The purpose of this study was to examine how five preschool managers are looking at theirleadership and what difficulties they see in their leading. To live up to my purpose I askedthe following research questions: Which parts in their mission do the five preschoolmanagers see as problematic in relation to the curriculum for preschool and the schoolsinspectorate quality investigation? How do the preschool managers describe their leader styleand leader ideals, and is their any difference between the two of them? The method of this study was qualitative interviews with five preschool managers. Theresults that I found was that the most of the preschool managers see their leadership as coproduced(like in Ludvigssons research 2009) with the teachers and that the preschoolmanagers often find other difficulties in their mission compare to the quality investigation(School inspectorate 2012). I also found that three of the five preschool managers thoughtthat they weren’t present enough in the preschools because of their many tasks. When I tried to classify the preschool managers leader style I found that they vary betweendemocratic and authoritarian leader style in decision-making like in Tennenbaum andSchmidt’s (1973, p. 4) model Continuum of Leader Behavior. My conclusion from that isthat in their complex mission the preschool managers needs to vary their leader style. Theleader style and ideal the most preschool managers seemed to describe were a democraticleader that listen to the preschool teachers and involve them in the decision making, which isa leadership style that Kurt Lewin and his colleague Ronald Lippitt (1938, see Maltén 2000,p. 63) found in their research.

Recent literature shows an increased interest in generational differences among the workforce, particularly in Western societies. This has coincided with a focus on the role of women as successful leaders in the workplace. Despite this, the exploration and understanding of generational differences amongst female leaders in organisations has received limited attention, particularly in the South African context. The main purpose of the study was therefore to explore whether generational differences among women have an influence on how they approach leadership roles in a South African context. The study also sought to examine whether there are differences in gender identity across the generations as a result of socialisation. The study adopted a qualitative, life histories methodological approach to address the research purposes. Semi structured interviews were conducted with nine South African women in leadership positions from both the Baby Boomer and Generation X generational cohorts. The two generational cohorts were selected as they make up the majority of the current workforce while also being more likely, due to their age, of occupying leadership positions. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and were imported into Atlas.ti for data analysis. The findings indicated that mothers played a dominant role in the socialisation of women, while fathers were significantly less present in the women’s stories. In terms of the effect of socialisation on career and leadership expectations, Baby Boomers were taught that they should be ‘stay-at-home-mothers’ and after having raised their children could then begin their careers. Generation X believed that they could be career women just as easily as ‘stay-at-home-mothers’. Despite both generations favouring a transformational approach to leadership, each generation differed in the way it practiced leadership. Baby Boomers led in a shared, structured and empowering manner, whereas Generation Xs focused on being attentive, unlocking potential, identifying talents of followers, and assisting in the growth and development of followers within their leadership approach. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted