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This is the third part of a three-part paper on the intersection between sex, gender and leadership in the UK Civil Service. The first part of this paper provided an introduction to the research, a literature review and some conjectures derived from it. The second part formulated specific null hypotheses, outlined the research methodology and presented research findings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the practical implications of the research findings, presents an evidence-based framework for understanding the transition into leadership, with prescriptions for its use and ends with a concluding discussion on the overall research findings.

Information was collected from a wide cross-section of UK Civil Servants between 1993 and 2013. Individuals were participants on training and development activities carried out by the authors. Individuals completed psychometric instruments, including self-assessments and 360 degree assessments and provided information on their sex, work role and work situation. Statistical analysis was carried out to identify behaviours associated with effective leadership, taking account of behaviours used, behaviours valued and behaviours valued more highly than in those in follower roles and situations. Comparisons were made between the effective leader behaviour profile and those for sex differences and gender stereotypes.

A very strong statistical relationship was found between the frequency with which individuals use a range of behaviours and the extent of their leadership role and situation. Moreover, particular behaviours were found to be more valued in leadership roles/situations, with clear differences between those valued in follower roles/situations. A combined leadership effectiveness profile had little in common with either the male/masculine or female/feminine profile.

The research was a by-product of the authors’ training and development work. It was not part of a purpose-built and wide-ranging research programme into sex, gender and leadership. It also relates to one context, the UK Civil Service, and may not generalise to other contexts. Nonetheless, there are clear parallels between these findings and previous research.

Gender stereotypes were best tackled by ensuring that all jobs are properly described and all assessments involved the use of relevant information against agreed job criteria, with appropriate training and development essential to maintaining best practice. Moreover, training and development activities should concentrate on actual individual differences, rather than stereotypical generalisations about such differences. Finally, an evidence-based, gender-neutral leadership framework was proposed. The leadership framework is relevant to would-be leaders, line managers and human resource professionals, including training and development specialists.

The research findings are relevant to understanding the intersection between sex, gender and leadership in the UK Civil Service. They relate to wider social issues concerning equal opportunities and diversity.

There is an extensive body of theory and research on the intersection between sex, gender and leadership. However, very little focuses specifically on the UK Civil Service. These research findings and the subsequent analysis are, therefore, original. The gender-neutral, evidence-based leadership framework is an original contribution to both theory and practice.

Although parity in workplace representation and leadership roles for women has improved, culturally embedded structural barriers, practices, and policies within organizations remain. Organizations can improve inclusivity by understanding the characteristics and impact of unconscious gender bias and implementing related leadership development programs.

This brief examines women’s progress in the workforce and in leadership roles, reviews the characteristics of unconscious bias and its impact on women’s workforce representation, and identifies strategies for addressing gender bias through leadership development.

Leadership research and theory suggest the benefits of organizational training that entails both women-only and mixed-gender training, self-knowledge of leadership styles, examination of assumptions about masculine and feminine ways to lead, and the value of authenticity.

The brief offers practical insights into unconscious gender bias for human resources teams, managers, and leadership trainers by examining assumptions about gender and gendered leadership beliefs.

This is the first of a three-part paper exploring the intersection between sex, gender and leadership in the UK Civil Service. The purpose of this paper is to introduce research by the authors into differences in the behaviour of men and women managers in the UK Civil Service, differences in 360 degree assessments of these behaviours and variations in the behaviours and assessments in different organisational contexts. This part of the paper sets the scene, and provides a literature review and a series of conjectures, derived from this review.

This part of the paper outlines the training and development activities carried out by the authors and explains the target populations, the context in which managers operated and the part played by psychometric assessments in such activities. It then provides a literature review on the intersection of sex, gender and leadership. This looks at: the glass ceiling; leader preferences; gender stereotypes; gender stereotypes and leaders; attitudes towards women as leaders; leadership theories and gender stereotypes; sex differences in psychological traits; sex differences in leader behaviour and effectiveness. Finally, it presents a series of conjectures, derived from the literature review.

The literature review shows that the playing field that constitutes managerial ranks continues to be tilted in favour of men and behaviours associated with the male stereotype, despite what leadership theories and field evidence would suggest.

The research was also a by-product of the authors’ training and development work, not a purpose-built research programme to explain the “glass ceiling”. It relates to the UK Civil Service and may not be relevant in other contexts.

Later parts of the paper present prescriptions for minimising the impact of gender stereotypes, along with an evidence-based leadership framework. Training and development implications are presented. Findings are relevant to leaders, would be leaders and human resource professionals, including training and development specialists.

The vast majority of top leadership positions across the world are held by males rather than females. This prevents women from moving up the corporate ladder. This literature review describes the “glass ceiling” and explores what lies behind it.

Research on sex differences in behaviour, gender stereotypes and situational differences in both, in the UK Civil Service, are all original. Of particular importance is the new evidence-based framework of leadership competences.

For many years, researchers from management, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines have studied not only the differences that gender makes in the style of managers' leadership but also how the gender of the subordinates affects their perceptions about the different behavior of male and female leaders. Those studies mostly focused on gender and constructive leadership styles, thus neglecting potential destructive aspects of leadership. Therefore, this chapter aims to understand the relationship between men and women and the observations of employees regarding the destructive leadership behaviors of both male and female managers. The results of the study, which was conducted with 130 participants who have been working under different managers, highlight several issues and interpret them in terms of the different psychological and sociological theories and models.

Sweden, as a country based on extremely high secular and self-expression values, serve as an example that somewhat differ from other countries internationally, when it comes to educational leadership curriculum. The chapter takes its starting point at the governmental decision for Swedish universities to gender-mainstream their organisations, something that affects the educational leadership curriculum. To be able to discuss this, I present three research studies on gendering leader identity development processes and gender equality strategies in the Swedish higher education setting. In a longitudinal study of the process of leader identity development, the main result was the emergence of a gendering process in the discourse on academic leadership. At the end of the leadership assignment period, leader identity was described in differing terms at subject positions held by women and men, respectively. In a separate study on female heads of research-heavy departments, three conflicting subject positions appeared that showed different strategies when leaders were of the female sex: (a) a gender-conscious position, (b) a gender-neutral or gender-unconscious position and (c) a position of sex discrimination experience. In a third, large national study, based on horizontal analysis of gender equality in Swedish higher education institutions (HEIs), was found that universities internally consist of different worlds when it comes to the possibility of making academic careers and in how male- and female-dominated academic disciplines explain gender inequality and strategies to handle this. Results from these studies will be discussed, in light of the striving for (gender) equal and just organisations, since gender equality is an important aspect of Swedish educational leadership curriculum.

IT security compliance is critical to the organization’s success, and such compliance depends largely on IT leadership. Considering the prevalence of unconscious gender biases and stereotyping at the workplace and growing female leadership in IT, the authors examine how the internalization of stereotype beliefs, in the form of the employee’s gender, impacts the relationships between leadership characteristics and IT security compliance intentions.

A controlled experiment using eight different vignettes manipulating Chief Information Officer (CIO) gender (male/female), Information Technology (IT) expertise (low/high) and leadership style (transactional/transformational) was designed in Qualtrics. Data were gathered from MTurk workers from all over the US.

The findings suggest that both CIOs' and employees' gender play an important role in how IT leadership characteristics – perceived expertise and leadership style – influence the employees' intentions and reactance to comply with CIO security recommendations.

This study's findings enrich the security literature by examining the role of leadership styles on reactance and compliance intentions. They also provide important theoretical implications based on gender stereotype theory alone: First, the glass ceiling effects can be witnessed in how men and women employees demonstrate prejudice against women CIO leaders through their reliance on perceived quadratic CIO IT expertise in forming compliance intentions. Secondly, this study's findings related to gender role internalization show men and women have a prejudice against gender-incongruent roles wherein women employees are least resistive to transactional male CIOs, and men employees are less inclined to comply with transactional female CIOs confirm the findings related to gender internationalization from Hentschel et al. (2019).

This study highlights the significance of organizations and individuals actively promoting gender equality and fostering environments that recognize women's achievements. It also underscores the importance of educating men and women about the societal implications of stereotyping gender roles that go beyond the organizational setting. This research demonstrates that a continued effort is required to eradicate biases stemming from gender stereotypes and foster social inclusion. Such efforts can positively influence how upcoming IT leaders and employees internalize gender-related factors when shaping their identities.

This study shows that more work needs to be done to eliminate gender stereotype biases and promote social inclusion to positively impact how future IT leaders and employees shape their identities through internalization.

This study redefines the concept of “sticky floors” to explain how subordinates can hinder and undermine female leaders, thereby contributing to the glass ceiling effect. In addition, the study elucidates how gender roles shape employees' responses to different leadership styles through gender stereotyping and internalization.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between feminine gender identity and leadership intention. Based on the theory of planned behavior and social role theory, the indirect relationship between feminine gender identity and leadership intention was analyzed through affective motivation to lead and perceived leadership self-efficacy. In addition, drawing on the person–environment fit theory, feminine gender identity was examined as a moderator of the relationship between cooperative organizational culture and leadership intention.

A cross-sectional survey was administered among a sample of 183 full-time employees.

Results demonstrated that controlling for sex, perceived leadership self-efficacy mediated the relationship between feminine gender role identity and leadership intention. In addition, feminine gender role identity acted as a moderator in strengthening the relationship between cooperative organizational culture and leadership intention such that highly feminine individuals in high cooperative organizational cultures showed higher intentions to become leaders than did individuals with less feminine identities.

In research on leadership intentions, it will be important to measure both sex and gender, as gender identity explains variance in important outcomes over and above sex. In addition, beginning to include organizational characteristics (such as perception of culture) in this stream of research is important.

Organizations wishing to promote more feminine individuals to leadership roles should examine their organizational culture to determine if it is cooperative, as this type of culture allows these individuals to be more intent on seeking leadership roles.

This research adds up to the literature by looking at an organizational factor, culture, and analyzing its role in increasing leadership intention in highly feminine individuals. In addition, by studying gender while controlling for sex, this paper suggests that regardless of sex (being a female or a male), feminine individuals will benefit from a cooperative environment. This includes any individuals (females and males) that identify more with communal behaviors.

This study aims to examine how woman leadership (i.e., woman board chairperson, woman chief executive officer (CEO) and board gender diversity) affects audit fee and also ascertained the interactive effect of woman leadership and gender diversity on audit committee on audit fee.

The study applied ordinary least square and fixed-effect estimators on the data of 21 universal banks in Ghana for the period 2010–2021 to estimate the empirical results.

It is revealed that under the leadership of women (woman CEO and board gender diversity), higher external audit quality is ensured as higher audit fee is paid. Interestingly, it was found that with the presence of women on the audit committee, the integrity of internal controls and internal audit procedures are enhanced, which leads to quality financial reporting, calls for lower audit effort, hence lower audit fee.

The result indicates that firms can rely on the leadership of women in ensuring quality external audit and quality financial reporting, which ultimately helps to minimize the information risk to all stakeholders.

The paper contributes to extant literature by establishing that, under the leadership of women in banking entities from a developing country context, external audit quality and financial reporting are achieved.