Leadership styles in higher education of male and female chief financial officers in the southeast

There will be an inherent need to fill several chief financial officer positions in the near future due to impending retirements and other transitions. To assist in identifying and preparing qualified candidates for these vacancies, this study explores the leadership styles of 43 chief financial officers (CFOs) who were all members of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) employed by 2-year and 4-year institutions. The purpose of this quantitative study is to compare the perceptions of the preferred leadership styles of the male and female chief financial officers in higher education institutions located in the Southeast to identify the most prevalent leadership style and to determine the style preference by gender. The study delves into two issues, leadership styles and gender differences. The theoretical frameworks examined were the leadership styles of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leaders and the role of incongruence, gender role stereotypes, and feminist theory. The gender difference theories offer an explanation that support the premise that there are perceived differences in the leadership styles of men and women. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Self Rater Form was the instrument used to collect the data on the self-perceptions of the leadership styles of the CFOs. The findings of the study yielded that there is no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the preferred leadership styles of the male and female CFOs in the Southeast, the leadership style preferred was transformational by both genders, and the more prevalent leadership style was transformational among all of the CFOs.