Leadership in Business: Examining Women's Decision-Making Processes

This essay explores the leadership of women in business organizations, focusing on their decision-making processes. It analyzes the article 'How Women Decide' by Cathy Benko and Bill Pelster, highlighting the unique decision-making roles of women compared to men. The essay discusses how women often view decision-making as an opportunity to explore new things, incorporating their feelings and experiences, as per the Gibbs 1988 reflective cycle. It contrasts the patronizing approach of some male leaders with the more inclusive and analytical approach of women, who often take more time to consider various viewpoints and analyze issues in detail before reaching a conclusion. The essay concludes that women's leadership, while different, can be highly effective due to their thorough analysis and consideration of multiple factors, supported by the Gibbs reflective model.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
Leadership in Business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
Introduction
The purpose of the following paper is to develop an understanding about the leadership of
women in the business organizations. The article named ‘How Women Decide’ written by Cathy
Benko and Bill Pelster (Benko & Pelster, 2013). This has been an exciting journey for the
women in controlling the business organizations in the best ways indeed. The types of decision
making that women make will be discussed here effectively.
Leadership of women in business
One of the most important issues in the business organizations is to decide whether some
important things should be purchased or not. The decision making role of the women are
completely different than men (Ibarra, Ely & Kolb, 2013). The leadership skills are different in
the sense that they see this entire aspect as an opportunity to explore new things. The feelings of
women take charge in this aspect as per the Gibbs 1988 reflective cycle. The tendencies of
women are quite different indeed. This will be very much important in case of the ways of
thinking for both the male and female (Baker, 2014).
The case study deals with the decision making process of Deloitte. .The patronizing
approach of the male leaders is not supported by the women leaders at all. The gender
differences will have to be discussed in this section as well. The kind of leadership styles has a
direct impact on the performance of the employees as well. This has been seen that women have
tended to be much fickle-minded in case of taking the decisions (Gibbs, 1988). The women
leaders always take more time than their male counterparts to end the meetings or come to a
conclusion. It is because of their inquisitive nature (Ibarra, Ely & Kolb, 2013). They stress on
taking the decision after hearing the viewpoints of all people who are present in the meeting. It

2LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
has to be said as per the Gibbs 1988 model that women value their feelings most importantly
than other issues (Gibbs, 1988).
Sometimes, women try to mix their thoughts and feelings together and mess all the things
up. This becomes really problematic indeed (Baker, 2014). However, it has been also noticed
that the women always go on to make a thorough analysis of all the issues that are presented in
the meetings. Thus they come to a conclusion after taking several things into their consideration.
They will analyze all the issues with narrow detail and then tally the things on the margin of loss
or profit. The women use the RFP tool as a guide map that will assist them to explore the various
issues before taking any proper decision (Gibbs, 1988). According to the Gibbs cycle, it can be
criticized that women leadership is sometimes very effective as they always go deep into the
matter. This helps them to be right in taking their decisions.
Conclusion
The paper can be concluded by saying that the women leadership is somewhat different
than the male leaders. This has been an effective issue always since the decision making power
of women can prove to be effective as well. The Gibbs reflective model of 1988 supports this
kind of leadership style in terms of analysis and feelings.

3LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
References
Baker, C. (2014). Stereotyping and women's roles in leadership positions. Industrial and
Commercial Training, 46(6), 332-337.
Benko, C., & Pelster, B. (2013). How women decide. harvard Business review, 91(9), 78-84.
Gibbs, G. (1988). The reflective cycle. Kitchen S (1999) An appraisal of methods of reflection
and clinical supervision. Br J Theatre Nurs, 9(7), 313-7.
Ibarra, H., Ely, R., & Kolb, D. (2013). Women rising: The unseen barriers. Harvard business
review, 91(9), 60-66.