Kjønn og ledelse : en studie av kjønnsforskjeller innen ledelse, og hvilken betydning dette har for motivasjonen til medarbeidere i norske kommuner

Abstract

The purpose of this master thesis is to reveal what impact management style and the managers gender has on employees’ motivation. This study aims to uncover possible differences between female and male managers, in addition to reveal which management style has an impact on the employees’ motivation. First, this study presents relevant literature about genders and management style, in order to better understand gender differences in management. The study continues by analysing management style and motivation, by looking at the theoretical framework of transaction management, transformational leadership, change management, and intrinsic- and extrinsic motivation. This study has a partially causal design and uses a quantitative approach throughout. As this study is a cross-sectional study, the paper provides limited capabilities to prove any causal relationships. However, the assessment will be capable of ensuring correlations between the different variables, despite the lacks in causality. The study is based on the responses gathered from a survey sent to all employees in Kristiansand and Vennesla, in order to uncover possible differences in leadership among managers and to uncover differences between both female and male managers. In addition, the survey has been created in order to uncover employees’ motivation by separating between internal and external motivational factors. The findings in this survey indicate that there are no differences between genders concerning management style, despite previous research and literature. However, this study indicates that there is a positive relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation, whilst there is no correlation between transactional leadership and extrinsic motivation. Our findings therefore suggest that managers that perform transformational leadership will obtain the most intrinsically employees. Furthermore, the survey indicates that there is no overall difference between the gender of the manager and employees’ motivation. Moreover, the findings in this study are relevant for researchers and scholars, who are trying to better understand employees’ evaluation of their own motivation, while considering their managers gender and leadership style. The findings in this study will also be relevant for professionals, as the findings can provide insights into being intrinsically manager.