Perception of Women as Managers. The Difference of ... - Science Direct

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 78 (2013) 330 – 334

PSIWORLD 2012

Perception of Women as Managers. The Difference of Attitudes between Employees and Non-Employees Beatrice Adriana Balgiu* University Politehnica of Bucharest, Department of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Bucharest, Roumania

Abstract The phenomenon “Think manager – think male”, which entails the correspondence between male characteristics and managerial positions, is a global one, especially among men. Taking into consideration this frame of thinking, the present paper researches into the attitudes towards female mangers, from the perspective of three samples of subjects; these samples consist in employees and non-employees (students): 46 employees working in a multinational company, 116 students studying management, and 131 students studying other domains. The results show that male employees and non-employees have less favorable attitudes towards the idea of female managers than women do. As for women, the female students studying management differ from the female employees, as well as from the female students in the control research population, and this difference consists in a more positive perception of women as managers. © 2013 2012The TheAuthors. Authors. Published by Elsevier © Published by Elsevier B.V. B.V. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selectionand/or and/orpeer-review peer-review under responsibility of PSIWORLD Selection under responsibility of PSIWORLD 2012 2012 Keywords: women manager, perception, attitudes, gender;

1. Introduction The perception of the managerial type characterized by masculinity is an extended phenomenon. The research in the domain carried out both in the Western culture [1], [2], [3], [4], and in the Asian one [5], [6], [7], show that the “think manager–think male” phenomenon is a global one†. Moreover, the phenomenon has remained constant in time since the beginning of the 1970s when the most important researches in the domain were carried out. The globalization of management brings along the need to examine the phenomenon in various contexts. Starting from these considerations, we have proposed to analyze the attitudes towards women as manager in the current period; to this purpose we have used samples of employees who work in a multinational company set up

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +40-76-6254516. E-mail address: [email protected]; [email protected].

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of PSIWORLD 2012 doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.04.305

Beatrice Adriana Balgiu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 78 (2013) 330 – 334

in Romania, and non-employees (students studying management, in comparison with students studying other domains). 2. Reference point in the research on the perception of women as managers In general, the research on the perception of women as managers shows that both men and women consider that successful managers (middle and top management) have characteristics and skills which pertain to men rather than to women. Managers, as well as the general population, strongly believe that managerial success is associated with male characteristics; this belief dates back to the early ages of managerial gender studies [8], [9]. It seems that male managers hold the same dysfunctional stereotypes about women as managers as they did in the 1970s. The idea is still supported by male managers and male students studying management – who represent the majority of the research populations examined in most studies carried out in the above mentioned domain [3], [10]. Lately, there has been a modification in the perception of female manager, as female mangers and female students studying management perceive women as having managerial skills which are equal to those of men when it comes to successful management. Next we will focus on “the landmarks” in the domain. For example, when they define the gender–role stereotype and the skills of successful managers, Schein et al. [5], [3] use the Schein Descriptive Index (92 of items) in the analysis which compares the students in the USA, England, and Germany with those in Japan and China. The authors have discovered that the association of managers with masculinity is an extremely extended phenomenon, especially among men. In spite of many cultural, historical, and political differences which exist between the two types of cultures examined (the Asian and the Western one), management male students all over the world perceive women as having poorer managerial skills than men do. In the case of women, the hypothesis of the managerial type were confirmed in every country included in the study, except for the USA where the two genders are perceived both by women and men as being equal and as having equal managerial characteristics. Another study worth being mentioned due to its longitudinal approach of over ten years is carried out on MBA students tested with the Matwes scale, whose purpose is to measure managerial attitudes towards female managers. It demonstrates that the attitude of male students towards female managers has remained consistently negative over the years in comparison to female students in the same groups [11]. On a slightly similar direction, there are studies on the effects that gender identity has on managerial aspiration, and longitudinal researches on students studying management [2] are carried out. In a vein consistent with the managerial gender stereotype, the authors discover that aspirations to top management are associated with gender identity consisting in high masculinity and reduced femininity. Both women and men who describe themselves as having a greater degree of male characteristics are much more likely to aspire to top management. Using a method which differs from the method of the questionnaire, Butterfield and Grinnell [12] ask management students to describe a good manager. Contrary to the expectations according to which the efficient manager is supposed to be characterized by androgyny, the authors discover that when people describe an efficient manager, they use the male gender stereotype. Subsequently, the two authors carry out a similar study in which they present male, female, and androgynous characteristics to subjects. Nevertheless, the subjects do not describe the successful manager with androgynous characteristics, they describe it only with male ones, although the former are considered to be as favorable as the male ones [12]. To summarize, researches show that the perception of male manager characteristics has remained unmodified over the years and it is supported by male managers and management male students, while management female

† In fact, a meta-analysis [10] considers that there are three paradigms in the literature of the managerial stereotype (Schein – the paradigm think manager– think male, Powell and Butterfield – the paradigm agency-community, and Shinar – the paradigm masculinity– femininity); all of them demonstrate the masculinity of the leader stereotype. The regression meta-analysis shows that in time there was a relative decrease in the masculinity of the stereotype, which is greater for male participants than it is for female ones.

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students, and moreover, female managers are in the process of improving their perceptions. The latter consider that men and women do not differ when it comes to the characteristics they need for successful management. 3. Method The objective of the study is to measure attitudes towards female managers in companies (employees) and in universities (students studying management). 3.1. Samples 1.

2. 3.

The employees of a multinational company in the industrial domain (N = 46), with the age average of M = 29,17, SD = 6,62, out of which 21 men and 25 women. All the employees are university graduates. From the point of view of the professional experience M = 11,39 years of experience; the most reduced experience is of two years and the greatest is of 19 years of work in the domain. All the subjects had a fulltime job at the time of their participation in the study. Students of management in the Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Engineering and Business Management, the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (N = 116), with the age average = 22,09, SD = 0,74, out of which 46 men and 80 women. Students outside the domain of management used as a control research population made of students of the technical domain (N = 131) out of which 74 boys and 67 girls with an average age of 19.93, SD = 0,98

3.2. Instrument The scale for the identification of stereotypical attitudes towards women as managers (W.A.M.S – Women as Managers Scale) - The authors, Peters et al. consider that the scale measures the attitudes towards women in managerial positions in a company [13]. The scale consists of 21 items representing three factors: the general acceptation of women as managers (10 items); feminine barriers to full-time employment of females (5 items); personality traits attributed to managers ( 6 items); Every item is measured on a scale of 7 degrees from 1 – strongly disagree to 7– strongly agree. At the end, the total score of attitudes is calculated. High scores are associated with favorable attitudes regarding women and show that respondents do not hold gender-role stereotypes. Low scores are associated with negative attitudes and they indicate the presence of the gender-role stereotype. Although WAMS is a relatively old instrument, it remains among the best scales which reflect the predominance of societal attitudes towards women as managers [14]. The scale has a split-half reliability of .91, corrected for number of items [13]. The instrument's psychometric properties have been carefully studied [13], [15]. The conclusion is that the WAMS is a reliable and valid instrument to measure attitudes toward women as managers. Other studies consider WAMS comparable standard in achieving concurrent validity for scale with high convergence with WAMS, similar in focus [11]. 4. Results and discussions As expected, the general score of the test (the WAMS score) for all the 307 subjects range between the moderate and the high level, and thus it is similar to other researches carried out with the respective scale [8], [16], [17]. Further on, I resorted to the significance of the differences for the inter-sample WAMS score for the two genders (table 1). The results show that within each sample, men favor less the idea of women as managers in

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comparison with the women in the respective group (Sample 1: score WAMS Men = 106,37, SD = 19,34, Score WAMS Women = 126,05, SD = 9,84, t = –3,72, p = .000750, Sample 2: Score WAMS Men = 92,33, SD = 15,27, Score WAMS Women = 123,75, SD = 11,74, t = – 4,84, p = .000177, Sample 3: Score WAMS Men = 110,50, SD = 13,42, Score WAMS Women = 120,80, SD = 10,40, t = –2,86, p = .000050). Table 1. Averages and the significance of differences for the WAMS score Sample 1

Male

Sample 2

Sample 3

N

M

T

N

M

t

N

M

T

21

106,37

–3,72

44

92,33

–4,84

74

110,50

–2,86

Female

25

126,05

72

123,75

67

120,80

Total

46

116,58

116

112,27

131

118,42

In addition, the test t for the WAMS score was applied to the two inter-sample genders. There were no differences between male employees and male students and between female employees and male students. An explorative examination of items was carried out for a better understanding of the results. In the first sample, there are significant differences between male and female employees for 15 out of 21 items of the test; 9 of these belong to the first factor of the scale: the general acceptance of women as managers. Men have a low score for the items which entail women’s low responsibility and low ability to contribute to the objectives of the company. Results are associated with the results of the researches which show that men attribute high responsibility and leadership skills to male managerial activity [1], [2]. For samples 2 and 3, the items that make the difference between men’s and women’s results are to be found, mostly, in the first factor of the scale. For the group of students studying management, it is to be noticed that women have much more positive attitudes towards the trust in women’s managerial abilities (Example of items: Women are able to contribute to the overall objectives of the organization than men, It is acceptable for women to take the lead as often as men). Within sample no. 3, there are 9 out of 10 items for which men have a lower score. Most of them are items that pertain to personality traits associated with male managers. Men perceive women’s lack of technical abilities, and their low self-confidence and ambition (example of items: Women than men want less responsibility to perform a job, Women do not have confidence that is required of a good leader). 5. Conclusions The present paper analyzed the gender differences regarding attitudes towards women as managers within the groups of employees and non-employees. The widespread conception according to which women have less managerial skills and characteristics than men do is confirmed by the present research. Whether employed or not, both men and women have negative attitudes towards women as managers. Female students don't stand out in comparison with female employees, since they have a positive perception of the idea of women as managers. One implication of this article is related to the fact that the theory and the research on attitudes suggest that men with negative attitudes are likely to behave accordingly towards women in companies. The results according to which men have stronger negative attitudes reflect the degree to which society accepts women as key factors in management.

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