“Think Manager, Think Male”: Does It Apply to Zimbabwe ?

Abstract

Over the last two decades in which empirical studies on gender and leadership styles have been undertaken, the findings have consistently confirmed that people’s perceptions have not changed from using leadership traits, especially male traits as a requirement for appointment to managerial positions. Most of this research was carried out in developed economies with different cultures from those prevailing in African countries. It is, therefore, important to investigate the applicability of findings from developed countries to the Zimbabwean context. The findings of the study reported in this article differed from the literature in that, although managers were perceived to possess male traits, they were also perceived to have some female traits, such as intuition and modesty.