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GM
34,4 Establishing the effect of
government support on the
relationship between gender
306 egalitarian and women leadership
Received 14 June 2018
Revised 27 September 2018
effectiveness among public
15 March 2019
25 April 2019
Accepted 3 May 2019
universities in KSA
Abdullahi Hassan Gorondutse
School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia and
Department of Management Science, Nigerian Police Academy, Wudil, Nigeria
Haim Hilman, Maruf Gbadebo Salimon and Rajeh Alajmi
School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia
Fayez Hamed Al Shdaifat
Al Ain University of Science and Technology, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, and
Vikniswari Vija Kumaran
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus, Perak, Malaysia

Abstract
Purpose – Even though nowadays more women occupy leadership roles, they still are a minority. Because
aspiration is a precursor of advancement, examining conditions fostering female leadership aspiration is
important, particularly in the context of Saudi Arabia where moral relativism play a vital role. This paper
aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional survey design with 500 full-time employed women,
working in Saudi Arabia Public University were selected using quantitative approach. PLS-SEM is used to
analyse the predicted hypotheses.
Findings – The initial prediction was found that gender egalitarian is significant on women’s leadership
effectiveness, and government support to the extent that is associated with women’s leadership effectiveness
and tend to have stronger relationship. Also, the indirect effect of government support on the relationship
between gender egalitarian on women leadership effectiveness was not significant.
Research limitations/implications – Due to the selected survey approach, the data are correlational
using quantitative method. Thus, mixed method is needed to confirm these findings.
Practical implications – Saudi Arabia Public Universities, policymakers and leaders of higher education
institutions should focus on female leaders to improve their leadership effectiveness. Universities should
formulate future strategies to empower women through the various stages of their career to become good
leaders.
Originality/value – The present study is among the first if any that examines relationship between gender
Gender in Management: An
egalitarian and women leadership effectiveness with moderating role of government support in developing
International Journal country of Saudi Arabia.
Vol. 34 No. 4, 2019
pp. 306-325
© Emerald Publishing Limited
Keywords Saudi Arabia, Gender egalitarian, Women leadership effectiveness, Government support
1754-2413
DOI 10.1108/GM-06-2018-0067 Paper type Research paper
Introduction Effect of
Today’s businesses and organizations are identified with disparity between men and government
women occupying leadership positions (Fritz and Knippenberg (2017). In Saudi Arabia,
women clearly remain a minority and there are various influences connected to
support
lower women leadership involvement (Fritz and Knippenberg, 2017; Hoyt and Murphy,
2016). Recently, the lack of effective leadership within various organizations, be they public
or private sectors, have become a topic of research in developed, developing, and emerging
economies (Management Study Guide, 2015). The effectiveness of leadership has been a
307
topic of interest for research for many years. Pioneers in this field were psychology scholars,
such as House et al. (1991), and sociology scholars, such as Stogdill (1950). By the 1960s,
leadership researchers started to focus on the study of effective leadership. Hence, this has
become one of the most significant topics of discussion or debate in most fields of leadership.
Issues related to the effectiveness and qualities of leaders have attracted researchers’
attention for many years, leading the recent trend of debate, and it is becoming increasingly
challenging to ignore the leadership roles and opportunities in various organizations
especially in the education sector (Madsen et al., 2012; Pradhan et al., 2018; White, 2013).
Recent studies contended that women with qualities of leadership represent only 26 per
cent of college and university presidents despite their competence and skills (Lapovsky,
2014; Szymanska and Rubin, 2018; White, 2013). While there is an increase in the number of
women leaders in higher education, progress remains slow despite their effectiveness
(Delery and Gupta, 2016; Lapovsky, 2014; White, 2013). Hence, the lack of an effective female
leader at the highest level of leadership position in the education sector has been attributed
to the issues and challenges in academia such as a lack of performance, discouragements
over career advancements, personal circumstances and invisible rules within institutions,
among others (Croucher et al., 2018; Elkington et al., 2017; Lapovsky, 2014; Rashwan, 2015).
The underrepresentation of women in academic and administrative leadership roles is a
global phenomenon (John et al., 2017; Aidis and Schillo, 2017; Pyke, 2013; Schneider et al.,
2011; Fritz and Knippenberg, 2017). Throughout 27 countries in the European Union, only
13 per cent of higher education institutions are led by women. Furthermore, female
academics account for 16.5 per cent of full-time university professors in the UK and
represent a little over 19 per cent of full professors in Australian universities (Morley, 2013;
Schneider et al., 2011; Tessens et al., 2011). In fact, the national average for women
appointments to associate professor and full professor positions in Australian universities is
approximately 27 per cent (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Pyke, 2013).
However, much of the available literature on the cultures and leadership effectiveness in
academia tend to focus more on the qualities of leadership poses by women, which are less
on leadership position to improve leadership effectiveness (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016;
Morley, 2013, Vasconcelos, 2018). The mechanisms and variables to adopted or adapted to
improved leadership effectiveness in the Middle East will for a long time remain an
interesting area of research (Diehl, 2014). Despite there are few equal important variables
that can affect leadership effectiveness, this study considered gender egalitarian due to
Saudi women and education provided insight into the complex social and cultural
challenges. In the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, a leadership position is limited to
the men even when women are more effective in leadership (Pande and Ford, 2011; Patel and
Buiting, 2013). The number of men in leadership positions is higher in the Middle East
where women hold only 3.2 per cent of senior leadership positions (Pande and Ford, 2011;
Patel and Buiting, 2013). In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – women that pose
GM qualities of leadership represent less than 1 per cent of the organization (Alajmi and Ahmad,
34,4 2016; Sperling et al., 2014; Hardey, 2019).
Several recommendations have been provided by studies that concern the need for
governments to exert efforts through efficient policies in Universities catering to a more
nurturing culture that is adaptable to the universities’ successful operations (Lee et al., 2017).
Ultimately, after reviewing the Saudi context literature, this paper found that a few studies,
308 if any, have studied the cultural factors at an individual level. The researcher is seeking to
bridge the gap by studying the effects of gender egalitarianism on women leadership
effectiveness. In recent years, researchers have considered the effects of government support
as a key area of concern. However, only a few studies have investigated the effect of
government support (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Gazzaz, 2017) especially in the context of
Saudi universities. On the other hand, previous studies did not investigate government
support as a moderating variable by the role of the Saudi Government to develop leadership
effectiveness positions for women in universities.
Therefore, based on the issues highlighted above, this study examines the relationship
between gender egalitarianism and leadership effectiveness of women in public universities
in Saudi Arabia with government support as a moderator. Through this analysis, we
explore the following three research questions:

RQ1. Is there any relationship between gender egalitarian and women leadership
effectiveness?
RQ2. Is there any relationship between government support and women leadership
effectiveness?
RQ3. Does government support moderate the relationship between gender egalitarian
and women leadership effectiveness?

Literature review and hypothesis development

Relationship between gender egalitarian and women leadership effectiveness
Leadership effectiveness is a complex concept that is very challenging to describe as it
encapsulates varying components including several organizational contingencies
interspersed with personal and interpersonal behaviours. Several researchers have
attempted to define the concept in different ways. For instance, Stogdill (1974) and Bass and
Stogdill (1990) listed and interpreted approximately five thousand studies concerning the
concept with great variations in its definitions. A notable leadership effectiveness definition
that is all inclusive refers to the term as the successful exercise of personal influence by an
individual or more that leads to the achievement of shared objectives in such a way that
satisfies all the involved individuals (Ginnett and Curphy, 2009; Melin, 2017, Hardey, 2019).
Leadership effectiveness cannot be described on its own but there is a need to understand
its three domains to answer the question as to how the leader, the followers, and the
situation interact in the leadership process (Gazzaz, 2017; Kalafatoglu et al., 2017; Hughes,
Ginnett and Curphy, 2009; Melin, 2017; Hardey, 2019). In other words, when a leader
behaves in a certain manner that is effective or otherwise, it is not logical to judge such a
leader to be right or wrong. It is only logical to think about the behaviour’s effectiveness in
the context of the followers. It can, therefore, be inferred that leadership effectiveness
depends on the follower, the situation and the environment.
In literature, studies like Hofstede (1980), Ronen and Shenkar (1986) and Smith et al.
(1996) have been dedicated to the nature of the leadership–culture relationship, with some
indicators used to describe culture being geography, history, language, religion, economic, Effect of
political, educational, social and technological development, and personal values as well as government
behavioural intentions. In relation to this, House and Aditya (1997) claimed that culture
affects acceptable leader behaviour indicating the level to which the leader can be change-
support
oriented, risk-oriented, visionary, directive and proactive in lieu of being reactive or
advocates of the status quo (Owusu, 2012). More specifically, Hamdan (2005) conducted an
analysis of women’s education in Saudi Arabia considering the social, economic and
309
political conditions in the country and to shed insight on the women’s societal roles. The
study examined the women’s education in terms of its challenges and achievements and
proposed that cultural practices, as opposed to the Islamic religion, have prevented women
equality. Contrastingly, in Jamjoom and Kelly’s (2013) study, the authors highlighted that
segregation in the higher education bars female development and that campuses that
segregate between genders do not permit conservative academic leaders to communicate
directly with female academics. They stressed that female deans and faculty members do
not have a say in the process of decision-making. This clearly indicates structural challenges
that support gender hierarchical echelons (new paradigm that will allow us to observe
differences and inequalities of opportunity between men and women) in the educational
institutions.
In the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, a leadership position is limited to the men
even when women pose the effective leadership (Pande and Ford, 2011; Patel and Buiting,
2013). The numbers of men in the leadership position are higher in the Middle East where
women hold only 3.2 per cent of senior leadership positions (Pande and Ford, 2011; Patel and
Buiting, 2013). In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – women that pose qualities of
leadership represent less than 1 per cent in the organization (Sperling et al., 2014). Despite
leadership segregation policies being applied in Saudi Arabia’s higher education system
which offer opportunities for effective leadership, women remain underrepresented in
leadership positions (Jamjoom and Kelly, 2013). While over half of the college students
enrolled in Saudi Arabia’s higher education institutions are female (Al Ankari, 2013), only 4
per cent of college and university presidents are women (Jamjoom and Kelly, 2013; Ministry
of Higher Education (MOHE), 2016).
The concept of gender egalitarianism and related constructs can be very complex. There
are many antecedents that drive cross-cultural differences in the division of roles between
the sexes (Abu-Jarad et al., 2010; Galanaki and Papalexandris, 2017; Ozgen, 2012; House
et al., 2004). The antecedents include attitudes, stereotypes, parental investment, religion,
economic development, and even climate and geographical latitude. Hofstede (1980, 1998a
and 2001) studied the concept of gender egalitarianism in terms of the emphasis that
societies place on masculinity and femininity. Masculine values are related to assertiveness,
success, and competitiveness, while feminine values are linked to nurturance and solidarity.
In addition, he studied the differences among societies in terms of what they view as
appropriate behaviours for males versus females. Previous literature on the relationship
between gender egalitarianism and leadership effectiveness have demonstrated varied
findings and have remained inconclusive (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Croucher et al., 2018;
Gazzaz, 2017; Hardey, 2019). Pampel (2011) conducted a study of socio-demographic
determinants of gender egalitarianism. Using 20,985 documented cases from the General
Social Survey from the year 1977 to 2006 and conducting a comparison between the gender
egalitarianism determinants among 86 cohorts whose birthdates fell in 1900-1985, the
findings support the diffusion assumptions and revealed that, generally, higher
GM socioeconomic status (SES) men and women, having lower involvement in both family and
34,4 religion, possess greater gender egalitarian attitudes.
Conducting a meta-analysis, Eagly and Carli (2003) evaluated the current evidence on the
advantages of female leadership. In their study, the authors compared Dobbins and Platz’s
(1986) meta-analysis of sex differences in leadership, Eagly and Johnsons’ (1990) meta-
analysis on leadership style, Eagly et al. (1995) meta-analysis on leader effectiveness,
310 yielding 265 documents and 266 studies. What Eagly and Carli (2003) found from their
analysis was that, in comparison to male leaders, women were more transformational in
their leadership style and engaged in more contingent reward behaviours. Considering these
findings, the authors indicated that transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire
leadership styles suggested a small female advantage. Bass and Avolio (1994) stated that
women should exert more effort and perform their best to be able to shatter the glass ceiling
to reach top management. They criticized the past research comparing between male and
female leaders because most of the studies discussed a limited number of leadership styles.
They also tried to compare men and women managers’ transformational leadership because
it was proven that transformational leadership was the most effective leadership style.
Results of the study showed that women managers were considered more effective and they
were rated as more transformational leaders than men.
Men and women were also different in transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles.
Bass and Avolio (1994) explained the reasons for the results. They found that the differences
were due to affirmative action, expectations, and stereotypes. Bass and Avolio (1994) also
concluded that women leaders were considered more effective by their followers because
they were more socially sensitive, which was more satisfying to the followers. These results
are compatible with the results of Bass et al. (1996), who added more qualities about women
leadership style. Gardiner and Tiggemann (1999) asserted that the domination of men in
organizations impacted the leadership style of women. They theorized that women
managers use masculine leadership styles to be successful because there was a belief that
when women used feminine leadership styles, they would be less successful. Thus, Gardiner
and Tiggemann (1999) compared women and men leadership styles in both male and
female-dominated fields. They found that the leadership styles of women in organizations
that were dominated by males were like the men’s style of leadership. The authors asserted
that women faced pressures in organizations that were dominated by males more than in
organizations that were dominated by females because of the existence of discrimination.
Bass et al. (1996) examined the differences in leadership styles between men and women
in both transformational and transactional leadership types using the MLQ. They found
that women leaders were appraised as additionally transformational leaders compared to
men. Women leaders are more democratic and participative than men. Women used more
transformational leadership behaviours than men when developing their followers and
when using their authority. The authors thought that women are more nurturing than men,
which is a characteristic of transformational leadership. They concluded that organizations
should hire and promote women for leadership positions to get the most benefit from their
staff. However, those women should use feminine leadership styles to be more successful
leaders (Gardiner and Tiggemann, 1999). Højgaard (2002) asserted that there was a need for
cross-national studies to discuss the differences between countries regarding gendered
leadership. Thus, the author analysed gender and leadership in Denmark, which is
considered an egalitarian country. He discussed cultural norms regarding gender and
leadership by considering two dimensions of the structural conditions of the country: access
conditions and gender positioning conditions. He concluded that the egalitarian culture of
females and males in Denmark affected the representation of women in leadership positions Effect of
in the three fields. government
Those differences impacted the perceptions of men and women in universities towards
women and their right to take leadership positions. Although there are more women
support
professors in Turkey relative to Australia, there are more women leaders in Australia
relative to Turkey. They interviewed 45 senior managers in the two countries to explore
whether they perceived differences in leadership between men and women and found that
Turkish respondents held a traditional view of gender and leadership while Australian 311
respondents held a boarder view about leadership styles of senior managers regardless of
gender because there were women in senior management teams in their universities (Alajmi
and Ahmad, 2016; Puppatz et al., 2017). The different cultures affected the perceptions of
respondents in the two countries towards gender and leadership. In Turkey, professors
wanted to be in senior management to get more respect and better salaries, whereas, in
Australia, professors liked to be in senior management to provide an advantage to the
university. Turkish respondents did not consider that there was gender discrimination in
the leadership positions and they did not consider that there were barriers to women’s
advancement in universities. White and Ozkanli (2011) found that culture affected the
perceptions towards women in general and the existence of role conflict of women in
Turkey. Role conflict means that there is a clash between women leaders’ roles and their
traditional gender roles that women should be at home taking care of their children. Culture
also affected the respondent’s perceptions towards leadership. Turkish respondents tended
to use the masculine transactional leadership style, whereas Australian respondents tended
to use the transformational leadership style as it was more inclusive and effective. To
summarize, the above literature found a positive association between gender egalitarianism
and women leadership effectiveness. Therefore, this research hypothesizes that:

H1. There is a positive relationship between gender egalitarianism and women

leadership effectiveness.

Government support as moderator

Past empirical researchers dedicated to examining the relationship between government
policy and performance have primarily been conducted in developed organizations. They
serve as significant evidences that indicate the relationship between government policies
and performance. Even though a majority of the findings have been dedicated to developed
organizations, they have suggested that government policy does affect performance in
developing organizations as well (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Shariff et al., 2011; Shariff and
Peou, 2008).
More specifically, according to Nguyen et al. (2009), government policy can have a key
business role in the development of sustainable factors and in the development of land
infrastructure conditions to assist universities. Also, Sana and Abbas (2005) and the USA
Agency for International Development (USAID) (2010) revealed that Iraq, as a country in
transition, needs to adopt measures to set up the conditions for the promotion of activities in
universities. Prior studies also highlighted that government support should play a key role
in creating conducive conditions in terms of cooperation and resources use (Alajmi and
Ahmad, 2016; Gazzaz, 2017). Theoretical and empirical researchers Shariff and Peou (2008)
and Opara (2010) evidenced that government support has a consistent influence on
performance. In this background, prior studies showed that perceived government support
moderates the relationship between independent factors and performance (Harash et al.,
2014) and this provides a solid basis to support the existence of the government support’s
GM moderating effect (Harash et al., 2014). This study has examined the relationships between
34,4 gender egalitarianism and women leadership effectiveness by using government support as
a moderator. The hypotheses are as follows:

H2. There is a positive relationship between government support and women

leadership effectiveness.
312 H3. Government supports significantly moderates the relationship between gender
egalitarianism and women leadership effectiveness.

Theoretical framework
As discussed above, this study is guided (underpinned) theory. Figure A1 is the study’s
research framework. See Appendix 1.

Methodology
This study adopted the quantitative method, and it is important to justify why this is so.
Quantitative research is carried out through questionnaires, mail, telephone, or the Internet,
among others (Sellers, 1998). Survey design was therefore adopted to gauge the opinion of
female leaders in public-sector universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The
targeted population in this study is female leaders due to Saudi women and education
provided insight into the complex social and cultural challenges, such as deans, deputy
deans, directors and head of departments in public universities because they hold
administrative post and serves as leaders in various universities, hence they can answer the
question. The population consists of 2,800 female leaders in all public-sector universities in
KSA. Therefore, this study’s population is from public universities from five geopolitical
zones (East, West, Middle, North and South) in Saudi Arabia. Hence, with a population of
this size for the study, the sample is 338, according to Krejcie and Morgan (1970).
Moreover, Roscoe (1975) had also suggested that, generally, a sample size should fall
between 30 and 500 samples. In most researches and multiple regression analyses, Roscoe
(1975) had also suggested that the sample size should be several times (preferably ten times
or more) as large as the number of variables in the study. Therefore, as suggested by prior
studies, to record a high response rate, the sample size should be increased by between 40-60
per cent (Kosugi, Hamanaka, Hori and Nakajima, 2007). Thus, this research fulfills the rule
of thumb as proposed by Roscoe (1975); therefore, this study increases the number of sample
size by 48 per cent (338*1.48 = 500). Hence, the final sample size of the study is 500.
However, only 271 are valid responses for the analysis after data screening. To achieve this
number of respondents, this study divided the number of public universities into five
geographical clusters (East, West, Middle, orth, and South), with one university being
selected in each region based on the high number of women leaders in the university.
Gender egalitarianism is operationally defined as the strength to which an organization
or a culture reduces gender role alterations while endorsing gender equivalence (House et al.,
2004). This study adapted five items from House et al. (2004). Government support is
operationally defined as any assistance such as financial, training, advisory, and regulatory.
Based on this, the present study operationalized government support as any form of
government assistance extended to women in higher education (Rasha, 2014) with seven
items adapted from Al-Shihabi (2008) and Rasha (2014). Women leadership effectiveness, on
the other hand, is operationally defined by Siddique et al. (2011) as an effective woman
leader who is “knowledgeable and competent enough to manage his subordinates
effectively” and a person who has motivating and influencing power to adapt to changes in
the university and in the environment with seventeen items adapted from Alkahtani et al. Effect of
(2011), all items were measured using seven-point scale. Equally, a pilot test was carried out government
and found all constructs adapted are reliable and valid.
To limit response errors arising from the respondents’ part, certain precautions have
support
been taken such as an assurance of confidentiality and anonymity of the respondent. Trust
and confidence were built with the universities during the contact requesting their kind
participation in filling the questionnaires. Three months was budgeted for the period of data
collection as recommended by prior studies (Crano and Brewer, 2008). The Smart PLS - SEM 313
path modelling has been adopted and recognized as the most suitable technique by prior
researchers. PLS-SEM path modelling is seen as a conventional regression technique that
takes advantage of large and rigorous data in estimating the relationships between
structural models construct. Again, it also contributes in evaluating and estimating the
relationships between the study indicators and their corresponding latent constructs of the
measurement model simultaneously (Chin et al., 2003; Hair et al., 2018). According to Hair
et al. (2011), path modelling approached is appropriate if the research is prediction oriented.
Moreover, SmartPLS 3 application also has a very friendly interface design and run the
analysis simultaneously.

Result
The descriptive results are presented and the profile of the respondents shows that 13.3 per
cent (n = 36) are deans, 22.5 per cent (n = 61) are deputy deans, 34.3 per cent (n = 93) of
respondents are directors of unit and 29.9 per cent (n = 81) are heads of department. In terms
of education, the majority of the respondents at 65.7 per cent (n = 178) have a PhD certificate,
while 11.4 per cent (n = 31) of respondents have a bachelor’s degree and another 22.9 per cent
(n = 62) of respondents have a master degree. A descriptive analysis of data was conducted
to describe the gender egalitarianism, government support, and leadership effectiveness
from the women leaders’ perspective. The results of descriptive statistic are shown in
Table I and the dependent variable (leadership effectiveness) received the second minimum
mean value among all constructs (3.74) which indicates that women leaders emphasize the
lack of leadership effectiveness which is reflected in the main problem statement of the
study. See Table AI.
This study adopted some of the procedural and statistical measures to address some of
the common method variance as suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003). As self-report surveys
always shows high correlations because of the common method variance (Podsakoff and
Organ, 1986). Therefore, techniques such as reverse wording questionnaires and
maintaining the anonymity of the respondents have been implemented. Likewise, from the
result of correlation analysis contains in this study, no tremendously high extreme value or
significant contains above (r = 0.90) was found among the research variables, consequently,
as asserted by Bagozzi et al. (1991). The values of Cronbach’s alpha and CR were examined.
The values of Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.778 to 0.967, while the CR ranged from 0.844
to 0.969 which exceeds the recommended level of 0.7 (Gorondutse and Hilman, 2017; Hair
et al., 2018). Therefore, these results confirm the convergence validity of the outer model.
Furthermore, the values of the AVE were examined to confirm the convergence validity
of the outer model. AVE reflects the average of variance extracted among a group of items in
relation to the variance shared with the errors of measurement. In other words, AVE
measures the variance captured by indicators in relation to the variance assignable to the
measurement errors. Hence, if the value of AVE is at least 0.5, then these sets of items have
an adequate convergence in measuring the concerned construct (Barclay, Higgins and
Thompson, 1995; Gorondutse and Hilman, 2017). In the study, AVE values ranged between
GM 0.541 and 0.713 and indicates a good level of the construct validity of the measures used
34,4 (Gorondutse and Hilman, 2017; Barclay et al., 1995) (Table AII).
For this study, discriminant validity of the measures was confirmed by employing the
method by Fornell and Larcker (1981). As explained in Table AIII, the square root of AVE
for all constructs was replaced at the diagonal elements of the correlation matrix. The
discriminant validity of the outer model for this study is confirmed as the diagonal elements
314 in the table are higher than the other elements of the column and row in which they are
located. Due to the above testing for the construct validity of the outer model, it is assumed
that the obtained results pertaining to the hypotheses testing are reliable and valid.
This study used Smart-PLS 3.0 and the hypothesized model was tested by running PLS
bootstrapping. Therefore, the path coefficients (Beta) were generated by using PLS
Algorithm as illustrated in Figure A2. The results of this study provide interesting findings
for discussion since it gives an insight into relationships with effectiveness in Saudi
Arabia’s context. To conclude whether the path coefficients are statistically significant, the
bootstrapping technique was employed in this study with Smart-PLS 3.0. As reported in
Table AIV, the t-values with each path coefficient were generated using bootstrapping
technique and p-values were subsequently generated. Correspondingly, gender
egalitarianism has a significant effect on leadership effectiveness ( b = 0.286, t = 3.762,
p < 0.000). This result also confirms the importance of gender egalitarianism to increase
leadership effectiveness. The result indicated that for each unit increase in gender
egalitarianism, there was an expected increase of 0.286 in leadership effectiveness. This
result is consistent with existing studies (Grove, 2005; Workplace Gender Equality Agency,
2013).

Testing the moderation effect of government support

As illustrated in Table AV and Figure A2, the moderating effect of government support on
the relationship between independent variables (assertiveness and future orientation) and
leadership effectiveness was examined by using the PLS algorithm and bootstrapping.
Government support does not moderate the relationships between gender egalitarian and
leadership effectiveness at the 0.05 level of significance ( b =
0.087, t = 1.372, p = 0.170). In
the literature on multivariate data analysis, the quality of the model can be assessed by R
square, the cross-validated redundancy and effect size. According to Hair et al. (2014), it
reflects the quality of the variables included in the model. Therefore, the R square’s
magnitude for the endogenous variables is regarded as an indicator of the predictive power
of the model. Hair et al.’s (2014) criterion states that R square value equal or more than 0.75 is
substantial, 0.50 is moderate and 0.25 is weak. According to the criteria, the R square of the
endogenous variable (leadership effectiveness) is 0.605, based on the result, and is
considered high, reflecting the adequacy of the developed model.

Cross-validated redundancy
The model’s predictive relevance can be examined by the Stone–Geisser non-parametric test
(Chin, 1998; Fornell and Cha, 1994; Geisser, 1975). Generally, there are several forms of Q2
that can be gained based on the form of the chosen prediction. A cross-validated
commonality is obtained when the points of the data are predicted employing the underlying
LV scores. If the prediction of the data points is acquired by the LVs that predict the block in
question, a cross-validated redundancy Q2 is the output. According to Fornell and Cha
(1994), the redundant commonality is found to be larger than 0 for all endogenous variables;
therefore, the model is considered to have predictive validity, but if the reverse were true, the
predictive relevance of the model cannot be concluded. As illustrated in Table AVI, the
cross-validated redundancies and commonality for leadership effectiveness were at 0.166 Effect of
and 0.123, respectively. Thus, based on the criteria suggested by Fornell and Cha (1994), all government
values are more than zero which indicates an adequate predictive validity of the model. support
Effect size (f2)
According to Cohen’s (1988) criterion, when the effect size (f2) is less than 0.15, it is
considered as a small effect. In Table VII, the effective size of leadership effectiveness and 315
the interaction terms for all the variables (assertiveness, future orientation, gender
egalitarianism and government support) are less than 0.15. The following Cohen’s (1988)
criterion, f2 is assessed as: (0.02 small, 0.15 medium and 0.35 large). Therefore, it can be
considered that the effect is small for all the variables. The following formula shows how the
effect size was calculated:

R2
R2
Effect size f 2 ¼ incl 2 excl
1
Rincl

Results in Table AVII show the effect of gender egalitarianism, government support, small,
and medium, respectively.

Conclusion and recommendations

This study explores the effects of various key independent variables (gender egalitarianism)
on leadership effectiveness by examining government support as a moderator in the public
universities of Saudi Arabia. The main motivation behind this study is to enhance the
effectiveness of female leadership in the KSA while identifying the vital role of various
variables including gender egalitarianism and highlighting the importance of government
support as a moderating variable.
Gender egalitarianism has a significant effect on leadership effectiveness ( b = 0.286,
t = 3.763, p < 0.000). This result also confirms the importance of gender egalitarianism to
increasing leadership effectiveness. The results indicate that for each unit increase in gender
egalitarianism, there is an expected increase of 0.286 in leadership effectiveness. This result
is consistent with past studies (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Gazzaz, 2017). Likewise is similar
with study of Hardey (2019) who found that women understand the cultural burden
affecting their professions. Saudi women can play a very significant leadership role in
universities. Women also can get scholarships to study in Saudi universities as well as in
other universities in developed countries (Gazzaz, 2017). Government support has a
significant effect on leadership effectiveness ( b = 0.571, t = 7.800, p < 0.000). Thus, the
impact of government support and effectiveness of leadership is clear in the case of
universities that employ women in their scientific councils and various departments by
providing incentives to receive ongoing government support and to raise the level of self-
confidence of female leaders by involving them in dialogues and scientific conferences
which can help them become effective leaders (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Gazzaz, 2017;
Kalafatoglu et al., 2017). On the other hand, government support did not moderate the
relationships between gender egalitarianism and leadership effectiveness at a 0.05 level of
significance ( b = 0.087, t = 1.372, p = 0.170). This is because it has been observed that
government support cannot extend over and above the prevailing culture of Saudi Arabia.
The customs and traditions of Saudi society demand a strict code of sex-based segregation
in schools, universities, at home and in public (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Gazzaz, 2017).
GM Therefore, the results show that government support does not significantly moderate the
34,4 relationship between gender egalitarianism and the effectiveness of leadership.
However, women remain an untapped resource because of cultural circumstances like the
lack of gender egalitarianism. If women are given the opportunity, they can become leaders
who can positively enhance the universities’ performance. For example, when women were
given opportunities in the Princess Noura University (PNU), the university received several
316 scientific awards despite being founded only very recently. Generally, women in Saudi
Arabian universities work in secretarial roles, restricted to only implementing the decisions
made by men who are in positions of leadership. Giving women the opportunity to take up
the presidency of scientific councils will help increase the effectiveness of Saudi women
leaders and will also positively influence the performance level of universities, enabling
them to accomplish the Saudi Vision for 2030, which aims to get at least five Saudi
universities included in the global university rankings.

Implications for theory

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge aimed at understanding
leadership effectiveness and is the first study to analyse the relationship between variables
like gender egalitarianism and leadership effectiveness as well as how these are moderated
by government support in public universities in Saudi Arabia. The research model
developed for this study was based on past studies and was used to formulate and test
certain hypotheses. Furthermore, the current study has provided empirical evidence about
the relationship between these variables in the context of the research framework
formulated based on a sound literature review. This study has demonstrated the importance
of the variables in enhancing leadership effectiveness. The results show that the two
variables are significant in predicting leadership effectiveness, i.e. gender egalitarianism
and government support. There are clear and practical implications of these findings.
Leadership effectiveness has been the subject of study and research in almost all industries
due to its importance and higher education institutions are no different. Gender
egalitarianism and government support urge female leaders to put their optimum effort to
attain their objectives and align them with the objectives of universities.

Implications for practitioners

Again, policymakers and leaders of higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia should
focus on female leaders to improve their leadership effectiveness. Universities should
formulate future strategies to empower women through the various stages of their career to
become good leaders (Abu-Jarad et al., 2010; Galanaki and Papalexandris, 2017). In addition,
universities should work towards attracting outstanding leadership by establishing clear
standards and favourable regulatory conditions to derive the best from their people,
to improve living conditions for women in terms of salary and transportation and to
strengthen their position and role in social development. Centres should be established to
develop female academic leaders with the help of international centres like the first Women’s
Leadership Programme at the George Washington University, known widely as the
Elizabeth J. Somers Women’s Leadership Programme (WLP), a year-long freshman
academic programme (Alajmi and Ahmad, 2016; Puppatz et al., 2017; Gazzaz, 2017;
Kalafatoglu et al., 2017; Melin, 2017). In addition, The Ministry of Economy and Planning
(2016) in its illustrated government guide to support women as part of Saudi Arabia’s vision
for 2030, “Saudi women are an important aspect of our strength since they account for over
50 per cent of the total number of university graduates”.
 Like any other research, this research has limitations; the study used self-administered Effect of
questionnaire; if other methods were used, the results may vary. Other methods of analysis government
such as AMOS-SEM can be used to test in other setting. Past literature reveals that there are
various components that affect leadership effectiveness apart from the independent
support
variables considered in this study. For deeper insights, variables such as motivation,
organizational culture and other organizational variables could be studied to understand
leadership effectiveness at an organizational level. This study focussed solely on Saudi
Arabia and does not compare it with any other developing or developed countries. Future 317
studies could focus on such a comparison for new insights into leadership effectiveness.

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Corresponding author
Abdullahi Hassan Gorondutse can be contacted at: ahgdutse@gmail.com
GM Appendix 1
34,4
Gender Leadership
Egalitarianism Effectiveness

322
Government
Support
Figure A1.

Construct N Minimum Maximum Mean SD

Gender egalitarianism 271 1 7 3.48 0.706

Table AI. Government support 271 1 7 4.69 0.804
Descriptive statistics Leadership effectiveness 271 1 7 3.74 0.783

Construct Items Loading Cronbach’s alpha CRa AVEb

Gender egalitarianism GE1 0.737 0.778 0.844 0.541

GE2 0.718
GE3 0.691
GE4 0.821
GE5 0.611
Government support GS1 0.698 0.901 0.921 0.627
GS2 0.767
GS3 0.798
GS4 0.780
GS5 0.826
GS6 0.818
GS7 0.845
Leadership effectiveness LE1 0.773 0.967 0.969 0.543
LE10 0.804
LE11 0.791
LE12 0.616
LE13 0.807
LE14 0.561
LE15 0.523
LE16 0.750
LE17 0.789
LE2 0.766
LE3 0.794
LE4 0.544
LE5 0.693
LE6 0.741
LE7 0.805
LE8 0.784
LE9 0.760
Table AII.
Convergence validity Note: aCR = (R factor loading) 2/{(R factor loading) 2) þ R (variance of error)}; bAVE = R (factor loading) 2/
analysis {R (factor loading) 2 þ R (variance of error)}
 Effect of
government
support

323
Construct Gender egalitarianism Government support Leadership effectiveness

Gender egalitarianism 0.692 Table AIII.

Government support 0.318 0.792 Discriminant validity
Leadership effectiveness 0.413 0.474 0.737 matrix

No. Hypothesis Path coefficient Standard error t-value p-value Decision

Gender egalitarianism !
H1. Leadership effectiveness 0.286*** 0.076 3.762*** 0.000 Supported Table AIV.
Government support ! The results of the
Leadership inner structural
H2. effectiveness 0.571*** 0.073 7.800*** 0.000 Supported
model (hypothesis
Notes: *p < 0.1; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01 testing)

Figure A2.

Path Standard Table AV.

No. Hypothesis coefficient error t-value p-value Decision Results of the inner
structural model for
Gender egalitarianism * Government the moderating effect
H3. support ! Leadership effectiveness
0.087 0.063 1.372 0.170 Not supported
of government
Notes: * p < 0.1; ** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01 support
GM
34,4

324

Table AVI. Cross-validated Cross-validated

Predictive quality Variable Variable type R square communiality redundancy
indicators of the
model Leadership effectiveness Endogenous 0.605 0.123 0.166

Table AVII.
Effect size of
Construct R2incl R2excl R2incl R2excl 1-R2incl Effect size
leadership
effectiveness and the Gender egalitarianism 0.605 0.587 0.018 0.395 0.045 Small
interaction terms Government support 0.605 0.528 0.077 0.395 0.195 Medium
Appendix 2 Effect of
government
1 I reduce employee turnover rate support
2 My followers reduce possible resistance on my request
3 I provide opportunities for personal growth (skills, training, promotion) to the members
4 I am eager to improve group cooperation
5 I improve morale of members
6 My followers increase overall contribution to the company 325
7 I gain respect of other departments
8 I always ready to face future challenges
9 I have adopted improved procedures for doing my job
10 I have changed how my job was executed to be more effective
11 I have instituted new work methods that were more effective for the university
12 I have changed organizational rules or policies that were nonproductive or counterproductive
13 I have made constructive suggestions for improving how things operate within the organization
14 I have corrected faulty procedures or practices
15 I have eliminated redundant or unnecessary procedures
16 I have implemented solutions to pressing organizational problems
17 I have introduced new structures, technologies or approaches to improve effectiveness Table AVIII.
Leadership
Source: Alkahtani et al. (2011) effectiveness

1 Government always attends to our university ensuring the development

2 Government ever provides accountancy training programs and seminars for women
3 Government provides access for useful relationship with women agencies
4 The government provides consultant service when women in our university need it
5 Government always provides easy procedures to promote women to become leaders in their
universities
6 An official decision stipulates the involvement of Saudi women in making decision stages in their
universities
7 The government offers the encouragement and support to activate women efforts in the
development and advancement of Saudi universities
Table AIX.
Sources: Al-Shihabi (2008); Rasha (2014) Government support

1 In my university, sex roles are not differentiated

2 In my university, women leaders may interfere to protect their interest
3 In my university, there are women leaders in qualified jobs
4 In my university, there is no higher job stress compared to the male leadership
5 In my university, the work is valued as a central life interest Table AX.
Gender
Sources: House et al. (2004); Grove (2005) egalitarianism

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