Abstract

Dennis Wanyama Ruto*, William Rudisha Oliech and Daniel Arap Moi

This study investigates the link for women in the public sector in Kenya and conscientiousness as well as neuroticism in their quest for growth to the top. Current management trends that would achieve utmost organizational success call for inclusiveness of all sectors of society, and gender is a pertinent aspect of this sector. Women need some personality traits that they would hinge on to achieve leadership levels and be able to participate in decision making; therefore making the needed changes for the women themselves. Exploratory research design which will provide deep understanding of the variables under investigation was applied to study the non-elected women leaders in the public sector in Kenya. The interviewees were obtained through stratified random sampling. This is dividing the population into homogenous subgroup and then taking a simple random sample from each subgroup. Data were obtained from this sample by use of self administered questionnaires while interview schedules were used to obtain in-depth information pertaining to the strategies hinged on to get to the top. Various analyses were carried out to assess the link between acceding of women to leadership with conscientiousness and neuroticism, such as descriptive, correlation, regression and content analysis. This study concluded that women need to possess these personality characteristics, among others. It concluded that the traits are a link to acceding leadership positions.