Some believed that this survey, in which the leaders answered questions about themselves was similar to the Managerial Grid which is a predisposition type of questionnaire, rather than behavioral observant. Others, particularly Bernard Bass, who in other types of research had surveyed followers, claimed that these finding corroborated his research and the women have more of a tendency to be transformational leaders. His problem was with the term interpersonal leadership. This, he claims, is the same as a relations oriented leader. It is important to point out that no one was saying that all men are transactional leaders or that all women were transformational leaders.
All people can adapt their leadership style to the situation.
Also, no one was saying that one style was better than the other, only that there are differences. This article only referred to styles, not abilities. Other research on leaders' behavior shows few differences in the way male and female leaders are described. There were two reasons given for this. The first was that since it is harder for women to achieve a leadership position, the ones that do are in a select group.