Women take care and men take charge’: The case of leadership and gender in the Public and Commercial Services Union

PROWSE, J., PROWSE, Peter and PERRETT, R. (2020). Women take care and men take charge’: The case of leadership and gender in the Public and Commercial Services Union. Economic and Industrial Democracy: an international journal.

[img]
Preview
PDF
Prowse_WomenTakeCare(VoR).pdf - Published Version
Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (205kB) | Preview
Open Access URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0143... (Published version)
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X20943682

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a case study that aimed to understand the specific leadership styles that are valued by women and men lay representatives in the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and to determine the gendered implications for increasing women’s leadership and representation in trade unions. Survey responses from PCS lay representatives (reps) show the majority of women and men agreed that the leadership style they value, and makes a good union leader, is post-heroic (communal) leadership. This approach is associated with leadership characteristics such as being helpful, sensitive, and kind and are generally practised by women. This contrasts with male union leaders who are associated with a traditional, heroic (agentic) leadership style characterised by confidence, self-reliance, and decisiveness. Although some differences exist that highlight gender issues, both women and men lay reps have positive attitudes towards increasing women’s representation and participation in union leadership.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 1402 Applied Economics; 1503 Business and Management; 1608 Sociology; Industrial Relations
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X20943682
SWORD Depositor: Symplectic Elements
Depositing User: Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited: 09 Jul 2020 15:41
Last Modified: 17 Mar 2021 23:32
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26618

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics