The gender influence on leadership style practiced in the Romanian Government´s working apparatus

A study analysing whether gender influences the leadership style practised by staff in the Romanian Government's Working Apparatus (Office), examining whether women lead differently from men or whether this is a perception shaped by social values.

To assess whether female leaders possess the qualities to be as effective, efficient and visionary as their male counterparts, making visible different ways of working and their relevance to power at the political, social and economic level.

Both female and male leaders scored highly and similarly on transformational-leadership and contingent-reward subscales, indicating that leaders in the Government's Working Apparatus were largely transformational: innovative, visionary, focused on problem-solving and on motivating and rewarding subordinates. Female leaders showed a low tendency toward laissez-faire style and scored similarly to, or slightly lower than, male leaders on efficient-leadership subscales.

The study could not conclude with certainty that female leaders were better than their male counterparts, but found them equally efficient, transformational, visionary and capable of running a performant organisation.