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Gender Differences in Management Styles

By
Muhammad Usman Janjua
Roll no. 35

Report submitted to the faculty of Engineering at PIEAS in partial

fulfillment of requirements for the Degree of BS Mechanical Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences,
Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan.
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19th February, 2019.

Declaration

I, Muhammad Usman Janjua, hereby declare that the present term project report, titled
‘Gender differences in management styles’ is made by me as a part of course which I
am taking in 6th semester, ‘Principles of Management’. This report is an original work
completed under my supervisor, Dr. Tariq Majeed, and is free from plagiarism. I also
confirm that the report is only prepared for my academic requirement, not for any
other purpose. It might not be used with the interest of the opposite party of the
cooperation.
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Dedication

Dedicated to the Reader: May you find happiness.

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Acknowledgement

I acknowledge the efforts of my course instructor, Dr. Tariq Majeed, who is teaching
us Principles of Management in 6th semester. His efforts are highly appreciable in
teaching us this subject.
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction.................................................................................................1

1.1 Background......................................................................................................1

1.2 Importance.......................................................................................................3

2 Materials and Methods...............................................................................4

2.1 Defining Gender and Gender Role..................................................................4

2.2 Gender Influences on Behavior.......................................................................5

2.3 Gender Stereotypes..........................................................................................6

2.4 Real Sex Differences in Managerial Styles.....................................................8

2.5 Hypotheses on the Organizational Consequences of Sex- Differentiated

Managerial Styles.....................................................................................................10

2.5.1 Task Based Style....................................................................................10

2.5.2 Interpersonal Style..................................................................................11

2.5.3 Democracy in Decision-Making............................................................12

2.5.4 Transformational Style...........................................................................13

2.5.5 Reward for Performance........................................................................14

2.5.6 Degree of Delegation.............................................................................15

2.6 The Interaction of Gender & Culture............................................................15

2.7 Advancement Preventing Barriers for Women..............................................17

3 Results and Discussion............................................................................18

3.1 Practical Examples........................................................................................18

3.2 Case Study: Bayer.........................................................................................19

4 Summary and Conclusion........................................................................21

4.1 Conclusion.....................................................................................................21

4.2 Areas of further interest and research............................................................23

5 References...............................................................................................24
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6 Vita............................................................................................................25
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List of Figures

Figure 1.1 Where are the Differences?...........................................................................2

Figure 2.1 Gender Definition........................................................................................4
Figure 2.2 Women in Leadership.................................................................................18
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List of Tables

Table 2.1 Gender Differences in Managerial styles.....................................................10

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Executive Summary

During a long period of time, it was a common belief among societies that
men possessed several qualities and characteristics that are better for management.
However, with the recent more inflow of women in the management positions in the
organizations, several questions are now appearing: Do the women bring a different
management style in the organizations? Do the women “people oriented style” is
more effective than the traditional “command-and-control” style? Which Management
style is better?
The aim of this report is to look at several researches that described the
managerial styles of male and female. It attempt to define the perceived differences
between them. Then it focuses on the results from the studies on the effectiveness of
managers between the two genders. These results have been analyzed through
readings of several researches.
It has been found through studies that both genders i.e. male and female are
equally effective in the business world. The success of the organization is affected by
a variety of diverse individual factors and has very less to do with the gender
differences. The commonly held perception among the individuals is that the male
managers are more effective than the female managers. This perception about male
managers being more effective bring not only loss to female managers but also to the
organization itself.
In this report, I will explain the gender differences in management styles and
discuss which style is better. As the number of female managers are increasing, can
they bring a change to the business? The advancement preventing barriers for women
will also be discussed. Business leaders should know that gender stereotyping should
be avoided for the peaceful running of the organization.
In the end, I will be discussing some practical examples of two companies.
Both of them are run by 2 founders (1 male and the other female). Their management
styles are discussed. Then a case study is made of a company named ‘Bayer’. Then I
will give some suggestions for good management styles.
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1 Introduction
1.1 Background
Gender plays a very important role in human society. It is an old conception
among people that both males and females have different roles in society. This
concept was true till the Pre- World War I period. At that time, people have no
information about how things need to change as the time passes. So these gender
roles in the world are changing with time.
The world has changed so much that today’s modern society is far more
advanced and complex compared to the old traditional society. The progress of any
society depends on the spiritual relationship between leaders and the followers. We
can find leaders in many forms. They can be managers, entrepreneurs or they just can
be simple employees working in an organization. There is no proper definition of a
leader. But the main factor that distinguishes leaders from followers is the thinking
quality of leaders. There is a clear visible difference between the qualities of leaders
and followers.
There is no such thing as a universal leader. Different kinds of leaders are
assigned for different tasks. But this concept is also not true. Because there are some
situation adaptive leaders, who adapt to various situations and act accordingly. The
basic role of any leader is to guide the followers to achieve mutual goals. These goals
can be classified in various forms. They can be either political or some spiritual goals.
The basic foundation of any society’s progress depends on its leaders
capabilities. If the leader is not capable of doing a specific task to which he or she was
assigned then the whole team under that leader supervision is surely going to collapse.
Therefore the leaders of today’s top societies are considered to be the driving force of
the society. Today, leaders are considered as a valuable assets of a society and
everyone wants to cultivate management and leadership skills in them to be the
leaders.
When a baby is born, the first question which people usually ask is “Is it a boy
or girl?” The baby’s gender determines which characteristics he or she would have. If
the baby is a boy, then he is more likely to be strong and tough in the future. And
more caring, emotional and loving if the baby is a girl. These different characteristics
the individuals maintain their management styles differ a lot.
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Figure 1.1 Where are the Differences?

1.2 Importance
With more and more women advancing to the top management positions now
a days it becomes a valid question to ask “whether there are any valid stereotypes that
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will prohibit the placement of women climbing the top ladder of an organization?” or
“ How much the performance of an organization will change by a women leading it?”
A lot of researches have been done on this subject and is expanding ever with
time. The answers to these two questions will be provided in this report with the help
of evidence extracted from useful online resources [CITATION 1 \l 1033 ].The subject
of gender discrimination in the management is of highly interest these days. Due to
the advancement of the world and the awareness among the general public, the
practices once considered legal and ethical are now being abolished. The women are
now allowed to work outside and there are some women who are leading some of the
great companies today.
The men and women both do the management responsibilities completely
different. And we are interested in finding out how much differences actually exist
among the male and female’s way of management. In the recent years, more and more
foreign female student’s perusing a masters in management degree are being offered
scholarships at great universities throughout the world. Comparing to very small
number of scholarships given to male students.
It clearly indicates that the world is bracing for something change to occur in
the management chain of organizations. It is very important to learn the stereotype
leveled against women as commanders of their organizations. Furthermore, this is an
area which requires extensive research and proven facts to develop lasting mitigating
measures.

2 Materials and Methods

2.1 Defining Gender and Gender Role
According to the World Health Organization (WHO): “Sex” refers to the
biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. Gender
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refers to the behaviors, roles constructed by society, activities and norms that a
particular society considers appropriate for men and women [CITATION 2 \l 1033 ].

Figure 2.1: Gender Definition

It has been an old practice to distinguish between sex and gender. Sex can be
more precisely defined as a biological characteristic dealing with genetic variation
among individuals. The main formulation of the chromosomes pairing lead to the
formulation of genetic variation among individuals. Gender can be considered as a
multi-dimensional construct that consists of different roles, behaviors and experiences
of individuals based on their presenting sex. Gender can be simply indicated by
observing the behavior of men and women. However, since gender is a
multidimensional, it consists of much more than biological sex. Rather, gender is a
complex phenomenon.
There are two types of ways for observing gender i.e. sex typing and gender
stereotyping. These phenomenon occurs from the early age. Children observe which
activities are related to which sex and continues to process information in terms of
gender schema. On the other hand, children are often more exposed to sex-typing
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when in school. If parents clear the facts which their children are storing in their
minds by observing others positive social change will be promoted.
Gender also includes the social responsibility and the interaction with others
of individuals in a society. These ideas regarding gender are culturally accepted and
will definitely change in different cultures. If we see this fact historically we would
come to know that men always have high social status in a society compared to
women meaning men have more opportunities and wealth than females. Due to the
recent change in the views of the society about the gender, the consideration of gender
differences and management is a topic worthy of discussion.

2.2 Gender
Influences on
Behavior
We have recently witnessed a resurgence of interest among the unstipulated
public in gender differences in various aspects of human functioning. As the
organizations have experienced this huge influx of women into the working life
researchers have been studying such gender differences [CITATION 5 \l 1033 ].
Adler and Izraeli were two feminist writers of their time. According to them,
there are two basic contrasting views regarding women in management. One is the
equity view and the other is the complementary-contribution view. The first view i.e.
Equity view is based on the assumption of similarity between male and female and it
strives to provide equal access and identical norms to both men and women.
According to this view all men and women must be treated equally and so is the case
with their duties and responsibilities. If a certain group of men can perform a certain
task or a job then no matter what this view states that the woman certainly can do the
same task provided their personal non-willingness to do that. America is the most
developed nation in this world. The “melting pot” metaphor usually used for the
United States is usually used in this context. Despite of such diversity, both male and
females are treated equally.
The other view, complementary-contribution view, assumes differences
between male and female and strives to recognize the value of these differences.
There is a prolong debate going on around the world since its presentation between
the two views , however, provided the empirical evidence provided by the numerical
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researchers, there is a reason to believe that the complementary-contribution view is

gaining ground.
It is useful to think gender differences in two types of qualities: Communal
and Agentic. The communal dimension represents a concern with the welfare of other
people. Communal qualities include affection, ability to devote self to others,
eagerness to soothe hurt feelings, sympathy, awareness of feelings of others,
helpfulness and emotional expressiveness.
Various studies have showed that females are generally equipped with
Communal qualities. The other one, Agentic dimension of behavior is primarily goal
directed and controlling tendency. These qualities include aggressiveness, ambition,
dominance and decisiveness. Men are generally equipped with these qualities.
There are many theories behind this classification of males and females.
Williams and Best [1982] suggested that the assigning of domestic jobs like child
rearing or responsibility for family cohesiveness to females and the outdoor
activities like jobs to males is the cause of stereotypes. These authors justify the
presence of Communal qualities in women by saying that since Communal qualities
are important for the efficient performance of the domestic activities and since such
activities are more often performed by women, these qualities tend to valued more
and encouraged in females.
The Agentic qualities are required for the survival of the men outside the home
during their paid employment so these are valued more and encouraged in men. Both
men and females, if develop the respective qualities in them can exhibit certain
leadership qualities better than those who lack these qualities.

2.3 Gender
Stereotypes
It is a well-known fact but nobody would like to discuss it that adult men and
women are different in terms of Psychological behaviors. The society likes to
determine the gender differences based on the genetically differences and on the
socialization of the individuals.
The difference in the real and the expected behavioral properties in the men
and women play a major role in the real life scenarios. However with the
advancement of the world in the education, it’s a proven fact that the women who
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study MBA as an education pursuing a managerial career develop that good much
managerial qualities as defined by the masculine stereotype [CITATION 6 \l 1033 ].
Studies that described the evaluation of the managers by their peers, bosses
and by themselves have found that there are huge differences in the way men and
women lead. The women managers tend to do their respective managerial tasks in a
much participative way whereas male managers are more democratic, and laissez-
faire.
Laissez- faire leadership is a let them do it style, meaning the manager let the
people do as they chose. The female managers lack this quality. No evidence has been
found on the differences in the managerial styles between men and women based on
their reliance on the strong, deep or close relationships with their team members. Also
we cannot classify male and female managers based on some specific task definition.
At the same time, women are better at “Transformational Leadership Style”.
Transformational leadership style is a theory of leadership where a leader
works to identify some needed change among their teams , then the leader creates a
vision to guide the change and then finally he or she execute the change with
committed members of the team. It is basically an integral part of full Range
Leadership model. However, it might not be wrong to say that women and men do not
differ greatly in their organizational Effectiveness.
Organizational effectiveness is the concept about how well or productive an
organization is in achieving the pre-determined goals set by it. In a more recent work,
Kabacoff (1998) completed his research on the gender differences in the management
styles. In his work, he analyzed 900 pairs of managers from opposite sexes, working
at similar positions, within the same organization and observed their several traits of
management styles and their organizational effectiveness.
However, his work casts shadow on the participative leadership also known as
Democratic leadership of the female. His work also showed that female managers are
more concerned about the interpersonal and task oriented styles, while at the same
time male managers tend to seem more concerned about “vision- creation”. In general
we can say males were more innovative compared to females.
Despite of this amazing work on the current topic under discussion by great
people of the past, there are some drawbacks that this report intends to overcome.
First, the research done to study the behavioral differences in the management styles
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between male and females was done solely based on the opinions and thoughts of a
small number of managers, peers and bosses.
The gender stereotypes may affect these judgments. Especially at male
dominant offices where males took females as a women rather than a colleague or a
boss. The stereotyping problem in defining our differences between male and female
managers can be simply avoided by comparing data from whole organizations rather
than that extracted from a small quantity of people. Just by looking at the recent
increase in the percentage of females being pulled into the top job positions, we can
observe that the gender differences in behaviors do exist.
Second, the managerial jobs that are usually done by women will be discussed
further. Unfortunately, such findings have been neglected due to the increase presence
of women at positions like HR than engineering. The individual level studies done on
this subject forgets to take into account the stereotype factors due to selection into
different managerial areas cannot be done according to these studies, they are not able
to differentiate the fact that whether the extent to which these managerial differences
are from the difference in the leadership qualities or due to the differences in the
challenges that are faced by males and females at job.
These studies do not contain any information about the presence of women at
management positions of different departments. So, instead of comparing individual
differences between male and female in management styles we can simply analyses
the different policies for male and female for management positions in companies.
The reason is that due to this stereotype concept which take female as women rather
than a colleague, boss or a leader , if a women is handled a certain manager
responsibility she will also be handled a dozens of some other responsibilities. She
will be expected to complete all the tasks just because she was a female and was
provided with a management position.
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2.4 Real Sex

Differences in
Managerial
Styles
Many research studies have find out that male and female managers differ in
managerial styles. However, these differences are interconnected so we can say that
the differences are small. One clear and visible difference is that the women managers
are more participative as compared to men managers. This means that females give
equal decision power to their employees which allows the employees to take part in
the organization decision making [ CITATION 3 \l 1033 ].
The men managers on the other hand approach command and control style. It
must be noted here that the females do not differ that much in terms of adopting
interpersonal style of management compared to men. The point is women were found
to be adopting interpersonal skill in less male-dominated roles which strengthened the
fact that women tend to be more interpersonal than men. So we can conclude from
this difference that women tend to change managerial styles according to different
cultures.
One may ask the question “Is it really helpful to be a participative leader or
not?” The answer is no for most of the time. It all depends on the context in which we
are speaking of a leader as a participative leader. Although some studies have found
out that if one remains in the middle of the directive and participative style of
management then useful results can be obtained for the organization. Another one of
the important observed feature of the female’s style of management is that they often
combine the masculine and feminine styles to achieve optimum objectives.
One of the most important leadership style is the transformational style. In this
style, the leader identifies a required change, guide the change by creating vision and
executing the change. The transformational leaders can become ideals for their team
members. The female’s managers are more transformational compared to male
managers.
The managers can also adopt a style in which they make the workers achieve
the desired goals by motivating them. This leadership style is also seen more in
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females compared to males. On the other hand, men adopts a more strict style of
management.
We can see from the above discussion that women have better managerial
styles. If we go in depth for a second and ask a question “What are the possible
reasons behind these differences?” Women have to face hurdles to get to the top levels
of management so this can become their motivation of maintaining a very strong
image over male management leaders. The general differences in the management
styles of the two genders are listed in Table 3.1.

Sr. Masculine Styles Feminine Styles

1 Transactional Transformational
Less Autocratic More
2 Autocratic less Democratic
Democratic
3 Assertive Flexible

4 Task-Oriented People-Oriented

5 Competitive Cooperative

6 Self-Contained Expressive

Table 3.1: Gender Differences in Managerial Styles

2.5 Hypotheses on
the
Organizational
Consequences of
Sex-
Differentiated
Managerial
Styles
This section deals with the answer to question, are workplaces having females
as managers tend to run differently or the same as those in which there are males as
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managers. We need to take a look at how the labor relationships at work field should
be if there exits individual leadership differences in the males and females
[ CITATION 7 \l 1033 ].
Some of them will be discussed shortly below. Of course, not all those
qualities that an individual should possess implies to the organizational level but we
will not take that into account, at least here. There is no common ground for defining
whether these qualities should be task based or based on the organizational norms and
terms.

2.5.1 Task Based Style

The most important dimension which we use to analyze the managerial styles
is the orientation of their leadership. It means the type of behavior the manager adopts
to influence their subordinates. There are two types of leadership styles i.e. task based
style and interpersonal style. It means that a leader may develop their management in
both task based and interpersonal style, either one of the two or none of the two.
Basically, the task-oriented leaders only rely on the task deadlines,
assignments to express their leadership. Less task-oriented managers do not rely on
the tasks but rather they enjoy high flexibility. Employees working under the
supervision of more task based managers will be well-aware of what the manager
expects from them through the provided goals for the task to be achieved. If we take
this concept of high task based management style, in terms of gender stereotypes,
highly task oriented management style traits are often related to the masculine gender
and are mainly possessed by men compared to none or very few in women.
Now if we move to the workplace, a high task –oriented body should involve
clear and proper definition of tasks with more structured jobs. Then from our previous
concept of stereotype definition, those firms which have more women at managerial
positions should be less dependent on the formal definitions of jobs and tasks.
Hypothesis 1: Employees work at organizations with women at management
positions should be less strictly tied to formal definitions of their tasks.

2.5.2 Interpersonal Style

Interpersonally managers achieve their goals by developing personal relations
with their employees. These relations include personal contacts or interactions to
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influence the behavior of their subordinates. They achieve their leadership goals by
keeping the morale of their employees high. For example, if some of their employee
did good work they congratulate him or her. For them, their employees matter most to
them. They create a feeling of responsibility within their employees which makes
them to achieve their goals and objectives. On the other hand, less interpersonally
oriented managers do not rely on these qualities to achieve the organizations goals.
Now if we look this quality from the glasses of a gender stereotype, it clearly
suggests that women tend to be more interpersonal oriented compared to men. We
observe direct personal interactions between managers and employees in firms with
leaders having interpersonal style of management. The presence of more woman at
high positions will promote the development of this trait more.
On the other hand, male leaders do not depend on the interpersonal
relationships to progress their leadership. They just want a task to be done without
realizing the needs and the problems their employees might face in the process of
doing an action. They are more concerned about the outcomes then about the
conditions under which a certain task can be done to achieve these goals. So we will
find very small number of organizations having male as managers promoting
interpersonal relationships.
The overall progress of an organization depends on the several factors not just
on the decision making process. The managers are responsible for providing a certain
direction in which their employees proceed to achieve the goals of the organization.
So, it’s the responsibility of managers to provide a caring environment for their
employees. The female managers does the jobs and we often find organizations
providing a very friendly environment to its employees where females are in
management positions.
Hypothesis 2: More personal interactions occur between managers and
employees at organization with more women in management positions.

2.5.3 Democracy in Decision-Making

Women and men managers differ a lot in their decision making process. There
are further two types of leaders in any organization i.e. Democratic and non-
Democratic leaders. Leaders who consult their subordinates before making any
changes and takes into confident each of them to obtain better implementation of the
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change are qualified as more democratic managers. Whereas those who adopt a
directive approach , taking everything in their hands and take all the decisions by
themselves without even consulting their subordinates are referred to as Auto-cratic
managers.
This later type is mostly associated with masculine managers according to
stereotypes, characterized by dominance and control. On the other hand, the
democratic type is most often related to the feminine stereotype, emphasizing a higher
involvement of all of the workers in the decision making process. The democratic
style is preferred over the auto-cratic type of management.
It’s a general desire in every human being that they must be heard. The same
applies to the workers in any organization. They want to be respected so that they
could further work for the same organization in the future. Good managers are those
who listen to their sub-ordinates. Unfortunately, due to the dominance desire in the
men, they really find it hard dealing with the scenarios where they have been given
the responsibility by their superiors to take some serious decisions. They won’t care if
someone does agree with them or not. They will utilize the power they had and will
take action.
There are some male leaders which do listen but here we are talking about the
majority cases and the fact is the majority of them do not want to consult. Females on
the other hand due to their genetic soft feelings in them want to make sure that each of
the worker who works under them do not feel that he or she is being ignored in the
company’s decision making processes. They want their employees of the organization
to fully realize that their opinions matter.
Hypothesis 3: The higher presence of women in the management
departments of organizations should consult more to their employees before making
decisions.

2.5.4 Transformational Style

A transformational leader adopts a high behavioral standards by acting as a
role model for his/her subordinates to obtain maximum contribution to the
organizations capabilities from them. The alternative to this style is the transactional
style which involve managerial behavior with the subordinates to exchange
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relationships, laissez- faire style, normally associated to a simple failure in fulfilling

managerial activities.
There are several features of the transformational style which simply cannot
be associated to either gender stereotype. Women and men both can be mentors but
the more intense social behavior of the feminine stereotype puts women in a better
place to offer mentoring and encouragement to their subordinates.
The transformational style is a bit complex and it is also not possible to
determine which work place conditions favor the development of this style among the
managers. Since this style of management defines managers as ideals so
transformational – styled managers add high value to their organizations through
better labor work. In organizations, this style of management tells us that a company
having this style, there should be more contacts between managers and subordinates,
who should be able to report issues, concerns and anything other thing which they
think can provide value to the organization. It resembles with the interpersonal style
of management so it would not be wrong to say that transformational style is a
modified version of interpersonal style.
The modifications are that in the previous style i.e. interpersonal, the managers
used to build good relations with their subordinates but here they go further by using
these relations to act as individual mentors and to provide them with challenging
views of the tasks. Female managers tend to be more interpersonal so they are also
more transformational than male managers.
Hypothesis 4: The suggestions from the labor force to management should be
more direct in organizations where more number of women are in management
positions.

2.5.5 Reward for Performance

Transformational style of management is indeed one of the great quality of top
leaders. Leaders as mentors can actually bring very positive results in any
organizations overall performance. However, those who fail to approach the
transformational behavior there are some different styles for them too. We need to
look at some of the styles which we already discussed by modifying them a little bit.
First, transactional leaders offer rewards on the accomplishment of certain
goals and intervene only when their sub-ordinates are not doing something right and
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they need correction. Whereas laissez-faire includes all those undesirable

characteristics which should be avoided at all costs by good managers. One of which
is the avoiding decision making and staying away from the employee- development.
These managers add no more value to the company’s current worth and just takes
everything along at the same current pace. We have earlier said that the
transformational style cannot be associated to any gender stereotype, the same applies
to these two styles. Nevertheless, there may be some gender differences in the specific
assets of these styles.
Since male managers are task-oriented, they define the objectives and the
goals more clearly than females so that the performance can be measured more
objectively. So the stereotypes suggest that male managers are more likely to offer
rewards to employees for performance. Females on the other hand lacks this style.
They inspire their sub-ordinates to achieve the job required performance rather than to
offer some kind of rewards.
Hypothesis 5: Rewarding for results should be a less common practice at
firms with high presence of women at management.
2.5.6 Degree of Delegation
The last gender difference in the managerial styles is the degree to which the
managers delegate decision making on employees. Delegation is one of the core
quality concept of management leadership. It involves the assigning of specific tasks
to be done by the subordinates of managers. However, the person being assigned is
not directly responsible for the outcome but the person who assigns who in our case is
a manager is responsible for any outcome. So at the end of the time frame for a certain
period, if the results are not good for that task then the manager would be blamed
because he or she could not find someone suitable to whom they could assign that
task.
This is a very important style in management and if ignored by the managers it
could lead them to simply lose their jobs. The concept is that one who delegates is to
be held responsible for a certain responsibility because it involves a lot of decision
making in performing a certain task. Female managers are more participative and take
decisions in a more democratic way i.e. by consulting their subordinates. This not
only creates a friendly environment in an organization but also allow the subordinates
to take the decisions of the tasks assigned to them by themselves.
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So female managers tend to delegate more on lower levels. Male managers on

the other hand are less democratic and like to take all decisions by themselves. They
would tend to accumulate the decision making responsibilities at higher level. In the
light of all what we described above, higher presence of women at management
should be associated to higher degree of delegation of decisions.
Hypothesis 6: The degree of delegation on supervisors is higher in
organizations where the presence of females at managerial positions is high.

2.6 The Interaction

of Gender &
Culture
Societies often differ with respect to certain values, practices and
characteristics. Such aspects of society are known as “Culture”. In order to study
different cultures we need to understand the precise definition of the word Culture.
Culture is a pattern of certain core thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and
transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human
beings. The essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their
attached values [ CITATION 9 \l 1033 ].
Countries represent aggregates of people who represent culture, however we
cannot say that a country has a culture unless we found evidence from its people after
talking with them. An important indicator of a culture is certain values held by
individuals within a society. When a certain group of people practice certain values
which are different from other group of people, then its assumed that this group of
people constitutes a culture.
The cultural values influence a wide range of behavioral changes among
individuals but right now our point of interest is only limited to the changes in
leadership qualities by cultural differences. Cultural values shape sets of shared
meaning among individuals. The countries which have similar value orientations have
similar leadership and those where there exists divergence in value orientations the
leadership qualities are different. The emphasis placed on leadership behaviors and
styles will vary across countries that are known for divergence in value orientations.
In simple words we can say that country will determine the degree of the emphasis
placed on leadership behaviors and styles.
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Now that we know that the cultural values in different countries affect the
leadership norms, let us now take into account the gender differences here. It should
be noted that most of the research work done on finding the gender differences in
leadership have been conducted in the United States. In the 1990s, the United States
has still an unequal distribution of males and females in the labor force.
According to US Department of Labor report in 1991, there were about 80%
in the labor force. Whereas under 60% women were in the labor force. This shows
that’s males work more outside their homes than females. This perfectly fits the
stereotype concepts discussed previously in the report. According to theorists such as
Williams and Best [1982], due to this unequal distribution in the work force between
male and female the American males are still characterized by Agentic qualities
more so than American females. In the work place, the males tend to show different
managerial qualities than females.
Above we considered the case for the United States, where there are same
cultural values. However, this same may not be true for a country with different
cultural values, characteristics and practices. The Swedish unit for equal opportunity
statistics [1991] reported that almost 90% of men and about 85% of females in
Sweden are in work force. Since the percentage of both genders working outside is
very high in Sweden, both male and female may be equally characterized by Agentic
and communal characteristics.
The result of that could be similar leadership qualities of men and women.
Considering this as a true, we could find an interactive effect between country and
gender on leadership behaviors and styles. In general we would say that the
interaction of gender and country will demonstrate a clear effect on the degree of
emphasis placed on leadership behaviors and styles.

2.7 Advancement
Preventing
Barriers for
Women
In the above all discussion we compared the gender differences in the
management for male and females. We have seen how both of these compare in the
 29

process of management. In this section, our focus will be on the barriers that prevent
women from carrier advancements. These are as follows.
We have seen that most of the management work done in the past was done by
male. Women was neglected of the jobs and were not provided with any opportunities.
But we have seen that with the increase in awareness in the world, the number of
women in the work force has increased. The effects of the past still exists in our
current job force system. The career advancement opportunities are less for women
compared to men. A recent study by Tharenou (1999) estimates that although the half
of the workforce in developing countries is of women but only 5 % of the women
make it to the top management positions.
The worrying fact is that although there seem to be equal entry-level
opportunities for both women and men in all organizations but the road for females to
the management positions is often blocked. While it is an undeniable fact that the
economy of any developed country depends partially on men and women, the women
still struggle to get to the executive levels in the current 21st century.
The phenomenon described above is known as the glass ceiling effect, the
term originally used by a Wall Street journalist in 1986. Glass-Ceiling effect is known
as the blockage of women from reaching to the top positions in an organization.
Researchers- Henderson and Bialeschki (1995) - did an intensive study to
identify the career advancement barriers for women in the real work place. They did a
nation- wide survey including women from recreation and leisure industry. The
purpose of the study was to observe the behavior which are the main barriers for
preventing women from advancing in career. It was found that the main factors
preventing women from advancement were Gender Discrimination and Stereotyping.
More than half of the women reported that they were sexually harassed. In addition to
these main factors, other factors that contributed to the career advancement were “No
Training for Women”,” lack of mentors” and “ Exclusion of women from only male
networks”. Figure 2.3, shows the difference in the placement positons of women and
men in management positions.
 30

Figure 2.3: Women in Leadership

3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Practical
Examples
There are a lot of practical examples where we can relate all discussed above.
Most of the famous companies today have both male and female managers and the
differences in their management styles can easily be observed. In fact, there are some
cases where due to the perception that female are better equipped with managerial
styles women are preferred over men for the management positions. If we look around
us we will find such cases.
McArthur/Glen group was founded in 2014 by McArthur and Glen. It is a
company that develops and manages upscale outlet shopping centers throughout the
United States. McArthur is very interactive, encouraging and try her best to share her
knowledge with her employees. McArthur is always willing to spend more time with
her employees to sort out problems. Glen on the other hand is always directive and
 31

more interested in the big picture. Glen is aged 65 and McArthur is 41. For McArthur,
Glen is her mentor but not only her working partner.
“Lingua Trip” is another such example. The company was founded in 2015 by
Mariana Mogilko and Dmitry Pistolyako. The company basically teaches students to
learn foreign languages to help them study abroad. Mariana possess a participative
style of management. She is involved in the personal meetings with her employees
and to solve the company’s problems by adopting a friendly behavior. Dmitry is very
directive in his behavior. He expects his employees to fully understand and complete
the task he provides them. Both of them mixes their style of management and are
running with great success.

3.2 Case Study:

Bayer
Here we will consider a case at a well-known organization “Bayer”. We are
considering the case that what impact will be on bringing equal number of males and
females in the management positions of the company. Since both have different
management skills what impact will it be on the company’s overall performance if
this is done? All the facts and figures are taken from verified sources to make this case
even stronger[ CITATION 4 \l 1033 ].
Peter is a manager working at Bayer. He recently heard that the Executive
council wants a better balance of men and women in management as well as a more
balanced representation of people from developed and growth markets. Peter’s team
wants to know what this has to do with their business. Peter isn’t sure how to answer.
So, he asks his friend Michael who runs a big division.
Michael explains that by 2025 annual consumption in emerging markets will
rise to $30 trillion (USD). This is about 50% of the world’s total. Emerging markets
are likely to grow faster than developed economics. There will be a massive increase
of women in the workforce. Along with their massive consuming power, women
account for about 65% of the women consuming power, over $13 trillion (USD).
Over the next few years, the income of the women globally is estimated to
reach $18 trillion (USD). In many countries, women purchase the majority of cars,
homes and computers, health care products and food. Understanding the preferences
of the emerging market customers and female consumers will drive the global
 32

innovation and product design, manufacturing and distribution channels that is why
“Bayer” wants more number of these people in management places in his company to
shape our decision making and therefore our future. So is it all about customers?
Michael tells peter about other reasons. Talent pools are changing fast. The
number of highly educated people in the growth of markets is increasing with record
numbers of graduates in China and India. Women now represent 60% of the
university graduates in US, Europe and many other countries around the globe. They
study business, law, Science, Agriculture and also IT and Engineering. We can’t afford
to neglect this talent. So is it all about customers and talent?
Michael explains that it’s also about innovation. We know from studies and
surveys that groups including a range of views background and experiences
consistently outperform groups of like-minded experts. A good mix of gender and
cultural will help them to innovate. Peter wants to know how cultural and gender
balance in management really benefits the bottom line.
Michael states that the companies with the highest gender and cultural balance
in management stand out. Over 2 years these companies achieved on average 53%
more return on equity and even margins 14% higher than the least balanced
companies. Peter is amazed. He understands that it’s about customers, talents,
innovation and the bottom line. He wants to know how he can explain this to his team.
Michael suggests just to book a strategic debate with his team. There he can share
everything he has learned.
 33

4 Summary and Conclusion

4.1 Conclusion
It was seen that there are contradictory remarks about managerial styles
between males and females. Further it explained that the society perceptions do not
support women to become effective managers. This could be the one reason for the
low representation of women in the corporate world. Although the number of women
placements in the middle management positions has increased over the past 20 years
but the number of women in the top managerial positions remain extremely low. From
the statistical analysis of the western countries, it can be seen that though the women
were encouraged to come more in the middle management positions but their number
in the executive positions remain under-represented.
Stereotypical masculine behaviors which are still considered way important
for management could be reason behind the under-representation of women in the
top- management positions. If sexes are perceived differently at work places, then this
becomes the fact that management styles are also different. It is a common belief
among people that women are untrained and they need basic training to acquire the
necessary management skills to compete with men, but people do not consider the fact
that women bring a lot of value to the organizations.
The argument that gender is the basis on which management style is defined
comes from ‘Socialization’. The point is that, because of this socialization process,
women have developed such values and characteristics leading to such leadership
behaviors that are basically different from the traditional competitive, directive and
aggressive behaviors of men. The social satisfaction in larger communities and
societies act as a lens through which people are viewed and arranged.
However these kinds of tools are constructed in the minds of people to control
a small number of people (women in our case) for the benefits of others. They are
neither effective divisions of work nor working divisions of status but are instead only
systems of social control by which some people benefit at the expense of others. Even
if a document is published stating facts about how female managerial styles bring
positive change in organizations working and revenues, there is no social tool which
would allow or encourage that to really happen ‘in the name of efficiency’.
However , in modern world organizational context , everyone expect leaders to
adopt a more people oriented approach as they think that team-work and relationship
 34

building are the important parameters for effective organizational management. It was
a misconception in the past that women are insecure and are unable to get engaged in
a team play behavior. While the todays stereotype believe that women are
relationship-builders and believe in sharing power and knowledge with their
employees.
We can say from this that the traits which were described as the women
weaknesses and used to mention women ill-suited for top jobs, are the very basic
qualities and characteristics that male executives are expected to possess. Helgesen
(1990), suggests that male and female male and female managers manage in sharply
different ways, and supports the fact that female style is a way more superior, since
mother is particular, are better team players than male team players.
As a result, women form organizations where the leader is at the center instead
of at the top. Helgesen further pointed out that due to the women involvement in
household matters like handling babies, raising children give them prioritization in a
leadership role that males typically do not possess.
The number of women in the managerial positions has increased in almost all
countries in the world. This increased number of women in the management positions
in recent years has given birth to leadership-gender issue. Although, many researchers
have found out that males and females differ in their management styles, some still
argue that these differences are very small and there are no significant differences in
management styles between men and women. They argue that the organizations are
gender-neutral structures which provide the same number and type of opportunities
for men and women. It’s just in the minds of people that men and women must be
perceived entirely different in the organizations on the basis of gender only.
There is no definition of a universal leader but there are some common
qualities and characteristics of successful leaders composed of both male and female
managerial styles. So organizations and top leadership need to re-define their
definition of effective management styles leading to the evaluation of the interactive
style. Talking in this context, the females are expected to possess the respective male
characteristics to emerge as effective leaders.
The previous research further specified that women tend to possess
transformational styles of management and we have stated that transformational style
of management is an effective style. So we can say that women can emerge as
effective leaders. However, the typical stereotype conception challenge the female
 35

leaders to adopt a masculine behaviors. The efficient running of an organization

requires these ideas to be reduced and eliminated but it is not that easy.

4.2 Areas of further

interest and
research
More women are reaching to the top management positions within an
organization for the recent years so this field of research is relatively new. The
previous research work can be used to do further research in the same field. Since this
report focused only on the top management positions like Chief Executive Officers of
organizations, it cannot be purely used to define all the management style differences
among genders.
The research need to be extended to the lower management positions also.
Future work can compare the placements in the middle and lower management
positions too. Research done on the middle and lower management positions will
provide a larger sample and it would give more generalized result.
The conclusions drawn to define gender differences in management styles
were through self-rating. However some researchers show that male managers rate
themselves high in self-rating. Since this weakens out facts, the future studies can be
done using both self-rating and subordinate rating. The results of subordinate’s ratings
are affected by gender bias so the future researchers can compare the results of
subordinate ratings with self-rating to obtain a better picture.
Since this report mainly focused on comparing Democratic and People-
Oriented style of Management. The future research can be done on comparing other
management theories such as bureaucratic and autocratic in defining gender
differences in management.
 36

5 References

[1] Eagly, A.H. and M.C. Johannesen-Schmidt (2001): “The leadership Styles of
Women and Men,” Journal of Social Issues, 57, pp.781-797.
[2] Gender and Leadership By Kathryn E. Eklund, Erin S. Barry and Neil E.
Grunberg
[3] Mary Clisbee, " Gender Differences in Leadership Style: A
Literature Analysis", Vol. 3, No. I
[4] Sex Differences in Managerial Style: From Individual Leadership to
Organisational Labour Relationships, Eduardo Melero, Discussion Paper No.
1387 November 2004
[5] Cuadrado Guirado, Isabel & Navas, Marisol & Molero, Fernando & Ferrer,
Emilio & Francisco Morales, J. (2012), Gender Differences in Leadership Styles
as a Function of Leader and Subordinates' Sex and Type of Organization. Journal
of Applied Social Psychology
[6] Sex Differences in Managerial Style: From Individual Leadership to
Organisational Labour Relationships, Eduardo Melero, Discussion Paper No.
1387 November 2004
[7] Bennett, Mick. 1977a. Testing management theories cross-culturally. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 62: 578-81.
[8] Dunlap, D. M., & Schmuck, P. A. (Eds.). (1995). Women leading in education.
Albany, NY: State University Press.
 37

6 Vita

I was born in 1997 at the end of the 20th century. With the support of a loving
and caring family, I was able to establish a strong ground base in my early school
days. I remained the top student at my school for straight 10 years.
Since my childhood, I had a dream of finding a way of getting into Air Force. I
was unable to fulfil this dream because of my eye-sight weakness. Then I applied to
military and got rejected too. After so much disappointments, I finally decided to join
an Engineering school to shape my military dreams in a new way.
I was able to design a V-10 Engine on CREO- Parametric by myself alone.
Currently, I am designing a Variable Compression (VC) - Turbo Engine. I intend to
polish my Designing skills so that one day I am able to design a ‘Fighter Aircraft’.
Along with my modeling skills, I have also developed some technical skills
too. Presenting Apple Products at my university was one of them. I worked on several
projects that required report writing in thesis format. The current Report is an
example.