LEADERSHIP AND GENDER IN THE ROMANIAN PREFECTURES.

The present paper analyses the leadership styles practiced in Romania's Prefectures Institutions and the impact of gender on it. The purpose is to analyze if the leadership practiced by civil servants from top management is the effective one as well as if female leaders are perceived as being better leaders than men are. The main objective of the study is to establish which are the leadership styles practiced predominantly and the differences between men and women when occupying leadership positions. The methodology of research consists of an opinion survey conducted in the 42 Prefectures (the institutions that represent the Government in each County) of Romania using a questionnaire. The questionnaire measured two types of effective leadership behaviors: transformational and transactional and one ineffective style, namely laissez-faire (Howell, Avolio, 1993). The research revealed that the leaders from the studied institutions are presenting mostly transformational and transactional characteristics and lower scores at the passive leadership behaviors, which makes them effective leaders. A direct relation between gender and the leadership styles practiced could not be established due to the fact that the civil servants considered that men and women behave almost the same when occupying the same leadership position. The study also revealed that the majority of the respondents (over 70%) did not have a preference regarding leaders' gender. Even if the research did not show that women are better leaders than men, the fact that they are perceived as being transformational leaders leads to the idea that female leaders are effective leaders capable of making public institutions more modern, resilient and performant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]