Women in leadership: How female leaders navigate and interpret organizational culture in Hungary

Kenyó Petra (2025) Women in leadership: How female leaders navigate and interpret organizational culture in Hungary. Menedzsment Kar (2025-)-.

	PDF Women in leadership_How female leaders navigate and interpret organizational culture in Hungary_ Kenyó Petra.pdf.pdf Hozzáférés joga: Csak nyilvántartásba vett egyetemi IP címekről nyitható meg Download (567kB)
	PDF thesis_assesment_sheet_Kenyó Petra.pdf Hozzáférés joga: Bizalmas dokumentum (bírálat) Download (65kB)

Absztrakt (kivonat)

In recent years, companies have grown more aware of the importance of diversity and equality within their employees. Although progress have been made, women are still underrepresented in higher leadership roles. Women leaders are surrounded by a lot of stereotypes, because of these, it can cast doubt on women’s effectiveness and expertise in business environments.Research suggests that feminine leadership strength, such as empathy, collaboration and ethical decision-making, may contribute positively to organizational culture. These social expectations, cultural realities, and lived experiences as leaders makes the basis of this thesis.I had both professional and personal motivation behind choosing this topic for my thesis. Throughout my academic studies and experiences, I have been curious about how women lead, what makes a good leader good, what challenges women face in this kind of position, and how their leadership behaviour interacts with organizational expectations. I have been interested in a long time in understanding how women navigate their challenges inside their organization. This thesis gives me the opportunity to connect my knowledge, which I gained during my university studies, and my own interest in leadership and organizational behaviour.Despite the increasing awareness regarding gender equality, female leaders are underrepresented in several Hungarian industries, therefore I think in Hungarian business context this topic is highly relevant. This studies focus is not on the evaluation on women against masculine norms and leadership, instead it is trying to explore leadership as a rational and a culturally embedded phenomenon.The main theoretical frameworks of this thesis are (Kurt Lewin, 1939)’ three leadership styles, autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire, which provide a clear and empirically grounded typology for analysing the participants leadership behaviours. With this model classifying leaders by their decision-making patterns, delegation practices, communication style and conflict management strategies, is much easier.To complement this, the thesis employs (Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership (1st ed.), 1992)’s three-level model of organizational culture, which includes the artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions level. Together, these frameworks support a detailed exploration of how they can shape and respond to one another.The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between these two dimensions and investigate how female leaders describe their own leadership style and strategy, and how they perceive the organizational culture in which they work.Therefore, the thesis seeks to address the following research questions:- How do female leaders describe their leadership style in relation to Lewin’s three leadership categories?- How do female leaders perceive the organizational culture of their workplace through Schein’s three level model?- To what extent do female leaders feel that they can shape or they have to adopt to the organization’s culture?These questions reflect the core analytical focus of the research, which is to understand how leadership is enacted by women in practice, how the company’s culture shapes and is shaped by leadership behaviours, and what this means for everyday practises and dynamics in Hungarian context.To find an answer to these questions, in the study a qualitative research approach is used, within that semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight female leaders from secondary and tertiary sectors, including middle and top managers.These interviews allow for an in-dept review of leaders’ experiences, including their decision-making processes, the challenges they face in their roles, their perceptions of organizational norms, and their own position within their team’s culture. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns and themes that the participants gave an insight from their lived experiences.There are certain limitations in the study, which are acknowledged. Performance outcomes, financial indicators and objective measures of organizational effectiveness have been excluded, due to the specific focus on leadership behaviour and cultural perception. As quantitative methods were not used, the results are interpretive rather than predictive.Nevertheless, these limitations are consistent with the nature of this exploratory research and will provide a great foundation for future studies. This thesis also contributes to a deeper understanding of leadership in contemporary Hungarian organizations by examining the relationship between gendered expectations and leadership practices. Rather than relying on organizational statistics alone, the research analyses individual perspectives to give voice to women whose leadership work often remains invisible in formal company narratives.

Intézmény

Budapesti Gazdasági Egyetem

Kar

Menedzsment Kar (2025-)-

Tudományterület/tudományág

NEM RÉSZLETEZETT

Szak

Gazdálkodási és menedzsment

Mű típusa:	diplomadolgozat (NEM RÉSZLETEZETT)
Kulcsszavak:	Magyarország, női egyenjogúság, szervezeti kultúra, vezetői döntés(ek), vezetői készség
SWORD Depositor:	User Archive
Felhasználói azonosító szám (ID):	User Archive
Rekord készítés dátuma:	2026. Júl. 09. 11:03
Utolsó módosítás:	2026. Júl. 09. 11:03

Actions (login required)

Tétel nézet