The Congruity in Female-Leader Role Stereotypes in the Jordanian Hotel Sector

The main aim of this research is to examine and contextualise how employees stereotype ‘leader roles’ and ‘female roles’ to determine if there is a mismatch between these roles. It also aims to understand how the possible incongruity between leader role and female role stereotypes may lead to prejudicial evaluations towards female leaders by the application of the role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Given that there is an under-representation of women in leadership and decision-making positions in the hotel sector in Jordan, this thesis seeks to extend this theory by scrutinising how other relevant factors may empower or forbid female leaders in this sector. Therefore, a related aim of this thesis is to investigate how gender equality practices and leadership development programmes can empower the emergence of effective female leaders. Drawing on a survey of 26 hotels ranked as 4-star and 5-star operating in four geographic locations in Jordan (i.e. Amman, Aqaba, Dead Sea and Petra), 392 employees participated in this study. The results indicate consistency between people’s perceptions of the female role and the leader role, whereas in this sector, the findings show that females are able to emerge as effective leaders. Moreover, gender equality practices and leadership development programmes were found to be significantly linked with the emergence and effectiveness of female leaders. Given that the quantitative results did not justify the massive gender gap in the hotel sector, a qualitative analysis of open-ended questions was used to develop an in-depth understanding of relevant societal and organisational factors that may constitute the gender gap in practice. The analysis suggests that tribal and Bedouin traditions and stereotypes are embedded with religious interpretations and practices, and also embedded within the regulatory legal framework, contributing to the overwhelming gap between genders.