Women in Leadership Positions, Road to Success, A Case Study, Bahrain

Abstract

Bahrain is a Muslim Arab tribal society, where women play a significant role in the countries’ development, and the number of female business leaders is increasing rapidly. Understanding the circumstances that brought these women to the forefront of business in their country will lead to constructing a better business environment for women in the future. The aim of this study is to explore these women in terms of: the secret behind their successes, their beliefs, and motivation towards leadership. The study tries to identify the “gap” in the scholarly literature on Bahraini women in business, and to provide in-depth data on female leaders in the region.

The study employs the inductive approach, using an in-depth qualitative open-ended interview, developed and based on the contingency leadership theory. And the Weber framework of authority.

The results indicate that the main factors contributing to the success of women leaders are social status, cultural, gender, struggle, and difficulties from women leaders’ point of view. This is a pilot study for further in-depth quantitative research in Bahrain and the GCC countries. This study is made up of eight samples. It is anticipated that future comparative research will be extended to a further quantitative study to cover a wider sample of Bahrain and GCC countries.

The paper is considered as one of the first to discuss the factors affecting the success of businesswomen in Bahrain, rather than the factors that empower them.