public sector organisations. Purposive sampling technique was used to select twelve (12) women executives in senior management and eight (8) tenured staff from the same organisations. The study employed a semi-structured interview guide for data collection. The data gathered from the interview were transcribed and thematic analysis used to analyse the data accordingly. Results from the study identified formal attributes of leadership in the organisations such as, accountability, delegation, empowerment, creativity, innovation and coordination. The leadership styles adopted by women executives included democratic, autocratic, democratic-autocratic and transformational leadership styles. Some of the barriers that impede female leadership strategies and decisions are organisational culture, inflexible human behaviour, bureaucracy, poor coordination among team, poor team work and resistance to change. The findings revealed that, some men and women subordinates do not comply with the instructions of women executives. Attributes of leadership for men and women were however, found to differ. Men’s leadership attributes were listed as domineering, authoritarian, individualistic and controlling. In contrast women executives were described as motherly, participatory and team oriented. The findings revealed that women executives use several decision-making and supervision strategies to help them to be successful. It is recommended that these findings be documented to serve as case study material for training executives in the public service and to also serve as new ideas to expand knowledge on leadership style.