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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

gender and transactional vs. transformational leadership

Although women more frequently exhibit traits that are conducive to currently preferred participative leadership styles, these traits are not mutually exclusive to women nor are they necessarily found in women who assume leadership roles. Nahavandi discusses that research indicates that women naturally exhibit traits associated with transformational leadership, including interpersonal skills such as consideration, expressiveness, and cooperation, (2009, p. 208). This, in and of itself, does not however suggest to me that women make better leaders than men, as men too can exhibit these traits. Additionally there are many women who are leaders who do not exhibit these “feminine” traits.

When discussing masculine and feminine traits in leadership styles, what is referred to are those specific traits that are traditionally or stereotypically associated with gender. Transactional leadership styles, where an authoritarian leader is in complete control over followers, are at the opposite end of the spectrum from transformational leadership styles, and are identified with traditionally masculine traits. Transactional leadership, with clearly delineated roles for leaders and followers, is far more common in our country.

Transformational leadership is comprised of three factors: 1. charisma, which inspires an emotional bond between leaders and followers, 2. intellectual stimulation, which motivates followers to solve problems, and 3. individual consideration, which allows the development of personal relationship between leaders and followers, (Nahavandi, p.206). While transformational leadership is conducive to large-scale organizational change and is inspirational, transactional leadership is conducive to short term immediate outcomes and does not inspire followers.

When President Clinton expressed that we need a “new gender of leadership”, I believe he was referring to a need for an increase in transformational leadership, and I agree that we need to balance these two different styles of leadership within our organizations more effectively, ("Clinton pledges fidelity", 1992).

Although Nahavandi states that the research is inconclusive as to the importance of any specific trait within the big five personality dimensions, (2009, p. 128), I believe that a successful blending of personality traits is far more important to successful leadership than gender-specific traits, especially as none of these traits are actually specific to one gender. Successful leaders, whether their style is transactional or transformational, are conscientious, extroverted, open to new experiences, emotionally stable, and agreeable.


References:

Clinton pledges fidelity to 'new gender of leadership' at women’s caucus. (1992, July 15). The Salt Lake City Tribune, p. A2.

Nahavandi, A. (2009). The art and science of leadership (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

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David Hector Thibodeau

1045 Wylie Street SE • Atlanta, GA 30316

• davidhectorthibodeau@gmail.com



Professional Experience:



Georgia College & State University - Milledgeville, GA 31061 2008 - Present

www.gcsu.edu



­Serials/Acquisitions Coordinator

­• Establish policies and procedures for the efficient operation of the Serials and Acquisitions Department, oversees database maintenance and quality, and processing of materials.

­• Supervise full-time faculty, staff, and student positions.

­• Manage electronic serials collection using electronic management software systems.

­• Update bibliographic holdings for serials collection using standard library utilities.

­• Direct all major projects and daily activities involving the management of the serials collection.

­• Oversee participation in National Library of Medicine’s DOCLINE ILL program.

­• Meet with department faculty to review their acquisitions needs and serve as a library liaison with academic departments.

­• Provides assistance and advice to the Dean/University Librarian in the overall administration of the library, including strategic planning and the establishment of overall goals and objectives.

­• Assist library administration in monitoring the budget and expenditures, recommends equipment, supplies, personnel, and other needs. Perform fiscal period close in Voyager integrated library system.

­• Serve as primary liaison to vendors and as the technical contact for electronic databases, including setting up trials, negotiating licensing agreements, managing SLAs, and authoring RFQs and other correspondence.

­• Participate in collection development to support the curriculum by recommending acquisitions and participating in the evaluation of current collections.

­• Develop and prepare statistical and narrative reports.

­• Provide reference services as assigned.



KPMG LLP - Atlanta, GA 10/2003 - 10/2007

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Southeast Area Library Associate

­• Relocated from Miami to Atlanta by KPMG due to assuming additional offices in 2006.

­• Reference, research, and collection management for fifteen Southeast area libraries.

­• Developed on-line training sessions for proprietary accounting research platform.

­• Set up, developed, and administered SharePoint internal collaboration web site.

­• Liaison to National Operations teams on SharePoint development.

­• Redeveloped external acquisitions web site to be high functioning and suitable for firm-wide use.

­• Collaborated with marketing department to improve collateral for delivery to clients and targets.

­• Account contact and administrator for firm-wide on-line subscription.

­• Coordinated development of the Latin American Tax Handbook between the European Tax Centre, the Latin American Tax Center, and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.

­• Led a team to develop an electronic tool to survey library users.

­• Appointed Work Environment Initiative Local Action Committee Representative in South Florida.

­• Promoted from Area Library Coordinator to Area Library Associate and relocated from Boston to Miami in 2003; originally responsible for library collections, acquisitions, vendor relations, and accounts in 13 Northeast area offices.



KPMG LLP - Boston, MA 03/200- - 10/2003

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Northeast Area Library Coordinator

­• Implemented integrated library system software in area libraries.

­• Assisted in creating a collection development database on MS Access to track expenditures.

­• Substantially decreased print purchases through resource sharing and eliminating duplicative materials.

­• Developed electronic process for Partners to select and order professional literature annually that resulted in $60K savings in the Northeast in the first year, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Piloted on-line access to tax literature platform in Northeast Area that resulted in over $25K cost savings in Northeast area and a wider distribution of resources, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Coordinated and developed training programs for Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, and other information platforms for professionals and support staff, (project adopted firm wide).



Education:



American Intercontinental University

­• 2010 – Present, MBA – Project Management Concentration



­Simmons College--Boston, MA

­• Summer 2000; audited - Knowledge Management

­• Summer 1999; audited- Management of Information Technology

­• 1996-1998 MLIS, Graduate School of Library and Information Science



­Boston College--Newton, MA

­• 1984-1988 BA, College of Arts and Sciences: Double Major: English and Psychology





­Hebrew University--Jerusalem, Israel

­• Summer 1988 & summer 1990, Assistant Archaeological Field Supervisor and associated graduate level classes.



Leadership:



Georgia Leadership Institute – State Personnel Administration

­• 2009 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People



­Florida Library Leadership Program -- Tallahassee, FL

­• 2005-2006 - Year-long comprehensive series of learning sessions that focuses on developing an understanding of leadership, within a conceptual framework and practical applications.



Certifications:



Emory University - Center for Lifelong Learning – Atlanta, GA

­• 2008 - Emory University: Management Certification.

­• Courses included: Essentials of Personnel Management, Win-Win Negotiations, Essentials of Supervision, Essentials of Motivation, and Essentials of Coaching for Managers.



­New Horizons--Boston, MA

­• 2002 - Certified Internet Webmaster – Foundation Fundamentals

­• Courses included: Networking, Internet, and Web-Page Authoring Fundamentals.



Professional Memberships:

SLA Georgia Chapter Board Member 2009 - Present

­Tennis Club II Condominium Association President, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2005-2006

­Member: ALA, NASIG, CIP



Skills / Strengths:

• Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, Factiva, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, & other information databases.

­• Conversational French, some Spanish

­• MS office: Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, SharePoint, Visio, and Project.