Women Managers Are Expected to Be Sensitive to Employees Emotions, Says Survey

There's an old adage in business - women who exhibit the same behavior as men are considered b*(&$#, and men are simply doing their job. In a recent press release, researchers have announced that they have data to back up this premise.

Women are expected to be kind, caring creatures, regardless of their personality or career or job. This places a double standard on women who are managers. The job of being a manager itself does not require exhibitions of kindness, caring and deep concern for others. Indeed, very often a manager has to be tough and make difficult decisions.

Rather, managers who are women have the same responsibilities and goals as their male counterparts - yet these traits (kindness, caring, compassion) are not demanded of their male peers.

When a female does not exhibit kindness, caring, or compassion, she will have a much more difficult time in gaining the support and backing of her employees.

There is a presumption among all employees that a female can, and should, read and interpret unspoken emotions. These include posture, tone of voice, and facial expressions. This same expectation was not applied to the managers who were men.

"It seems female managers may be expected to be sensitive to others' emotions and to demonstrate this sensitivity by providing emotional support. Because of this, female managers' job performance is judged on them being understanding, kind, supportive and sensitive. In contrast, this is not the basis to evaluate the performance of male managers. It is far more important for male managers, and men, in general, to be seen as analytical, logical and good at reasoning than showing care and concern for others," said Kristin Byron, assistant professor of management in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

About the study
The researcher, Kristin Byron, assistant professor of management in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, studied two different groups of managers and the level of satisfaction that their workers exhibited.

One group included 44 part-time college students. These students were engaged in pursuing their Master's of Business Administration degree. These students had jobs that also had supervisory responsibilities. The other group included 78 managers who came from different companies in the hospitality industry.

In completing this study, the staffs for all of the participants were asked various questions regarding their supervisor. The questions included ones that indicated the level of support that employees felt their supervisor gave them, how easily their manager could inspire enthusiasm, and overall satisfaction with the respect that they were shown by their manager.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/535614/