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Your Workplace: MEN OR WOMEN: Who Makes the Better Boss? Joan finds male managers much easier to work for than female managers: "They tend to be a lot fairer when dealing with their staff, whereas my female bosses often seem threatened by female subordinates. I always prefer to work for a male." Jim's experiences are completely different: "I hate to say this, but I've had a real problem with some of the guys I've worked for. A lot of times they didn't like sharing information with me that I needed to do the job – and they didn't give any guidance. It was more or less 'sink or swim.' I find women more willing to coach and more open to learning the art of being a good manager." These comments reflect some of the stereotypes as well as legitimate observations that many of us -- including the experts -- have made about male and female bosses. But with the advent of the New Economy, what used to be water cooler speculation has taken a more serious and even scientific turn. Many management gurus have now begun turning their attention to the question of whether there's a real difference in men's and women's management styles. And if so, who's got the Right Stuff? Recent studies have shed some light on the question, generating insights into which management qualities lead to success and what strategies men and women managers tend to adopt. According to BusinessWeek Online, studies of performance evaluations by Hagberg Consulting Group and other consultants across the country showed that women executives tended to be superior in the following ways:
Women's leadership style is also more effective than men's, according to another multi-year, global study by Caliper Corp., a Princeton, N.J.-based consulting firm. Women executives demonstrated more empathy and more inclusiveness, the study showed. Many successful female leaders even tended to be more assertive, persuasive and willing to take risks than their male counterparts, the study showed. Yet not all employees experience male and female bosses the same way and not all experts buy into the idea that there are consistent, identifiable differences in their management approaches. "I think it would be a mistake to assume that a male boss could not relate to women or understand a lot about how a woman might approach a problem," said Gail Jern, Human Resources Manager for Westaff, a leading provider of staffing services. "In fact, a male boss may have been raised with four sisters and have become very savvy over the years. On the other hand, a woman boss may have been raised with four brothers and learned to be more competitive than a lot of men." For its role in promoting women into leadership roles, Westaff was recently honored by the University of California Graduate School of Business. Likewise, not all studies give women the edge. Like Joan and Jim, there's a lot of debate among experts. "Often when people write about women managers, there is almost a hope that they'll do things differently in a positive way, a hope that they will be softening the big bad business world...But our study didn't find any gender differences in management," said Jennifer Cliff, lead author of a new study, as quoted in the University of Alberta's Express News. Women are just as likely to take a hierarchical approach to management and also to run businesses that are no more "employee-friendly" than those of their male counterparts, according to the academic study by professors at the University of Alberta, the University of British Columbia and the University of North Carolina. The researchers discovered that it was the size of the company, not the gender of the manager that determined differences in management style. The smaller the firm, the more likely it was that the manager – whether male or female - would use a more egalitarian approach. And men still have an edge, some studies say, when it comes to strategic ability and technical analysis. So, who makes the better boss? Experts, executives and those who are managed by them will continue to debate whether performance is tied more to one's chromosomes or to one's personality. Meanwhile, management gurus suggest the following to those of us who want to improve our executive skills: Take a good, long look at a successful manager of the opposite sex. Then try to adopt the best of what you observe. Why? Because, most everyone agrees, men and women managers still have a lot to learn from each other. (SEE SIDE STORY)
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