Gender Inequality and Economic Impact

This assignment delves into the multifaceted issue of gender inequality. It explores various factors contributing to this disparity, including societal norms, cultural biases, and institutional discrimination. The analysis then focuses on the profound impact of gender inequality on economic growth and development, examining its consequences for both individuals and nations.

Running head: MANAGEMENT CONCEPT
Management Concept
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
This report deals with the gender inequality in the context of Westpac. However, after the
retirement of the Gail Kelly Westpac has been facing gender discrimination in their workplace.
Hence, the management needs to overcome these issues. Westpac prefers to follow the
transactional and transformational leadership theories to identify their issues. These two theories
help this organization to give performance appraisal both male and female candidates based on
their performance and skill. This is helpful to reduce the gender inequality from the workplace.
Application of these two leadership theories is beneficial for Westpac to identify their
management issue and to take necessary action to reduce it.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Identification of the issue...........................................................................................................3
3.0 Critical Discussion.....................................................................................................................4
4.0 Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
5.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................7
6.0 References..................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................11

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1.0 Introduction
Enhancement of the women involved in the higher position in the working sector is moral
criteria in the present years. This contributes more to the economy of the business (Stam,
Knippenberg & Wisse, 2010). According to the given scenario, the departure of the Gail Kelly
from the Westpac as a chief executive is a significant loss for the women in a corporate sector.
After her retirement, the CEO position is again captured by the male candidate Brian Hartzer
despite the presence of skilled female candidates. The main management issue is the gender
discrimination in the workplace, which is highlighted in the case study. It has been found that
maximum employees support the male leaders rather than women leaders and the women who
are present in the top position are completely dominated by the male. This management issue is
worthy of the research as it is a big corporate issue that needs to be minimized. The report
structure includes a brief introduction, analysis of the issue, critical evaluation and
recommendation. Westpac needs to follow transactional and transformational leadership theories
to identify their current management issue.
2.0 Identification of the issue
According to the given scenario, the management issue of Westpac highlights the gender
discrimination in this organization and retirement of Gail Kelly leaves a great impact on the
women workers (Piterman, 2014). Staffing is one of the important management functions that
can be linked to this case scenario. However, staffing includes recruitment, performance
appraisal, and promotion. In this case study, it has been found that the women get less promotion
in the leader position in comparison to men. Thus, Westpac needs to improve their staffing
process properly. The management function is considered as a process to enhance the economic

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development and organizational effectiveness. In the context of Westpac after the retirement of
Gail Kelly, women workers have been facing the severe problem. Hence, proper staffing is
required in this organization to improve the promotion of the female. According to the equity
principle of Fayol’s theory, the managers of an organization should be fair to their staffs
(Shafritz, Ott& Jang, 2015). Application of this theory in Westpac can be helpful to reduce the
gender inequality form the workplace as it will help the management of this organization to give
appraisal to the women based on their merit. In the context of Westpac, gender inequality is big
management issue as it leaves a negative impact on the entire organization as well as the brand
image of the organization.
The current research is worthy of further research as situation changes over the time
(Taylor, Cornelius& Colvin, 2014). Therefore, further study will reveal the evidence based on
the changing situation. In Australia there are very few women are presents largest companies.
Statistical data shows that there are only 6 females are present in top 200 companies in Australia.
Therefore, only two women are operating the ASX top 50 companies that are the Kerrie Mather
who operates Sydney Airport Corporation, and Alison Watkins operates Coca-Cola Amatil
(Abc.net.au, 2018). This data highlights that similar management that is the gender
discrimination is present in these organizations.
3.0 Critical Discussion
Incorporation of the leadership theories will be helpful to address the leadership of Gail
Kelly. One of the most important theories is the transactional theory of leadership. This theory
focuses on the organization, supervision and performance of the organization. This type of
leadership allows the leader to give both reward and punishment to the followers to enhance their

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efficiency (Taylor, Cornelius & Colvin, 2014). Transactional leadership theory focuses on the
existing structure of an organization. In transformationalleadership, a leader has the
responsibility to maintain the routine by managing the performance of the individual. However,
such leadership focuses on the performance of the organization as well as the performance of the
employees. Such method of this leadership is helpful to detect the management issues and to
rectify them. As per the given scenario, the Gail Kelly has retired from Westpac that makes
difficulties for the women staffs in this organization. Adoption of the transactional leadership
will be helpful for Westpac to motivate their employees in their work by giving reward and
punishment. For both men and women, this leadership is easy to follow (Stam, Knippenberg &
Wisse, 2010). After the retirement of Gail Kelly, the gender inequality is taken place in Westpac.
This highlights that there is a big problemwith the leadership thus the gender discrimination has
occurred in this organization. Transactional leadership will help Westpac to identify the current
issue of the management and take necessary steps to solve the issue quickly.
On the other hand, transformational leadership theory is a leadership approach that
brings valuable and positive change in the performance of the followers. In the context of
Westpac, the combination of these two theories will be effective to enhance the leadership
process by motivating the employees in their work. Transformational leadership theory identifies
the existing need of the potential follower (Margolis & Ziegert, 2016). In the context of Westpac
the current needs is to reduce the gender inequality from their workplace. This can be identified
by applying transformational leadership in this organization. Transformational leadership is
charismatic, heroic and decisive. However, a transactional leader motivates their staffs skillfully.
This type of leadership is helpful to reduce the employee turnover in an organization. According
to the current situation of Westpac the female employees are not satisfied with the organizational

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system thus highly motivation is required in this situation. This may lead to the management to
face high turnover in their organization. One of the major advantages of the transformational
theory is the employee retention in an organization. Adoption of such theory will be helpful for
Westpac to motivate their female workers highly and to retain them in the organization.
Situational leadership theory allows the leader to change their leadership style while the
followers do not have to adopt the leadership style (Taylor, Cornelius & Colvin, 2014). This
leadership enables the leader to change their style as per the need of the employees. This
leadership theory is not appropriate in the context of Westpac as in this leadership style the
leaders take a decision and inform others. The employees do not participate in the organizational
decision-making process. Westpac needs to involve the male and female staffs in the decision-
making process to reduce the gender inequality. However, other leadership theories like
behavioural, contingency and trait theories are not applicable to the situation of Westpac as these
theories do not bring change while transformational and transactional theories facilitate change
in an organization.
Both transactional and transformational leadership styles will be beneficial for Westpac
to identify the gender inequality in their workplace that is a big management issue for this
organization. Transactional leadership helps the leader to measure the performance of the
employees while transformational leadership is helpful to reduce the turnover in an organization.
Combination of these two leaderships enables this organization to give promotion to both male
and female employees as per their skill not based on the gender.

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4.0 Recommendations
Gender inequality in the working sector is a major concern among the developing
countries. In order to reduce the gender gap from the workplace minimization of the gender pay
gap is an effective approach (Margolis &Ziegert, 2016). Reduction of the gender pay gap will
be helpful for Westpac to mitigate the gender inequality from the workplace (Mandel &
Semyonov, 2014). Providing same pay scale to both male and female workers will be helpful to
promote the female as a leader. This will enable the management of the organization to show
respect and give value to the female workers. Reduction of the biases is important to discard the
gender discrimination from the workplace (Jayachandran, 2015). During the performance
appraisal or promotion, the women are usually discriminated. Elimination of biases will be
helpful for Westpac to give promotion to the women as a leader. Gender equity has a great
success in the working sector. As for example, in the Australian academic sectors, 20% women
are recruited in the academic staff position and 6% got promotion as the senior position in 1990
(Winchester & Browning, 2015). This is a big example, of gender equity in the Australia
working sector. However, reduction of gender pay gap worked well in this situation that made a
significant outcome for the women. In the year 1990 Australian universities have adopted sex
discrimination policy to develop gender equity in the workplace. In the context of Westpac
reduction of gender pay gap can be applied by developing same pay scale for both men and
women at same designation. Apart from the educational sectors, the banking sectors of Australia
like National Australian Bank and AMP Bank Ltd follow the situational leadership style. This
leadership style is suitable for the banking sector as such organizations modify their leadership
style as per the situation. On the other hand, Westpac follows the transactional and
transformational leadership style. Other banking sectors those follow situational leadership style

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are more benefitted than Westpac as they change their leadership as per the challenging situation
while Westpac has no opportunity. For Westpac adoption of situational leadership will be helpful
to manage their employees.
5.0 Conclusion
The above piece of work focuses on the management issue regarding the gender
inequality in the context of Westpac. However, after the departure of Gail Kelly Westpac has
been facing a severe impact of gender discrimination. The female workers are dominated by the
male workers that affect the working culture of this organization. The Application of the
transactional and transformational leadership theories are valuable for this report as it will bring
significant change in the leadership process in the context of Westpac. However, such two
theories facilitate necessary changes in the employee performance and encourage them in their
work.

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6.0 References
Abc.net.au (2018). .Where are the female leaders to replace Gail Kelly? Retrieved 1 January
2018, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-13/fox-where-are-the-female-leaders-to-
replace-gail-kelly/5888912
Piterman, H. (2014). Theconversation.com. Retrieved 1 January 2018, from
http://theconversation.com/why-australian-business-needs-another-gail-kelly-34188
Stam, D. A., Knippenberg, D. V., & Wisse, B. (2010). The role of regulatory fit in visionary
leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(4), 499-518. doi:10.1002/job.624
M. Taylor, C., J. Cornelius, C., & Colvin, K. (2014). Visionary leadership and its relationship to
organizational effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35(6),
566-583. doi:10.1108/LODJ-10-2012-0130
Margolis, J. A., &Ziegert, J. C. (2016). Vertical flow of collectivistic leadership: An examination
of the cascade of visionary leadership across levels. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(2),
334-348. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.01.005
Winchester, H. P., & Browning, L. (2015). Gender equality in academia: A critical
reflection. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(3), 269-281.
doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2015.1034427
Cuberes, D., & Teignier, M. (2014). Gender inequality and economic growth: A critical
review. Journal of International Development, 26(2), 260-276. DOI: 10.1002/jid.2983

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Giddens, A., Duneier, M., Appelbaum, R. P., & Carr, D. S. (2016). Introduction to sociology.
WW Norton.
Mandel, H., & Semyonov, M. (2014). Gender pay gap and employment sector: Sources of
earnings disparities in the United States, 1970–2010. Demography, 51(5), 1597-1618.
doi:10.1007/s13524-014-0320-y
Jayachandran, S. (2015). The roots of gender inequality in developing
countries. economics, 7(1), doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-080614-115404
Shafritz, J. M., Ott, J. S., & Jang, Y. S. (2015). Classics of organization theory. Cengage
Learning.

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Bibliography
STAM, D. A., KNIPPENBERG, D. V., & WISSE, B. (2010). The role of regulatory fit in
visionary leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(4), 499-518.
doi:10.1002/job.624
M. Taylor, C., J. Cornelius, C., & Colvin, K. (2014). Visionary leadership and its relationship to
organizational effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35(6),
566-583. doi:10.1108/LODJ-10-2012-0130
Margolis, J. A., &Ziegert, J. C. (2016). Vertical flow of collectivistic leadership: An examination
of the cascade of visionary leadership across levels. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(2),
334-348. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.01.005
Cheema, S., Akram, A., &Javed, F. (2015). Employee engagement and visionary leadership:
Impact on customer and employee satisfaction. Journal of Business Studies
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Chen, J., & Chen, I. (2013). Don’t worry, I’m with you: Can visionary leadership release
neurotic employees for more perceived innovative interactions? Innovation, 15(2), 215-
223. doi:10.5172/impp.2013.15.2.215