Perception of students and political Parties representatives about political Leadership

Abstract

The present research was designed to explore the p erception of students and polilical parties representatives about Political Leadership. The study wa.Y conducted in two phases: Phase-1 of the research dealt 1'vifh developing of questioning route/ ;nterv;eH' schedule. Questions yvere included aboul the p erception ()( leadership. political leadership in Paldstan. female political leadership il1 Pakistan. perception of ,\'ucces.~jitl female leaders, perception of succes,~fitl male leaders, and perception of practical d[[(erence present in lnale and female political leadership. A f()l'ced choice questionnaire about Leadership Behclviors in which male or female leaders d[[fer by (lt1artha. 2006) was used for interviews Ivith representatives of (PPP P) Pakist({n People 's Party Parliamentarian (!vENAs) along with open ended questions gUide. PhaseII of the l'esearch consisted of Ihree parIs: In part-I, three focl/s groups discussions 'were conducted with 30 university students (males = 14: females= 16). In part-II, IlliO focus gl'OUpS discussions were conducted H'ith 16 political parties representatives (ina les=8; females =8), and in part-III, two in-depth interviews were also conducted with the political parties representatives (male & female lvfNA.s). The thematic al1a~ysis technique o( content analysis was used to analyze the data. As fiJI' as the perception q( leadership is concerned, the result sho"wed a leader directs (56%). is bl'Ove (jO%). and takes command (12%). For the perception of political leadership in Paldstan. it is based 0/'1 serf interest and short sightedness (43%). For the perception offemale political leadership in Pakistan, the results showed that female political leadel's were seen as a "dummy .figures" (86%), dependent (76%), non-fimctional (3 0%) hy l710st of the respondents. (l.female do come into politics, it shows st/'Ong decision making 0/1 her part (63%), and/enwle leaders are approachable to those ladies who are hesitant to go to male leaders (81%). Asfar as the p erception ofsucces.~fulfell'lole political leaders is concerned, those females were considered slIcces.sfl.11 who showed l'e,<;pol1sibilities (60%). capability (70%), are cautious (36%) . focused (30%). value bused (jO%). gmce/id (18%), and a good spokes persons (56%). For the p ercepfion of success/ill male political leaders, results showed that those males were considered success/ill who had clarity in their objectives (43%), took. bold decisions (76%). took pressures (63%), were gene/'Ous (18%) and easily mixed up with society (86%). As F ir as the perceptio/1 about practical d(!Terence present ;n male ondfemale political leadership is concerned. mostly thought that decision making is distinctive criteria for practical d[fference in v male and f emale leaders (90%) and f emale leaders are used for orgal7;z ;,,/g electio/1 campaigns (18%). The f indings ()f the present research revealed the coml71()n attitude of ()ur s()ciety t()ward<> gender roles. Overall, the present research shows general attitude ond perception (~rOur society regcirding political leadership. The findings (~lthe presel1t research are supported by various researches conducted previously.