Leadership Trait for Successful Women Entrepreneurs Literature review

Leadership Trait for Successful Women Entrepreneurs - Literature review Example However, the opportunities which women have to start business enterprises as entrepreneurs would enable them to apply their unique attributes in a leadership style which would allow them to achieve success. The issue of leadership trait has been studied extensively which leaves us with a question of whether there is an appropriate leadership style that women should employ in order for them to be considered as successful and influential leaders. This paper presents a literature review on women entrepreneurs as leaders with a view of answering a question as to whether they require a specific leadership style or attributes for effectiveness and success as entrepreneurial leaders. Research has been conducted on leadership traits which are associated with gendered attributes. It has been argued therefore that the male gender has attributes that makes men more qualified for leadership positions (Burke and Collins, 2001, p. 244). This illustrates that women have been stereotyped within orga nizations and institutions. It is also argued that the diversity in the work place and the economic crises which are being experienced by the contemporary organizations are attributed to the limitations of leadership opportunities for women (Enhai, 2011, p. 111). The observation that the number of women who lead large organizations is smaller than that of men demonstrates the stereotyping of women leadership. Studies of typical leadership styles illustrate that women demonstrate some leadership qualities that are superior to that of men (Mukherji and Jain, 2009, p. 63). With the increased number of women who are venturing into entrepreneurship, it is necessary to determine the most appropriate leadership trait that would match with the natural attributes of women which would enable them to be effective leaders. The traditional gender stereotyping against women has reduced significantly over time (Lopez-Zafra, Garcia-Retamero and Berrios Martos, 2012, p. 97). Traditionally, financier s had wrong impressions of women who require capital for starting businesses. This has made them to have a hard time explaining to lenders and bankers why they need financing. This situation persisted regardless of the fact that women presented better business cases as compared to men (Greenberg and Sweeney, 2005, p. 32). These arguments demonstrate that there is a gap in knowledge on how and why this situation has changed over time. The changes that have been experienced in the modern business world include decreasing scores of men in managerial tests. Despite the emphasis that has been put on importance of teamwork, it is argued that men have scored lower than women who have contributory and collaborative leadership behaviour and support for teamwork (Psychogios, 2007, p. 169). Women entrepreneurs have been considered to have a higher emotional intelligence in leadership as compared to men (DeCaro, DeCaro and Bowen-Thompson, 2010, p. 75). Emotional intelligence is associated with ability of a leader to act as a role model and create confidence among followers. These are typical attributes of a transformational leadership trait (Smith-Hunter and Leone, 2010, p. 21). Women are said to have a strong need to connect to their subordinates, a situation which often leads to building of trusting relationship between the management and employees. The