Abstract—There has been a shortage of relevant studies concerning women leadership styles in private sector in Jordan in particular. The aim of this study was therefore twofold: (i) to identify the different leadership styles of women in the private sector in Jordan and (ii) to identify if there are differences between men and women leadership styles in private sector in Jordan. A quantitative study (questionnaire with 352 employees) was conducted in order to achieve the study objectives. The results showed that women in private sector in Jordan frequently displayed various leadership styles as perceived by their followers such as Idealized influence (attribute), and Inspirational motivation styles. Some other styles were displayed fairly often such as Contingent reward, Intellectual stimulation and Idealized influence (behavior). Moreover, the study found that there was a significant difference between women and men in two styles the transformational and the passive avoidant. Several recommendations were suggested based on these findings that may improve the effectiveness of women leadership in private sector. Index Terms—Jordan, leadership, women, private sector, managers. I. INTRODUCTION The previous years have seen a huge growing focus on women leadership, due to the fundamental gains women have made in the workplace. There had been several definitions for leadership; leadership is a complex phenomenon that touches on many other important organizational, social and personal processes. It depends on a process of influence, whereby people are inspired to work towards group goals, not through coercion, but through personal motivation [1]. In this study, the authors adopted the definition of [2] where they defined leadership in general without focusing on a particular area such as value or service or servant. There has been a growth in the women holding senior and leading positions around the world in comparison with previous years. For example, [3] stated that 51 % of senior management positions were held by women in China. This increasing rate can be seen in other countries as well e.g., Japan (7%), United Arab Emirates (11 %), and Netherlands (11 %). Jordan enhances the role of women and the importance of their presence in all sectors e.g. (political, social and economic life). In this regards, 25% of the Manuscript received December 19, 2014; revised May 5, 2015. Basil Alzougool is with Ahmed bin Mohammad Military College, Doha, Qatar (e-mail: b.alzougool@gmail.com). Khadiga Elbargathi is with Canadian University of Dubai, UAE (e-mail: k_albargathi@yahoo.com). Hiba Habib is with Social Security Corporation, Jordan (e-mail: hiba_habib@Hotmail.com). Basma Khalaf is with Ernst & Young, Jordan (e-mail: khalafbasma@gmail.com). Dima Al-Qutub is with PWC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), Jordan (e-mail: dima_qutub@hotmail.com). municipal council’s seats were allocated for women in Jordan since 2010 [4]. In 2012, the women leadership positions in Jordan comprised around 9.7% of the executive chamber and 33% of the professional unions [5]. Much has been written about different leadership styles of managers of different genders in the world in general and in Jordan in particular (e.g. [6]-[10]). However, little have been devoted to focus on women’s leadership styles in particular especially in Jordan. In this study; a leadership style is defined as "relatively stable patterns of behavior displayed by leaders" [11]. Having a good leader nowadays is considered to be one of most enterprises and company goals, to the best of our knowledge, identifying the leadership styles of women in the private sector in Jordan hasn’t largely been overlooked in previous literature humble contribution to the field. This study will also be beneficial to the managers in the private sector, because many problems arise only from the leader’s attitude displayed to his/her employees. Hence and in order to enhance the company’s performance, different types of leaderships should be adopted. The study therefore aims at achieving the following two objectives: • To identify the different leadership styles of women in private sector in Jordan. • To identify if there are differences between men and women leadership styles in the private sector in Jordan. II. LITERATURE BACKGROUND Extensive research has explored leadership from various perspectives. The early studies of leadership, (from the 1900s to the 1950s) have made a distinction between the characteristics of the leader and the characteristics of the followers. Then, researchers have begun to discuss the effect of the situation on the various leaders' skills and behaviors [12]. Research has also distinguished between effective and non-effective leaders and explored the leaders' behaviors and skills [13]. Moreover, researchers (e.g., [12] and [14]) have used the contingency theory to scrutinize the relationship between personalized features, circumstantial changes, and effectiveness of the leader. Furthermore, researchers have explored the interaction between leaders and their followers concluding that the leaders' traits, skills and behaviors are combined and applied to form what so called the leadership style [15]. In addition, a numerous number of theories have addressed different leadership styles. However, the most prominent three styles that have been studied and discussed in the literature are the transformational, the transactional and the laissez faire styles (which were investigated in this study). Reference [16] concluded that transactional and transformational leadership styles were the lower and upper boundary of the leadership continuum. In 1985, Bass Women’s Leadership Styles in Private Sector in Jordan Basil Alzougool, Khadiga Elbargathi, Hiba Habib, Basma Khalaf, and Dima Al-Qutub International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 3, June 2015 166 DOI: 10.7763/IJIMT.2015.V6.596 . Therefore this study represents a