SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
ENT 476: Entrepreneurial Leadership
Template: Northouse Cases & Entrepreneurial Self-Knowledge Assignments
© Dr. Jeremy D. Meuser, Ph.D. ● Version 06-23-2020
Name: _Marquaziana Moss________________________________________________
Semester/Section: ______Second summer/ web 1_____________________________
Chapter:15 –Gender and Leadership
Case 15.1 Lisa encountered gender discrimination because the firm could not see her value and
progress for the company simply because of her gender. In addition, they stereotyped her because
she was a woman, assuming she would be too emotional and vulnerable to take on such a big role
in the firm.
1) The firm’s top executive should have promoted Lisa to partner she had proven herself through all her
hard work and dedication to the company even being a team player when she shouldn’t have been. In
addition, he should have acknowledged her concern and reassured her that a promotion would be in
place.
2) An anti-discrimination policy would have benefited both Pamela and Lisa. It would have ensured a zerotolerance policy for the sex related discrimination the women were facing. The policy could have given
them an opportunity at an equal playing field at the firm and Lisa may have stood chance at making
partner
3) The organization should have made all the employees attend annual workshops and meetings on gender,
race, age, sex, and sexuality discrimination. The company should also have some sort of open-door policy
where employees can discreetly report workplace discrimination or harassment. There should also be
more women hired at the firm and more support for women’s rights, equal advancements and
opportunities. Realistically, the company could have benefited from having a woman on the chair
committee.
Case 15.2
1) Lori is encountering the glass ceiling factor; the men believe they are superior to her and so they have
less respect for her and reject her ideas. In addition, their gender discrimination prevents them from
hearing her ideas out because she is a woman. Lastly, they stereotype her by suggesting she is just being
too sensitive (implied because she is a woman).
2) Lori’s coworkers should have showed her the same respect they showed each other. When she walked
into the room, they should have acknowledged her presence, interacted with her ideas, and
acknowledged her participation. Instead, they ignored, ridiculed, and discredited her ideas.
3) Len should have credited Lori’s idea, instead of taking the credit for himself. He could have made a good
example as a leader but he chooses to be one of the “boys”. In the ideal scenario Len would have
encouraged the men to hear Lori out and instead of stealing her ideas, he could have expanded on them
and created an equal workplace dynamic.
4) The organization needs to create a more diverse and open minding background. They need to access the
effectiveness of the leadership skills of the leaders because none of them were behaving like an effective
P.O. Box 1848 | University, MS 38677-1848 | (662) 709-7778 | Fax (662) 915-5821 | jmeuser@bus.olemiss.edu | www.olemiss.edu
leader would. More training needs to be done to address the workplace discrimination and sexist
attitudes of the men.
Case 15.3
1) One advancement barrier that Marina is facing is prejudice against women Even though she clearly
possesses the experience, qualifications, and intellectual capabilities for the job, her pregnancy is
hindering her from any possibility of advancement within the company. In fact, because of it the case
study implies that she could even lose her job.
2) Roy should have been more supportive. He should have listened to her plans and then made any
suggestions afterwards. Roy should have assured Marina that her pregnancy leave would not hinder
her job.
3) It would have been very easy for Marina to work from home with today’s advancement in
technology, video chats, web seminars, video recordings, etc. would have all made it possible for
Marina to execute her plans for the company.
4) One change that needs to be made within the organization is more women as leaders. Part of the
reason why Roy sees pregnancy in such a negative light is probably because he’s never had to
experience it himself. He does not see that women can effectively manage a work load and is
stereotyping all women collectively based on something he has no actual insight on.
Entrepreneurial Self-Knowledge
In this chapter, I learned that improvements in gender leadership roles can help promote more
women into roles of equal opportunity. Unfortunately, women face significant gender biases and
social distinctiveness while men have the upper hand in advancement through presumed gender
roles of superiority, assertiveness and lack of gender diversity in positions of higher power. The
glass ceiling is a metaphor for the invincible barrier that prevents women and minorities from
being promoted to higher executive level positions within a company. According to the glass
ceiling idea women are said to be given equal opportunity, yet they stop getting promoted at a
certain level. The corporate culture is created by men who view maternal behaviors as a reason
for them to be unfit for the workplace Lastly, the pipeline theory states that women do not have as
much human capital as men.
P.O. Box 1848 | University, MS 38677-1848 | (662) 709-7778 | Fax (662) 915-5821 | jmeuser@bus.olemiss.edu | www.olemiss.edu