Influence of gender and leadership style on career commitment and job performance of subordinates

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of gender of supervisors and leadership style on career commitment and job performance of subordinates. The participants used in this study are 140 employees working in two breweries in Edo State. Sixty –seven (67) of the respondents were directly working under female supervisors while seventy - three (73) were working under male supervisors. The instrument used was a questionnaire with already validated items. The independent variables are gender and leadership styles, while the dependent variables are career commitment and job performance. A 2-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), was used to analyse the data collected. All the hypotheses were supported in the predicted direction, as shown, males who work under democratic
female leaders had higher mean score on job performance than females working under autocratic female leaders (28.37 vs 18.24). Males who work under autocratic female leaders had a higher mean score on career commitment than females working under democratic female leaders (41.34 vs 34.12). In the light of these findings, the researchers recommended that management in various organizations should provide suitable conditions for the growth and development of the organization. Also, organizational members should learn to put off gender biases and concentrate on effectiveness and productivity.