Gender leadership styles and linguistic practices: The case of Lebanese International University coordinators

Abstract

Sociolinguistic research is interested in the way people, including leaders, use language to construct and perform social identities. Given that an increasing number of professional women have to do leadership side by side with men, this case study research, which was conducted at the Lebanese International University, studied gender and leadership styles from a qualitative content analytical perspective. More specifically, it sought to determine male and female leadership styles and to investigate their linguistic practices through the analysis of self-reflections and interviews. The researcher used five male and five female coordinators’ self-reflections and transcribed interviews that were collected, analysed and categorised to find out any differences in the leadership style and language use of male and female leaders in the academic settings. The findings showed the influence of the genders in their choice of linguistic expressions indicating the noteworthy dominance of the two prevalent dimensions in leadership styles, namely, transformational and transactional.

Keywords: Gender leadership styles, gender linguistic practices, transformational leadership, transactional leadership,
Lebanon.