Problem-Solving
Men and women approach problems with similar goals but with different considerations. While men and women can solve problems equally well, their approach and their process are often quite different. For most women, sharing and discussing a problem presents an opportunity to explore, deepen or strengthen the relationship with the person they are talking with. Women are usually more concerned about how problems are solved than merely solving the problem itself. For women, solving a problem can profoundly impact whether they feel closer and less alone or whether they feel distant and less connected. The process of solving a problem can strengthen or weaken a relationship. Most men are less concerned and do not feel the same as women when solving a problem.
Men approach problems in a very different manner than women. For most men, solving a problem presents an opportunity to demonstrate their competence, their strength of resolve, and their commitment to a relationship. How the problem is solved is not nearly as important as solving it effectively and in the best possible manner. Men have a tendency to dominate and to assume authority in a problem solving process. They set aside their feelings provided the dominance hierarchy was agreed upon in advance and respected. They are often distracted and do not attend well to the quality of the relationship while solving problems.
Cultural perceptions of working men and women:
Different nations have different cultural heritages which are values collectively held by a majority of the population differentiated by social classes. These values are transferred from generation to generation through education, early childhood experiences in the family, schools, and through socialization in organizations and institutions which will lead to different attitudes and traits from both genders towards work. These values become social norms for the society and difficult to compare between different genders within the same and different nations. Below is a brief study of such differences in different nations from Far East to Far West.
Japan
Today in the Japanese economy, the number of female senators and representatives in government, female professors in universities, and female executives in companies is very small. “Japan is still a developing country in terms of gender equality,” said Mariko Brando, an aide to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (New York Times, July 25, 2003).
After World War II, Americans brought voting rights to the Japanese culture. And rapid economic development brought a new awakening to Japanese women. The availability of products such as washing machines, electrical cookers, and microwaves reduced women's work at home. These developments led to women having time to work outside homes (World of Work: The Magazine of the I.L.O., 1998).
Unfortunately, professional women still face discrimination. Likewise, even a majority of male managers in China believe, “the managerial success of women is constrained by their lack of dedication to pursuing a career with minimal commitment to the employing organization, insufficient experience, little interest in managerial roles and the lack of proper education” (Leon & Ho, 1994). Studies also show that male managers perceive women as lacking leadership qualities or possessing inferior leadership traits. As a result many men feel uncomfortable working under female leaders (Sostella & Young, 1991; Leon & Ho, 1994; Lau & Kaun, 1998).
India
India represents a very interesting study of how the class system of the West is no more open-minded than the close-minded system of the East. British colonialism created a middle class in India, which allowed some women to break free of the strictures by taking advantage of opportunities in the professions and jobs. At the beginning of this century Indian women began to move into professions like medicine and teaching. This happened as a response to the demand for education and healthcare among the female relatives of middle class men, and also because of sexual segregation. Female seclusion demanded that other women provide these services. When India became independent in 1947, the Indian women's movement also succeeded in raising women's legal position to a level comparable with many rich countries of the West (Times of India, 1996, p.1). After independence, government service and administrative jobs were opened to women (Ashana, P. 1974; Desuza, V. 1980 Liddle and Joshi, 1990). Educated women who had played an active role during the independence movement took up leadership positions. “By 1988 10% of members of parliament were women, and 18% percent of women who ran for office in the state legislative assemblies in 1983 won, while only 17% of the men who sought such offices won” (Bumiller, 1990, p.152).
A majority of women in India as in the United States however are in feminist professions. Both societies place low status on such women's professions and pay them less than men. Educational attainment and employment does bring status to individual women. It improves their chances of marrying in a higher caste or status family. It gives them economic independence. The Indian professional women experience job discrimination, as well as discrimination in selection, promotion, training and assessment just like the American women. In employment, restrictions are imposed on their physical mobility and their social interaction with males by sexual harassment at work, and by gossip affecting all aspects of their lives. Employment may not release women from subordination, but it does provide the psychological basis for women to exert and exercise power, said Eli Bhatt.
USA
In 1992 women managers were 42% of the managerial labor force. U. S Department of Labor estimates that women fill only one to two percent of senior executive positions (U.S. Department of Labor, 1989). Women's participation in management is growing, though slowly. Women managers are highly concentrated in medical/health, personnel/labor relations, and education/administration areas. In the management categories women earned 62% of the amount men earned. Although women are obtaining college degrees and securing management jobs, they are having difficulty securing upper level jobs.
Compared to male colleagues, executive women are thirteen times more likely to be single, separated or divorced (Parasuraman & Greenhaus, 1993). Moreover, executive women are significantly more likely to be childless (60%) than the executive men (3%), (Powell, 1988: 135).
A great deal of research in management literature exists to show that men and women have similar traits, motivations, leadership styles, and skills and that women perform equal to or better than men. During 1970-80 most female managers tried to copy the style of male managers to succeed in their newly acquired roles. About end of 1980s the women realized that in to-day's information technology environment, where person skills are more useful, that the female ways of management are better suited than that of males (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1990; Offermann & Armitage, 1993). Yet, there is a perception that women and men managers are different. Women managers are believed to be less likely than their male counterparts to possess the attributes of a successful manager.
The interaction effect of gender of supervisor and gender of subordinate on perceived mentoring:
In an attempt to analyze the difference between the managerial styles of males and females, M. Lee Williams and his associate Victoria Locke, tried to shed some lights from different perspective. In their paper which was entitled: "Supervisor Mentoring, Does a female manager make a difference? ", they focused their analysis on the interaction effect of gender of supervisor and gender of subordinate on perceived mentoring. Whether formal or informal, mentoring is a common practice in organizations these days. In this dyadic relationship, an older, more experienced member of the organization helps the younger employee learn to navigate in the workplace (Kram, cited in Williams, 1999).
In a more heterogeneous mix of people in terms of gender, it's so common these days to find a woman who are supervising group of men. Women indeed represent nearly half of the US workforce, and they are a growing percentage of the workforce in most countries throughout the world (Robbins, 2005:18). While some men find it difficult to work under the supervision of a female (Fairhurst, cited in Williams, 1999), some women are uncomfortable supervising men (Williams, 1999). Accordingly, it is so important to analyze the effect of these cross-gender situations on the type of mentoring provided and the overall quality of performance.
Generally, there was a traditional belief that female subordinates should seek female supervisors, and accordingly this paper is challenging this belief. The hypothesis in this study predicted that female subordinates with female supervisors would perceive significantly more supervisory mentoring than other gender dyad combinations. Even though significant interactions emerged for each dimension of mentoring, the hypotheses were disconfirmed since findings were not in the predicted direction. Female subordinates with female supervisors perceived the least mentoring behavior (Williams, 1999).
In his paper, Williams offered many explanations which help clarify these mentoring results. He suggested that managers in general display masculine oriented behaviors, by which they show competitiveness, aggression, and independence (Berryman-Fink, cited in Williams, 1999). Often women have to be tough in order to rise into the managerial ranks in a competitive industry. They have to change their communication style in an effort to adapt to male-dominated hierarchical organizations (Wood, cited in Williams, 1999). Accordingly, female subordinates would be surprised and disappointed, especially, that they communicate with their superiors for affection and relaxation (Anderson & Martin, cited in Williams, 1999).
Another explanation for these results is that women managers communicate differently with female subordinates because of their ambivalence about being identified with other women and with feminine values Williams, 1999). Female managers may be harder on female subordinates in an effort to distance themselves from being identified with other women (Williams, 1999).
The conclusion of this analysis revealed that the least amount of mentoring occurred between female supervisors and female subordinates, but the greatest mentoring took place between female supervisors and male subordinates. These results were explained in terms of managerial experience and the double-bind of female managers. It actually challenges the traditional advice that female subordinates should seek female supervisors.
Recruiting men OR women for a managerial position:
Women Right Movement
Since the Second War World two important social movements came to picture as international practice: The Civil Rights movement and Women Rights movement. While Civil Rights movement was making gains in prohibiting racial discrimination, the Women Rights movement shared many goals with and benefited from the example set by Civil Rights movement to gain equality with men. Therefore, many laws were designed to eliminate racial discrimination and also designed to eliminate sex discrimination.
Many organizations nowadays established Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies to comply with laws and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race or sex. Recruiting women managers has always been dilemma. Additionally steps were taking to eliminate invisible discrimination practices that prevented women from being promoted to the highest levels of their organizations. Moreover, leaders of women’s groups have focused their attention on seeking equal treatment for women in workplace.
Managers Abroad
While the number of women mangers working domestically has climbed in the past few years, the same isn’t true for those assigned abroad. In US, women filled only about 6% of overseas international management positions at major companies compared with about 49% of domestic US management positions. Women comprise only about 13% of the total expatriate population according to another survey (Solomon, 1998, P12).
Inaccurate stereotypes may account for much of this discrepancy. A survey (Passport to Opportunity: US Women in Global Business) found that respondents believed women aren’t as internationally mobile as men; yet 80% of female expatriates say they’ve never turned down a relocation assignment; compared with 71% of men. Another debate is that women might have a tougher time building relationships with businesspeople overseas; yet 70% of US women in this survey said they were effective at building business relationships with men abroad (Stroh, 2000, P241).
Also some organizations hesitate to hire women for international positions because of target country cultural environment. For example in Asian countries there is a fear that women expatriate manager may face sexism. Korea is an extreme example of male sexism, with women virtually absent from higher managerial levels. “On the other hand, there is an advantage doing so. In Japan and China, for example, Western women, simply because of their foreignness, are often treated with respect that might not always be accorded to their ethnic local female counterparts in similar positions of authority” (Lasserre & Schutte, 1995, P276).
Various factors contribute to women expatriate’s success. One factor is that married expatriates experienced greater cross cultural adjustments than single ones, apparently because of the support they get from their spouses. The same is assumed to apply to male expatriates. The result also suggests it’s important that companies “continue to support the cross cultural adjustments of their female expatriates throughout the entire period of their overseas assignments” (Caliguri, 1999, P163).
Women, management and change
The fact remains that although women are demonstrably better qualified, receive more training and are more likely to learn new skills on their own initiative than men; only 15% of managers are women. The issues which women often face are associated with entering a career world developed by a majority which may have specific sets of needs and methods of operation. A number of women bury their own personalities and preferences in the attempt to become one of the boys. Women now occupy over 15% of all management posts and 4.5% of boardroom seats in the UK. However, women will continue to be underrepresented in the field of science, manufacturing and technology. Indeed, only 15% of all undergraduates in these disciplines are women, and only four out of ten female students move into careers in these disciplines on graduation (Training Strategies for Tomorrow, 1998).
There are some management jobs that women made a great success (Exhibit 1, on next page) Women management accountants are more powerful, assertive, optimistic, and self-confident than they were 10 years ago, but negative workplace stereotypes and gender bias are still perceived to obstruct promotion and career advancement, according to a new study of 2,000 female management accountants conducted by Management Accounting, the financial management magazine of the Institute of Management Accountants. The survey reveals that, overall, women are more optimistic about their career opportunities than a decade ago and salaries have improved (The CPA Journal, 1996).
The number of college undergraduate and MBA degrees increased, as well. In the 1986 survey, 61% held college degrees and 17% held MBAs. Those percentages have grown during the last decade to 68% and 20% (The CPA Journal, 1996).
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