Does Family Commitment Affect Female Leadership and Productivity? Evidence from a University in Manado

Objective – This study has two objectives. First is to determine the influence of female leadership on productivity. Secondly, this study also aims to find out about the impact of family commitment towards the influence of female leadership on productivity at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado, Indonesia. Design/methodology – The sample consists of 53 female employees (Lecturers and Staff) at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado. This study uses Moderating Regression Analysis to test the hypotheses developed from three different variables, namely female leadership, productivity, and family commitment. Results – The results of this study reveal that female leadership has a positive and significant effect on productivity. However, there is no proof found that family commitment moderates the influence of women's leadership on work productivity at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado. Research limitations/implications – This study is only conducted at one university with limited variables without considering personal traits of individuals. Implementation at different universities with different management styles may show different results. Novelty/Originality – This research provides an empirical analysis about the relationship between women’s leadership style and productivity as well as its relationship with family commitment in a higher education institution in Indonesia.


Introduction
The presence of women in the education sector in Indonesia has been found in many public and private educational institutions.This was probably pioneered by Raden Ajeng Kartini who fought for the emancipation of Indonesian women and one of the things she fought for was equal rights to education (Himmah, 2020).As the number of women who have access to higher education levels increases, the participation of women in many public and private sectors also increases at all levels of organization, including higher organizational levels (Abdulrahman & Amoush, 2020).
In higher education systems, however, discrimination towards women still exists.Roach (2014) argues that gender discrimination comes in the form of a lack of opportunity for women to earn a promotion.Colorado Women's College (2013) reports that the women merely represented 24.53% of average leaders in academic institutions.This is also found at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado as shown in Table 1, where despite outnumbering their male counterparts, women employees (Lecturers and Staff) only account for 38.3% of Structural and Functional Officers, who lead their respective work units.At the Rectorate level, only one out of four Vice Rectors is female, while at the faculty level, only two out of seven faculties are led by female Deans.At the beginning of December 2022, many of these officers, such as Deans, Vice Deans, and Heads of Study Programs, will end their terms of office and the Rector will form a team who will run elections for each position.Yet, preliminary interviews with several potential female candidates indicate that some of them are not willing to be selected for the positions due to two reasons, namely the fear that female leadership may lead to lower subordinates' productivity and the existence of family commitments.

Description
Women and men have different styles of leadership as women tend to be more democratic in decision making and also expect more participation from their subordinates (Trinidad & Normore, 2005).Berndtson (2013) points out that as more demands grow for skills suitable for younger, more open-minded, and flatter organizations, the feminization of leadership is deemed necessary.Moreover, Berndtson (2013) adds that this type of leadership showcases women's emotional intelligence, capability to direct people, and flexibility.In line with this, Tololiu (2015) mentions that there has been a transformation towards a more feminine management approach, where employees are being more nurtured to achieve their work objectives and goals.Women are also perceived to be more caring as they have better communication skills and show more empathy and tolerance (Kiamba, 2008).Such nurturing and caring approaches are very valuable for the progression of an organization, particularly in improving work productivity (Lucia, Kawet, & Trang, 2015).At Universitas Katolik De La Salle, productivity of Lecturers is measured by their ability to carry out the Three Pillars of Higher Education (Tridharma Perguruan Tinggi) that include teaching, research, and community service.Meanwhile, the staff's productivity is evaluated by their ability to meet the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) set by each work unit.Hejase et al. (2013) contends that despite the transformation of attitudes about women's role in the society, the glass ceiling still exists, where women are perceived as being less suitable than men for leadership positions.One main obstacle for women to aspire to become leaders is their own view towards themselves, where women should focus only on taking care of their own households (Pillay, 2005).Despite the available support and changing attitudes in society towards family life, the role of caregivers (especially childcare) still tends to be the main domain of women (Gallagher & Morison, 2019).Two roles running at the same time can result in suboptimal results and the demand to balance office and household work, especially in households with dual careers, make it difficult to maintain work productivity (Feng & Savani, 2020).Eliadis (2018) argues that many women choose to relinquish promotions to a higher position in the academic world because they were worried that this may imbalance their work and family commitments.
This study aims to provide empirical evidence of whether female leadership affects work productivity at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado.Furthermore, the influence of family commitment towards the effect of female leadership on productivity at this university is measured.This research contributes as additional literature in the field of women's leadership style and its influence on productivity as well as its relationship with work and life balance, particularly in the higher education sector in Indonesia.The following section comprises the conceptual and theoretical views based on previous studies in order to develop some research hypotheses.Furthermore, the research method utilized in this research is presented and followed with the results.The last section is the conclusion as well as some suggestions for future research.

Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, and Hypothesis Development 2.1 Female Leadership
Leadership is defined as a person's ability and authority to influence others (Robbins, 2002).Moreover, a leader ought to use their authority to achieve organizational goals and also has the ability to direct their subordinates while at the same time being responsible for their works (Hasibuan, 2016).
According to Chin (2011), female leaders adopt a different style of leadership compared to their male counterparts, where females are more cooperative, collaborative, and democratic.This style of leadership is found to be more dynamic and effective as the ability to readjust and reorganize are keys to the success of an organization, particularly during a crisis (Jayant & Priya, 2021).
Abdulrahman and Amoush (2020) describe that female leaders in the workplace have several characteristics, such as: a) Women are legally rightful and socially more recognizable to become leadership partners and to work in all different sectors and fields, especially in the specialized services and knowledge-based fields.b) Women work for the sake of completing a mission that is beneficial for society in the long-run.Women generally do not work to compete with men for better qualifications and/or abilities but for the progression of the corporation.c) Women possess a high level of intellectual energy.Female workers focus their energy on long term vision instead of short-term existence.The same cannot be said about men at work, as they differ in focus.d) Women are more aware of the limits of their abilities and qualifications.They are ready to take responsibilities and risks, including dealing with challenges and problems and then solving them in a self-directed and constructive way so as to produce new solutions to various problems at hand.This sense is necessary under the ever existing-changes in business as it can be used to solve new, complex, and unique problems.e) Women are better in people management and showing support towards the efforts of colleagues and subordinates.Women are also more willing to give full recognition and to trust other employees, irrespective of gender.Women as leaders are better than men in some aspects of work and vice versa.To be noted that women do not need to act in a totally different way in comparison to men to be successful in their jobs.

Work Productivity
Sulistiyani and Rosidah (2013) reveal that productivity concerns the final result, namely how much the final result is obtained in the production process.In this case, it is inseparable from efficiency and effectiveness.According to Lucia et al. (2015), the indicators of work productivity are as follows: a) Knowledge that underlies the achievement of productivity.Knowledge is more oriented towards intelligence, thinking power, and the breadth of insight that a person has.Thus, knowledge is the accumulation of the results of the educational process, both formally and informally, that contributes to a person's capability to be creative and to solve problems, including in doing or completing work.With extensive knowledge, an employee is expected to be able to do a good and productive job.b) Skill is the ability and operational technical mastery of a particular field.Skills are acquired through the process of learning and practicing.Skills are related to a person's ability to carry out or complete technical works, such as computer skills, workshop skills, and others.With the skills possessed, an employee is expected to be able to complete work productively.Skills are the main variables in shaping productivity.c) Abilities are formed from a number of competencies possessed by an employee.
Knowledge and skills are key factors in forming a person's ability.Thus, if someone has greater knowledge and skills, it is expected that this person will have higher abilities as well.Through adequate capabilities, someone can carry out activities without any technical problems.d) Attitude is a patterned habit.If the patterned habit has positive implications in relation to one's work behavior, it will be beneficial for an organization.For example, if an employee has a habit of being punctual and disciplined, then their work is more likely to be done on time.
Behavior is determined by habits that have been embedded in employees.A positive attitude, more often than not, translates into good behavior, which may result in effective and efficient work.

The Relationship between Female Leadership and Productivity
Numerous studies have been conducted to analyze the relationship between female leadership and productivity with different conclusions.Sabharwal (2018) points out that as not many women hold higher positions in organizations, younger female leaders have lower productivity due to a lack of mentoring from their more senior female leaders.Feng and Savani (2020) also mention that during the COVID-19 pandemic, female leaders have to split their time between family and work, which results in lower productivity.
On the other hand, Tololiu (2015) and Diiro et al. (2018) report that female leaders are more capable of creating a conducive work environment that leads to better productivity.A more hands-on approach by women leaders is also influential in improving subordinates' work output (Ranganathan & Shivaram, 2020).

Family Commitment
Most women still remain in the minority in decision-making positions (Babic & Hansez, 2021).According to Robbins and Coulter (2016), women have to deal with a 'glass ceiling' in the work environment.This means that there are invisible barriers that prevent women from obtaining top management positions.It has been shown that superiors in organizations think that work-life conflict is greater for women than for their male counterparts (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon, 2009).
There is also a belief that there is an incompatibility in the roles of women as mothers, wives, and managers.Being a manager requires too much investment, flexibility and travel.Women are perceived to not have enough flexibility to work in the afternoon and outside office hours (Eghlidi & Karimi, 2020).Rhode (2003) points out that women with children are expected to perform better than their male counterparts and also have to deal with criticisms of being not committed enough as both parents and professionals.Steward (2009) adds that women do not only have to take care of their children, but also have to balance their work with taking care of spouses and aging parents.

The Relationship between Family Commitment and Productivity
Young and Wallace (2009) mention that despite women being more family committed than men, both genders are equally productive.A study by Noranee et al. (2017) concludes that work interference with family commitment does not have significant effects on employees' commitment to be productive.However, several studies have shown that family commitment affects women's productivity at work.Ngozi and Chinelo (2020) and Affum-Osei et al. (2014) conclude that role conflict has a negative effect on employees' productivity.Vance (2006) and Elian et al. (2020)  observe that family commitment leads to employee turnover, which in turn has a negative impact on an organization's productivity.
H2. Family commitment moderates the effect of female leadership on productivity.

Research Design
The study was conducted at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado.Due to the difference in family commitment between male and female, the population of this research was limited to all female employees that comprises 62 Lecturers and 33 Staff with a total of 95 employees.For data collection, a set of questionnaires was distributed online to all female employees of Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado.Respondents were asked to respond to 15 statements related to female leadership, productivity, and family commitment.Six of the statements were related to the female leadership characteristics by Abdulrahman and Amoush (2020), namely the readiness to lead, the capability to participate, the possession of long-term vision, the ability to take risks, the ability to instill trust, and the opportunity to express themselves.With regard to productivity, there were five statements based on the indicators of productivity by Lucia et al. (2015), which are knowledge, skill, abilities, attitude, and behavior.The remaining four questions were related to family commitment, which include female leaders' role as caregivers, ability to balance two roles, flexibility to work outside office hours, and flexibility to travel.These statements were then measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Scale Score
Strongly disagree 1 Disagree 2 Neutral 3 Agree 4 Strongly agree 5 53 out of 95 employees responded to the distributed online questionnaire, which implies a response rate of 55.8%.This number is in line with the arguments of Gay and Diehl (1992) and Fraenkel and Wallen (2012) who point out that for correlational research, the minimum sample size is 30 respondents.

Operational Variable
The independent variable in this study is (X) is female leadership, while the dependent one (Y) is productivity.To analyze the relationship between these variables, the Simple Linear Regression Analysis was used.Moreover, the moderating variable (M), namely family commitment, was added and then analyzed using the Moderating Regression Analysis to find the impact of family commitment towards the effect of female leadership on productivity.All analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.

Characteristics of Respondents
Table 3 shows that out of 53 female employees who responded to the questionnaire, nearly half of them were aged between 31 and 40 years old, while only 3 respondents were over 50 years old.In terms of educational level, 55% of the respondents held a Master's degree and only 2 of them held a Diploma or less.Moreover, 33 out of 53 respondents were married and 2 respondents were widows.Lastly, 38% of respondents had no children and only 1 respondent took care of more than 3 children.

Validity and Reliability Tests
To ascertain that all the statements in the questionnaire were valid, the Validity Test was run in SPSS 25 by comparing the values of rcount and rtable for each statement related to the independent, dependent, and moderating variables.Siregar (2017) states that if rcount > rtable, then the question is declared valid and vice versa.Table 4 shows that all 15 statements obtained the value of rcount exceeding that of the rtable (.351), which implies that the questionnaire was valid.
The reliability test was also done to measure the consistency of respondents' response towards each variable under different circumstances.Ursachi et al. (2015) point out that if the value of Cronbach's Alpha (α) is between .60 and .79,then the measurement is deemed acceptable.For all three variables in this study as shown in Table 5, the value of α was larger than 0.6, which means the questionnaire distributed to respondents was reliable.The reliability test was also done to measure the consistency of respondents' response towards each variable under different circumstances.Ursachi et al. (2015) point out that if the value of Cronbach's Alpha (α) is between .60 and .79,then the measurement is deemed acceptable.For all three variables in this study as shown in Table 5, the value of α was larger than 0.6, which means the questionnaire distributed to respondents was reliable.

Coefficient of Determination
Coefficient of Determination is used to determine the degree of relationship between the independent and dependent variables.A small Coefficient of Determination value means that the ability of the independent variables to explain the variation of the dependent variable is very limited, whereas a value close to 1 means that the independent variables provide almost all the information needed to predict the dependent variation (Ghozali, 2012).
The first analysis was done to find the relationship between the independent variable (female leadership) and the dependent one (productivity).Table 6 indicates that the value of Adjusted R Square was .071,which means 7.1% of productivity was influenced by female leadership, while the remaining 92.9% of productivity was influenced by other factors that are not examined in this study.7 shows that after the moderating variable (family commitment) was added, the value of Adjusted R Square turned into .070.This indicates that the effect of female leadership on productivity was slightly decreased to 7%, whereas the vast majority of productivity (93%) was influenced by other factors.It was clearly found that no significant changes occurred with the addition of family commitment into the equation.

Hypotheses Testing
The first hypothesis, namely female leadership affects productivity, was tested by comparing the value of tcount and ttable as well as by looking at the p-value.Using a confidence level of 95% (α=.050), it was determined that the ttable was 2.008.Table 8 shows that the value of tcount was 2.235, which is larger than that of ttable.In the same table, it can also be seen that the p-value was .000.When tcount > ttable and p-value > α, then it can be concluded that the independent variable (female leadership) has a positive and significant impact on the dependent variable (productivity), so H1 was accepted.
Using a similar technique with the addition of family commitment as the moderating variable, the second hypothesis was also tested.It can be seen in Table 9 that the value of tcount was .364and the p-value was .718.As the value of tcount (.364) was less than ttable (2.010) and the p-value (.718) was more than .050,then H2 was rejected.This implies that the family commitment does not mediate the effect of female leadership on productivity.

Conclusion, Implication and Limitation
To conclude, based on the results of data analysis and hypothesis tests, it was found that female leadership has a positive and significant effect on productivity at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado.However, this study also reveals that in the same educational institution, family commitment does not moderate the influence of women's leadership on work productivity.These findings imply that female leaders are able to improve their subordinates' level of productivity, which confirms several studies that were conducted earlier.Another implication is that female employees at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado should be encouraged to take on higher positions on campus as there is no evidence found in this research that their ongoing family commitment may interfere with their ability to lead subordinates to perform productively.Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado, as well as other higher education institutions, may also use these findings to set up policies that may encourage their female employees to aspire more to become leaders in the academic sector.

Model
It is important to note, however, that this study is limited as the research was only conducted at one university with limited variables.The leadership styles between men and women were also generalized without factoring in different personal traits.For future research, other variables, such as organizational culture, employee satisfaction, turnover rate, personal characteristics, and dual-roles among women can be considered to get a better understanding.

Table 3 .
Characteristics of Respondents

Table 5 .
Reliability test

Table 8 .
Coefficient X and Y