Leadership styles of women entrepreneurs in Singapore

• Main Authors: Gow, Hui Yian, Lau, Choon Huei, Lau, Louisa Su May
• Other Authors: Teo Sock Kim
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::General
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63532
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Entrepreneurship is now viewed as the key to the nation's economic success. With the increasingly prominent role of women in society today, the potential contributions of women entrepreneurs would become more pronounced and the success of these women would continue to receive more recognition and emphasis. This research was undertaken in an attempt to provide a more thorough insight on the relationships between demographic factors and leadership styles adopted by small business female owner-managers in Singapore. The results would also provide a useful insight to the determination of any characteristic female Singaporean leadership style in the business sector. The literature review helped to identify the five major styles of leadership which formed the basis for this research. The works of other authors were also referred to in the hope of gaining a better understanding of the effects of demographic factors on the styles of decision making of women entrepreneurs. The research· techniques employed to collect data and information included a questionnaire survey and literature review from journals, books and other publications. Frequency and statistical analyses were performed on the raw data collected. The research findings did not reveal any specific style of decision making. However, a slightly higher frequency of respondents using the delegative style of leadership was observed. When analysing the relationship between the level of education of respondents and leadership styles, a significant trend of higher educated women entrepreneurs preferring the delegative style emerged. This could be due to the content of higher education in Singapore. Relationships between other demographic factors and leadership styles showed a lower significance of dependency (as revealed by the statistical analysis). Like all other research, this study has its assumptions and limitations. However, the authors have taken steps throughout the entire research process to ensure minimum impact of such limitations on the results. Nevertheless, the results must still be treated with caution and not over-generalised.