Entrepreneurial Attitude and Personality as Predictors of Leadership Vocational Interests in Men and Women

The aim of this study is exploringhow leadership interests are shaped across age and gender and to reveal individual factors (personality and entrepreneurial attitude orientation) of leadership vocational interests. Methodology: The research is based on Contextual Model of Vocational Interests and consists of 3 studies. In Study 1 leadership vocational interests were measured by Vocational Potential Inventory, across age and gender within 9359 participants. Study 2 shows personality dimensions as predictors of leadership vocational interests within 190 participants. Study 3 refers to relations between entrepreneurial attitude orientation and leadership vocational interests among 98 participants. Findings: Two-way Anova (gender x age) in Study 1 showed significant effect for gender, with men scoring higher in leadership vocational interests. The effect of age was significant in men only, the older they were the higher leadership vocational interests they presented. Regression analyses in Study 2 showed high conscientiousness, low neuroticism and high extraversion as predictors explaining leadership vocational interests in 31%. Regression analyses in Study 3 revealed that high entrepreneurial attitude orientation and being a man are predictors explaining leadership vocational interests in 13%. Implications: A series of surveys allowed to positively verify the Contextual Model of Vocational Preferences (Ochnik, 2017), in which leadership preferences are shaped by individual factors: personality and entrepreneurial attitude. The research allows to implicate that in the scope of leadership vocational interests, the social vocational clock -reflecting patterns of social roles related to gender and age as well as cultural factors, is more significant among men. Originality: The Contextual Model of Vocational Interests and the concept of vocational social clock have been introduced. The studies revealed that gender differences in leadership preferences are not stable. After introducing individual factors into the model, the gender dimension is reduced, in particular with regard to personality. Entrepreneurial attitude turned out to be relevant predictor but weaker than Inaddition, it can be concluded that in the future,leadership preferences will be less and less attractive to men, which may be reflected in reduced gender inequality in managerial positions.