Business Leaders’ Work Environment and Leadership Styles

Abstract

Only business leaders (and not political leaders) are used in this chapter and the focus is the managers’ leadership styles. The chapter studies how leadership is practised by the men and women business managers. The attitudes, self-perceptions, motivations and practices of men and women at various levels of authority in work organisations within various social, economic and political environments are compared. The findings extend previous theoretical perspectives of leadership style and contribute to the formulation of new hypotheses useful for international comparative research on managerial leadership. Special emphasis is placed on gender.