CROSS-CULTURAL AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LEADERSHIP STYLE PERSPECTIVES

Today''s workforce is highly diverse in that the number of women in business and globalization has changed the work force demographics like never before. Managers should recognise that both gender and cultural differences play a large role in how employees perceive whether a management style is effective or not. Thus management trying to manage in the modern business environment must pay attention to these factors. To see how cultural and gender differences affect leadership perspectives, a study between Canadian and Turkish MBA students was conducted. The findings showed that there are interesting differences among genders across culture and managers cannot adopt a “one size fits all” approach when implementing a leadership style. They should be able to diversify their approach and if they want their leadership to be effective then they should be able to understand how different cultures and genders react to certain behaviours.