Discuss

Caveat

Humour

Self-promotion

Meetings

Conversation

Language

Body language

Dealing with problems.

Working together

The male approach to business is competitive, direct and confrontational. The end justifies the means. Personal status and a focus on the individual are important.

The female method is collaborative; collective action and responsibility are more important than personal achievement. Lateral thinking (ie thinking in a creative way, making unusual connections), as well as goodwill and the well­-being of the individual, are also of great importance.

The male approach is to go to the heart of the problem, without taking into account secondary consideration. The female preference is to look at various options.

Male body language tends to be challenging. Female body language tends towards self-protection. A stereotypical female pose is sitting cross-legged; the male sits with legs apart to give an impression that he is in control.

Male behaviour can include forceful gestures, for example banging a fist on the desk for effect. The female style does not usually include aggressive gestures.

The male way of speaking does not encourage discussion. Women tend to welcome other's opinions and contributions more.

Men like to talk about their personal experiences and achievements or discuss `masculine' topics such as cars or sport. Women tend to talk about staff problems and personal relationship.

If the woman does not copy the male confrontational style, she is often ignored.

Men find it easy to tell others about their success. Women tend to share or pass on the credit for their success.

Men's humour can be cruel - a man's joke usually has a victim. Female humour^-is less hurtful. A woman often jokes against herself.

Many men have a female style of working. Equally many women have a male approach, as Ms Stuart says.

Many of the current management theorems – flatter organisations (ie organisations in which there are fewer managers and people have equal status), empowerment, managing by consensus – have a female style to them.

Does your choice indicate a male- or female-oriented view of management ability? Is it a fairly balanced view or rather heavily biased? Which of these qualities do you think you possess yourself? Are you views similar to those expressed in the article She Is the Boss?

She Is the Boss

Business was invented by men and to a certain extent it is still"a boy's game". Less than 20% of the managers in most European companies are women, with fewer still in senior positions.

Yet in Britain one in three new businesses are started up by women and, according to John Naisbitt and Patricia Auburdene, authors of Megatrends 2000, since 1980 the number of self-employed women has increased twice as fast as the number of self-­employed men.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-24