Women Make Better Leaders: Females develop a better managerial style than males.

[Doondoo]

Searching for better leaders? Don't overlook the women in the office. An analysis of 45 leadership studies found that the best bosses are inspirational mentors who encourage underlings to develop their abilities and creatively change their organizations. Women, on average, are more likely than men to enact this "transformational" style.

In this "transformational" management style, managers are more like good teachers than traditional bosses. But the analysis, conducted at Northwestern University, revealed that men are more likely to use a "transactional" management style—doling out punishments for poor performance and rewards for good behavior—or a laissez-faire style, characterized by a basic lack of management. Previous research has shown the transformational style to be most effective, particularly when companies rely on innovation to stay competitive.

"CEOs should level the playing field, and make sure women are given equal opportunities to be managers," says lead author Alice Eagly, a professor of psychology at Northwestern. "The study shows they are not only doing just as well as men, but they are doing better."

Eagly speculates that the transformational leadership style may suit women because it includes nurturing aspects, and women are traditionally socialized to be nurturers. Women who instead use a tough "command and control" leadership style meet with resistance and suspicion from employees, other studies have found.



http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030917-000002.html

[BurtWorm]

1. It ain't necessarily so.

I speak from experience.

[trumad]

2. Hey I'm all for it...

it aint like us men are doing such a bang up job.

[knight_of_the_star]

3. It should just depend on the person

Not their physical sex.

[Klukie]

4. It is about personality type....

not gender imo.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

7. Yes

I've had great bosses as well as horrible bosses of both genders.

The main difference has been personality. It was the psychopaths that made two jobs truly hellish. They were both men. I have managed to avoid working for psychopathic women.

[Warpy]

5. My best and worst bosses have been women

The best had an informal style, asked people working in the company what could be done to make their jobs better and really listened to the answers, weren't afraid to buck higher ups when some decision was handed down that would have hurt productivity, and generally confronted both people and things the way they were.

The worst were typical kiss up, kick down managers, only the kicks were harder to try to impress the big boys at the top.

Male bosses have been in the middle of this continuum. Some have been quite good, just not the best. Some were truly awful, just not the worst*.

I refuse to believe the sex of a manager makes that much difference. The mean of both sexes is in about the same place on the boss continuum.


*I never worked for Bolton. He might have been the worst, but my own experience doesn't reflect that.

[Lost-in-FL]

11. I had a good female boss, and mediocre male boss...

One thing that is very obvious, the male boss I had was not able to "multitask" and delegated must of their work. I noticed that when he have deadlines he would do the "yes sir is ready" thingy but had nothing to show for, no new ideas. He seemed very disorganized. He also, loved the ladies and there was lots of rumors about him.

When he left, the "female" boss seemed happy to multitask and she liked creating groups for problem solving, she had great ideas. Beware making comments on her ideas... that was a whole other story. She has gotten pretty good after having a life changing experience. She is now very approachable. One thing about the male boss, he wasn't afraid of getting rid of bad employees but my female boss seem to think of the employees families before making a decision. Instead of firing people (one particular case of course) she just suspended the employee for a week because that employee had very good kids (straight A's students, very courteous unlike the dad) and she didn't wanted to be unfair to his family. When I heard that I was very impressed, even tho that employee didn't deserved the gesture IMO.

It might not be about sex but personalities but I see my female boss going far. She is a great manager and still have time to care for her kids with the amount of work she gets done.

[Radical Activist]

6. Sounds like sexist pop-psychology.

The natural conclusion from the article would be to promote people who have the effective "transformational" style, whether male or female. This article seems to advocate promoting women in general, whether they have that effective leadership style or not.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

8. THE worst boss I've ever had was a woman. She was no

nurturer; more like a neuterer.

[TahitiNut]

15. I think a lot of people have met "Nurse Ratched."

Power corrupts ... and gender does NOT confer immunity.

[Breeze54]

9. This is speculation

"Eagly speculates that the transformational leadership style
may suit women because it includes nurturing aspects"

Women are no more naturally 'nurturing' than men are.
It's a learned behavior. Nobody is born that way.

I've worked for shitheads of both genders.

[Esra Star]

21. Please.... nature ordains that women are the more nurturing sex.

Males get away with not being so, and they do.
Some females have no nurturing instinct at all, but they are rare.
Having said that a president would have to be more like Maggie Thatcher
than mother Theresa.

[Breeze54]

26. Nature does not ordain it, It's learned behavior. n/t

[AX10]

10. Experience says otherwise.

[Mme. Defarge]

12. Being a jerk

is an equal opportunity condition. Napoleon Wannabes and closet ax murderers are represented in both genders.

[happydreams]

13. It's time for an Affirmative Action program for males

}(

[devilgrrl]

14. Not the ones at my office they don't!

:mad:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

22. I empathize. My best and worst supervisors

were both women. What a divergent two personalities they were. Same industry -- computer chip manufacturing. Very different cultures though. Hope you get a better one soon. It may entail a move to another company however.

[devilgrrl]

25. Actually, my immediate supervisor is fine...

in fact she's wonderful (too bad that she's a Packers fan :silly:)

As for the others, there are good ones but the BAD ones bring everyone down - they are THAT bad! I've never had a male supervisor that were as evil as these sick broads. They're of the "nice girls don't get the corner office" variety.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

16. The article doesn't contain enough details to draw accurate conclusions.

As far as I can tell from it, though, what the study actually said was:

1) The best managers are those who use the "transformational" style.
2) Women are more likely than men to use this style.

If that really is all the study says, then it doesn't justify the headline-grabbing caption, but there's no way of telling if it is, or if the methodology of the study is sound, from this summary.

[Karenina]

27. The Donald NAILS IT.

[WinkyDink]

17. Oh, I don't know; I've hated bosses of both genders. For one thing, I can't

abide bosses who show up late to meetings and then ask if you want coffee (that was the female).

But eh, I just don't like authority. Good thing I'm retired. ;)

[SharonAnn]

18. As the first woman manager in my division (years ago) I found it interesting.

It was the old "If he's determined, he's 'strong', if she's determined, she's 'a bitch'." So, I had to figure it out as I went along. I had a couple of great mentors (men) and tried to pass that on whenever I could. I tried to give people opportunities to develop, made sure they got credit, etc. Lots of learning, lots of mistakes, yet it somehow worked out.

I never had the problems with turnover or "no one qualified is applying for the job" problems. And yet, when I was promoted, management looked around and found only male candidates to replace me. They just didn't "see" the women. I had to ask for a special meeting and bring the issue up and submit the names of three women whom I thought should be considered.

They key phrase in this article is "CEOs should level the playing field, and make sure women are given equal opportunities to be managers," says lead author Alice Eagly, a professor of psychology at Northwestern.

Just "level the playing field". You're already giving men a chance, give women a chance, too.

[Clark2008]

19. Given that women are still primarily responsible for "supervising"

the family, using multi-tasking, persuasion and diplomatic skills, this study shouldn't come as a big shocker.

But, I'm sure it will. Sigh.

[LeftishBrit]

20. Speaking as a woman, I think it varies enormously

My most inspirational, 'transformational' boss was a man, and so was my worst boss, who was not even 'transactional'; he was a bloody psychopath. My second worst boss, who was a 'command and control' type, was a woman.

Britain had Maggie Thatcher as its leader for many years and she was a 'command and control' freak to the last degree.

I think it may depend on what level of 'boss' one is talking about. I think most people, whatever the gender, who want to be in positions of extreme power, are 'command and controllers' or plain psychopaths. Eagly's analysis may work better for bosses somewhat lower in the chain of command.

[Bitwit1234]

23. Women manage better BECAUSE

they pick the best people for the job. Then they have the confidence they can get the job done. A good manager knows how to delegate power. A good manager does not keep the whole shebang in their pocket thus railroading good projects.

[RC Quake]

24. That's debatable.

I've had an equal amount of male and female bosses. One female's favorite saying was, "Staff are like Xerox machines. They need to be replaced and upgraded every few years." And she treated her staff with that attitude. Needless to say the retention rate in her department is the worst on campus...a revolving door department, so to speak. I know there are exceptions to everything, but I think that qualities in good leaders are pretty much non-gender specific.

[NotGivingUp]

28. generalization...i never go for 'em. eom

[NashVegas]

29. The Best Managers I've Had Do a Combo of Both

Neither were women.

I work in a field where individual creativity is crucial. For a manager to want everyone to do things the way they, themselves, would is to invite creative death for the company.

The best managers I've ever worked with were intent on encouraging me to do the best job *I* could, and when my efforts passed muster, they were approved to go out. Taken in the right measure, a combination of laissez-faire and "rewards for good behavior," can achieve great results. (Bad behavior you just get fired.)

Those managers who've tried to get everyone to do things they way they would did nothing but invite misery.

The managers I've seen attempt the 'command and control' style were all weak - and at times, I've seen a couple resort to that after their attempts at transformation didn't work so well. Also, attempting the transformational style, you gotta tread with caution if you're managing people who've been in the business longer than you have.