Perceptions towards female leadership in Malaysia

Despite a growing number of research focused on the leadership of professional working groups with male leaders, in contrast, research on women leadership has received little attention. This study investigates the perceptions of employees toward women leadership. The study assesses the leadership attribute (affection, efficiency and collaboration) that is highly associated with women leadership and to compare the different perceptions between males and females regarding female leadership. Data were collected from 1530 (n = 1530) government, private and semi-government institutions. The results revealed that efficiency was rated as the most common attribute associated with women leadership followed by collaboration and affection. Moreover, it was shown that women employees had a significantly higher level of positive perception towards women leadership as compared to male employees. Finally, the results showed that the gender of the immediate superior significantly related to the employees’ positive perception toward female leadership. The implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed