Age cohort effects, gender, and Romanian leadership preferences
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine preferences for both transformational and transactional leadership behavior for gender‐ and age‐based cohort differences. The purpose of this research is to enhance leadership and organizational change initiatives in Romania via the identification of age cohort and gender effects with respect to attitudes towards common leadership behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is conducted via a survey through the administration of questionnaires. The sample consists of 324 managers from commercial and service organizations in Romania, a country in which this issue has not previously been investigated.
Findings
The findings reveal that there are differences in preferences for leadership behavior based on age cohorts that reached maturity before or after the fall of Ceauşescu during the 1989 revolution. Also, female participants displayed a greater preference for transformational leadership behaviors relative to transactional leadership behaviors.
Originality/value
This is the first study to examine the effects of leadership preference based on age cohorts in Romania. The study also is one of the first to empirically examine the effects of age cohorts on leadership after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. As such, these findings offer guidance in the development and implementation of leadership development initiatives and change management interventions for organizations operating in Romania, and present one example of cohort‐based and leadership‐specific attitude change in a country that is transitioning from communism to a free market system.
Keywords
Citation
Fein, E.C., Tziner, A. and Vasiliu, C. (2010), "Age cohort effects, gender, and Romanian leadership preferences", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 364-376. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711011039169
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited