A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of. In addition, the leadership styles and their elements were found to have a significant relationship with the national culture dimensions, with the exception of management by exception (active) which has no significant correlation with any of the culture dimensions.
The Study Context
When we talk about the education system in the United Arab Emirates, it has gone through a lot of changes and reforms. The Department of Education and Knowledge in Abu Dhabi (ADEK), formerly known as the Abu Dhabi Educational Council (ADEC), is the governing body responsible for the education system in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Education Reform in the UAE
Then, factor analysis and descriptive statistics are used to determine the leadership styles of Emirati women leaders. The results showed that women in Jordan display elements of a transformational leadership style. Every organization is at the micro level of culture (macro level), so it is impossible to separate national culture from management practices (Irawanto 2009).
In Taiwan, Lee and Liu (2016) investigated the relationship between transformational leadership styles and power distance of the national culture dimensions. The interview protocol had instructions about the process of the interview and the questions that were asked (Creswell 2012). Based on the interviews and observations, themes emerged related to the elements of the three leadership styles.
Regarding the elements of the leadership styles and as reported in the quantitative data, the Emirati female principals rated themselves the highest in inspirational motivation.
Backgroung and Definitions of the Study Concepts
Problem Statement
Therefore, with the extensive educational reform underway in the UAE, examining the relationship between female gender and national culture as independent variables in determining the leadership style of school principals as educational leaders is crucial. Many factors such as culture, economy, politics, race, gender and religion play a role in the adoption or rejection of policies and practices (Dimmock & Walker 2000).
Purpose and Research Questions
There is a scarcity of empirical studies that examine the effect of culture on leadership styles (Nazarian & Atkinson 2013), especially in the Arab world and especially in the UAE where the very few studies found on the effect of values and culture on managers and individuals were in the business field (Hassan 2015; Willemyns 2008), which leaves a gap in the literature. RQ1: What leadership styles do Emirati female principals exhibit and to what extent are they aware of their styles.
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Of the three leadership styles presented by the Full Scope Theory, transformational leadership has proven to be the most influential (Al Hourani 2013). A detailed analysis also reflected high statistically significant differences in the nine elements of the leadership styles based on the culture dimensions with p<0.05 (Table 4.14).
Gender and Leadership Theory: Masculine anf Feminine Paradigms
National Culture Dimensions
- Hofstede’s Culture Dimensions
- Culture Dimensions of Dimmock & walker and Dorfman & Howell
The results showed that there was no significant correlation between any of the four demographic variables and leadership styles. Inspiring motivation: The principals mentioned the inspiring Vision 2020 of the UAE and the Ministry of Education.
National Dimensions of the United Arab Emirates
Literature Review
Women in the UAE
The rapid growth of the United Arab Emirates is seen in the growing role of Emirati women, who are effective partners in the rapid progress of the country. The latest Gender Gap Report published in 2017 places the UAE third in the Middle East and North Africa in closing the gender gap with a score of 0.649. Dubai Statistics (2017) showed that the number of Emirati teachers in Dubai has reached 945 compared to 22 male Emirati teachers in the academic year 2016-2017.
The development of educational leadership
In the recent elections of the Federal National Council, there was an increase in female representation from 17.5% to 22.5% and a woman was chosen to be the president of the council, which is the first time that in the history of the UAE and the Arab World takes place. . While recent official statistics have shown the increase in women's representation to 46.6% in the workforce, their holding of 66% of public sector jobs, and their presence exceeds that of men in education, healthcare and banking (WAM 2018b). The role of Emirati women has changed over the past years, making the UAE a leader in the Arab world in terms of gender equality and women's empowerment.
Situating the Full Range Leadership Theory
Research conducted by Leithwood and partners demonstrated the positive relationship between transformational leadership and that of students. Abundant literature has emphasized the positive effect of transformational leadership (Aydin, Sarier & Uysal 2013; Hermann & Felfe 2014; Matzler, Bauer & Mooradian 2015). Khomeinishahr in Iran, that there is a positive correlation between transformational leadership and teachers' job satisfaction.
The Effect of Gender as a Social Construct on Leadership: Female Leadership
These approaches are extended in transformational leadership, which also led to the concept that women are more transformational than men. The results indicated that women were considered to show significantly more idealized influence (behaviour), intellectual stimulation and individualized. Shaya and Abu Khait (2017) inferred that Emirati women join international studies that argue that women are more transformational in their leadership style.
National Culture and Leadership
Studies that examined the influence of national culture on leadership style in an. Wiratmadja, Parlindungan, and Sunaryo (2012) conducted a study that examined the relationship between transformational leadership and dimensions of national culture in Indonesia. The results of the study showed a significant positive relationship between culture and leadership style preferences.
Positionality and Female Leaders as Individuals
Although Emirati people welcome and tolerate the cultural change, they are worried about the disappearance of the Emirati culture and identity because they are a minority population. Since all reviewed studies established the significant correlation between the dimensions of national culture and leadership styles, and as previously mentioned about the important role that educational leaders play in reforms and change, the results of this study, which investigates the effect of culture on leadership styles, will be of great importance for. They use resources and their energy to expand their influence and as they grow to become more mature; their view of the world is modified and affects their actions.
Gender, Culture and Leadership: Situated Studies
This section shows the analysis of the responses of the 108 Emirati female executives to the first part of the survey. The aim of the study was to examine the influence of female gender and female culture on the leadership styles of the female school principals in the Emirates as education leaders. In terms of factor analysis, the elements of the leadership styles formed two conceptually sound factors.
Research Design
To answer the research questions of the leadership styles of Emirati female principals and the impact of female gender and culture, the researcher used quantitative surveys. Results of the surveys informed the selection of the participants for the qualitative phase and the questions asked in the semi-structured interviews. It is important to be aware of the social, cultural and political contexts of the participants in order to understand their experiences as people's realities are influenced by their environment (Flood 2010).
Philosophical Paradigm
Since this study aims to investigate the effect of female gender and culture on the leadership styles of the Emirati female principals and provide more in-depth explanation about this relationship and its impact, explanatory sequential mixed method is the most suitable to be used ( Creswell & McCoy 2011). The researcher first used a post-positivist lens to measure the objective reality of the leadership style of female Emirati leaders and the causes that shaped their leadership styles (Creswell 2014). The researcher depended on the participants' views and perceptions of the phenomena shaped by their interaction with others and with cultural norms (Creswell 2014).
Site, Sampling and Participants
Data Collection Methods
- Phase 1
- The Multifacto Leadership Questionnaire
- Culture Dimensions Questionnaire
- Phase 2
- Semi-structured Interviews
- Observations
- Trustworthiness of the Qualitative Tools
- Validity of the Qualitative Data
The interviews were conducted in the school environment, specifically in the offices of each of the participants. Naturalistic observations were carried out in the schools to observe the behavior of the principals already interviewed. The bias may have influenced the data collection phase, as the researcher's subjectivity may lead to a misunderstanding of the participants' opinions (Krueger & Casey 2000).
Data Analysis Techniques
- Quantitative Data Analysis Technique
- Qualitative Data Analysis Technique
Text description: It was the use of themes and statements to write a description of the participants' experience (Moustakas 1994). Structural description: Themes and statements were also used to write a description of the context that influenced how the participants experienced the phenomenon. Essence: From the textural and structural description, the researcher wrote about the shared experience of the participants.
Ethical Consideration
Thus, the transformational leadership style was often displayed by Emirati female principals in educational leadership positions, in addition to an element of transactional leadership which is contingent reward. There is no relationship between management by exception (active) and any of the culture dimensions (Table 4.16). Consideration/aggression and group-oriented/self-oriented are weak predictors of idealized affect (behavior).
Quantitative Data analysis Results
- Demogtaphics Statistics
- Reliability
- Reliability of Leadership Styles
- Reliability of Culture Dimensions Items
- Normality Tests
- Factor Analysis (PCFA) for the Leadership Styles
- Descriptive Statistics
- Descriptive Statistics for the Leadership Styles
- Descriptive Statistics for the Culture Dimensions
- Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)
- Results from Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) ............. Error! Bookmark not
The first component has 6 elements of leadership styles, 5 of transformational leadership and contingent reward from. However, active exception management was non-significant and unrelated to any of the culture dimensions. According to table 4.21 the unstandardized regression coefficient (B=0.896) related to the effect of 4 dimensions of culture (PDPC, LHR, GR and PAT) on the Laissez-Faire leadership style is very significant (p<0.001).
Compliance/Aggression, Bounded Attitude/Holistic Attitude, and Generative/Replicative are predictors of transformational leadership, with Compliance/Aggression having the largest negative impact. The number of interviews and observations depended on the participants who were willing to share.
Discussion of the Findings
- Discussion of Results of Research Question 1
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- Discussion of Results of Research Question 3
- Discussion of Results of Research Question 4
- National Culture Dimensions of the Emirati Female Principals
- The Relationship between National Culture Dimensions and the Emirati
The factor analysis explained that the dominant style of the Emirati female leaders is transformational while they still practice transactional leadership to a certain extent. The Emirati female principals analyzed through the different elements of the transformational leadership data that they inspire and motivate their employees to perform to their full potential and take risks. The constitutional laws initiated to guarantee equality for women in society and workplace (Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs 2008) are consistent with the statements of the Emirati female principals.
Limitations
Research Recommendations and Implications
- Research Recommendations
- Implications
