Gender and Management

Abstract

For many companies today, gender in management has been of great concern. Men have been seen individuals who hold top managerial positions for many years while women keep missing in executive tables. This has generated management disparities, calling for the need to include labor force principles that are gender balanced in order to benefit from information, pool of ideologies as well as expertise by creating leadership diversity.

Managers should utilize decisive capabilities and interpersonal skills to behave in a dignified manner and to show interest in realizing the goals of an organization. Some of gender disparities displayed in management positions and roles include efficiency, planning, courtesy, flexibility, skillfulness and courtesy alongside motivational aspects. Even so, this has lately changed because women have to a great extent taken up managerial positions.

Gender and Management

Introduction

For any organization, management is a very crucial activity because it covers different motivation degrees, riles and resources. For examples, human resource management calls for job designs, compensation, exceptional motivation standards and equity. Gender has indeed become an issue in management of organizations where many people have been fighting unfair treatment in their places of work (Ibarra, Carter & Silva, 2010).

The requirement for equity conception has also resulted in the need to enhance balance in the workplace by improving impartiality feeling. The significance to reduce discrimination is therefore gaining attention via policy measures in a given labor market. Modern management theory has also transformed the workplace environment making it safe for everyone.

It is for this reason that employees are considered the most importance resources hence, the need to treat them with concern and respect. Even so, labor force diversity is a crucial issue based on benefits promised to international establishments. This is because of rising concern over gender discrimination that is continually eating away the progress of many companies.

Organizations therefore have to resolve many surrounding issues including ethnicity, age and gender discrimination. The issue of concern also involves predomination of males in organizational management. Gender sensitivity calls for crucial decisions and analysis to ensure equality and success in role tasks (Helfat, Harris & Wolfson, 2006). Additionally, top management should set to accommodate both genders in labor for sound judgments in decision making process.

Management challenges are as result of the need to involve workers, convince and maintain command over them. Both male and female managers are therefore very essential in the administrative process aimed at ensuring justice for all.

Overview

Management is a very crucial practice as it involves bring and manipulating minds with an aim of achieving objective action. In this regard managers control resources in an organization based on set goals and targets. Management concept therefore calls for high competency, alertness and professionalism. Managerial competencies also involve having systematic and continuous training along education programs that enhance skills.

Even so, effectiveness of programs that enhance skills depends largely on personalities displayed by individual managers (Ibarra, Carter & Silva, 2010). Communication, principles, intelligence, equity and emotional constancy among other personality features affect knowledge adequacy for managerial selection and position. Therefore, in the event where women fail in management test, inequity occurs. This is based on the fact that women executives are unwelcome to server in top management positions compared to men.

Even so, the situation can be attributed to belief that traditional management is best done by a man. Additionally, this is enhanced by the fact that women do not support other women in leadership. Many women will settle for a man claiming that a woman is characterized with hysteria, pettiness and gossip.

Management has also advanced a great deal to enhance organizational behavior. It is a process that involves different activities that also need cooperation, coordination and supervision. Decision making in this area is a common activity even though it is faced with many coordination challenge. Therefore, rules should be applied at all times because they are guiding principles in the implementation of techniques desired as per work, results and control.

In the above case, management involves these activities effectively and efficiently to achieve the desired results (Vuksanovic, 2012). The process is also faced with many problems including situational conditions, threats and risks. A high number of male managers in different organizations can be attributed to the conception that many men are willing to take risks and deal with the result as opposed to women.

Management process additionally involves different activities such as marketing, production, planning and distribution which carry significant risk level. The overcome such risks, managers need to exercise skill, strong leadership and workmanship (O, Neil, Hopkins & Bilimoria, 2008). All in all, men are still considered more superior than women.

Key issues

Governance means responsibility that is bestowed to managers to deal with changing nature of work on different organizations as far as processes and tasks are concerned. The world is constantly changing at a high rate thus introducing new processing models. This has created the need to beat tight deadlines in assigning team work (O’Neil, Hopkins & Billimoria 2008).

Gender in this type of leadership has been a matter of concern to women as they are termed less advanced technologically. Even so, research reveals that women in executive positions are in a better position to fulfill their managerial duties more efficiently in the changing world owing to their flexibility (Cheung & Halpern, 2010). This has also seen many companies’ record high returns over previous periods when man was in top management.

This is also enhanced by increased career openings for women offered by different organizations to get rid of unjust treatment in management. Effectiveness is also another issue in regards to decision making in top management teams because of diversity (Helfat, Harris & Wolfson, 2006). Gender diversity in top leadership enables members to look for data, enhance point of views and to generative the best alternatives to getting the most ideal solutions.

Additionally, this reduces conflict levels and it negates primary team roles by creating communication challenges among top management. Gender diversity should therefore be considered when valuing an organization’s top management (Cheung & Halpern, 2010). Even so, this can contradicted by the need to employ the best managers who may not be diverse.

Talents also vary from one individual to the other where some people are disadvantaged when it comes to management positions based on lack of competencies and skills for such positions. Women in the modern day have taken up professional and managerial duties compared to men. Therefore, there is need to outsource for talents from large diversities for good decision making especially on including women in top managerial or executive duties (Vuksanovic, 2012). This should also transform the view held by women who are considered to be incompetent in top management positions in different corporations.

This is a situation being witnessed in the way organizations promote gender sensitivity in the place of work. Women in the end will be encouraged to go for top managerial positions based on earned skills and exceptional management values. The situation is going to change the misconception that management can be efficient when men are in control, a notion that has made it easier for men to dominate workforce for a long time now.

Discussion

According to research, almost half of many organizations have never had women executives in top management. Even so, there are companies that have had up to three women in top management representing only 30 percent or less average of management team (Cheung & Halpern, 2010). This is an indication that even in modern times; the ratio of men to women in executive positions is still unfair.

In certain organizations however, there are women organizations hired from outside to top management level with the intention of pooling in expertise. Organizations with no women in top leaderships have also had recruitment issues for top jobs based on the fact that the process is costly and tasking.

Nonetheless, the number of women in executive jobs has increased gradually with time. This has been enhanced by the desire to test competencies of individuals by skills as opposed to gender. Women, as a result, have taken much of managerial positions compared to men due to high competency levels and the need to increase governance competency. The result of such is quality decision making process and great outcomes in relevance to profitability and productivity.

A labor force that is gender balanced has also led to good management policies and practices aimed at ensuring long term efficacy (Eagly & Carli, 2007). The problem however comes in when ladies are about to get better appointments but reservations emerge terming such tasks as risky. Many women have had to go through mentorship programs because they enjoy support from many sources.

This is a fact that led to increased number of women in top management jobs (Powell, 2010). Even so, more men are still reported to enjoy promotions despite mentorship programs that are designed for women. Such unreasonable moves are attributed to differences in job allocations where certain tasks are considered to have high potential exposure. Therefore, even though women are highly mentored, there is still no promotion going their way.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Management is a tasking duty and a process that calls for critical decision making. Even so, management of humans has been designed for complex and by the need to influence functioning, ideology and contributions towards set objectives. Gender diversity however is a crucial aspect in the current world of business because of its role in enhancing decision making process.

Experiences in business organizational management looks at males from a different point of view compared to women. Top executive positions are dominated by males while females secure jobs that are less demanding (Powell, 2010). It is however notable that women and men accomplish same tasks but under different point of views.

Diversity in point of views also enables an organization to enjoy implementation of quality products and services. In this case, all managers should work towards eliminating gender disparities and eliminating conflicts that arise from inequality. It is hard to change personalities but managerial characteristics should be highly fundamental in ensuring good management or governance.

Management styles used in organizations should also be in line with skills and personalities to enhance profitability and productivity (O’Neil, Hopkins & Bilimoria, 2008). If the personality of an individual does not match that of a given group, the manager should then be replaced.

It is also worth noting that management abilities vary from one individual to the other. A good manager should without prejudice develop perception. Even so, this ability is subject to learning through intellectual or experience (Eagly & Carli, 2007). It is also highly recommendable that managers should acknowledge the system of value in regard to morality, fairness and integrity values.

Another trait that determines level of confidence in managers is risk tendency. Men are seen as individuals who are more willing to take up risks compared to women, a notion that has enabled men to hold on to top managerial positions. Therefore, if women would develop competencies in critical decision making and risk taking in vital aspects of organizations, it would easily lead to their promotion in top management positions.

This has been lately achieved where women have taken advantage of mentorship programs proving their exceptional capabilities and enhanced management outcomes. However, even though women go back to gain more knowledge, they are yet to be accepted in terms of promotion based on merit (Vuksanovic, 2012). This is based on research that men still enjoy promotions more than women despite women mentorship programs.

Application

Management is a process that involves directing of an organization’s resources to accomplish set goals. It calls for managers regardless of gender to participate through decision making, idea generation and analysis. Having a labor force that is balanced enables an organization to enjoy the possibilities of sharing expertise and information thus, enhancing profitability and productivity.

Managers have to understand the importance of equal but different to give males and females the respect they deserve. By doing so, companies will be able to appreciate similarities and dissimilarities between men and women in labor force thus, creating an incredible work environment. Managerial positions at times are characterized by neutrality, accuracy needed, power and wisdom ( Cheung & Halpern, 2010).

Such characteristics are linked to men and because of such; managerial positions were based on masculinity therefore, creating more opportunities for men than women. All in all, gender labor force that is balanced in management has transformed the perception encouraging women executive leadership and power. The result has proven that women executives are proficient to lead groups of people thus, enhanced productivity.

 

 

References

Cheung, F. M., & Halpern, D. F. (2010). Women at the top: Powerful leaders define success as work+ family in a culture of gender. American Psychologist,65(3), 182.

Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2007). Women and the labyrinth of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 85(9), 62.

Helfat, C. E., Harris, D., & Wolfson, P. J. (2006). The pipeline to the top: Women and men in the top executive ranks of US corporations. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(4), 42-64.

Ibarra, H., Carter, N., & Silva, C. (2010). Why men still get more promotions than women. Harvard Business Review, 88(9), 80-85.

O’Neil, D. A., Hopkins, M. M., & Bilimoria, D. (2008). Women’s careers at the start of the 21st century: Patterns and paradoxes. Journal of Business Ethics,80(4), 727-743.

Powell, G. N. (2010). Women and men in management. New York: Sage.

Vuksanović, M. (2012). Is manager’s gender an important factor in selection to a position? Megatrend revija, 9(1), 265-277.