Wonder women...or wicked witches

Are female bosses temperamental, petty and demanding? Or are they more meticulous and caring than male bosses? Read the abstract of the article from the recent Sunday Times. It discusses the pros and cons of female bosses.



WOMEN make bad bosses. They are temperamental. They take things too personally. They nit-pick, are petty and demanding. On the plus side, though, they may be more meticulous and caring than men. That, at least, is the image that emerges from a Straits Times Interactive (STI) poll on women bosses conducted from last Wednesday to Friday.

Sixty-two per cent of the 860 respondents said they preferred to work under male bosses, while only 19 per cent plumped for female bosses. The remaining 19 per cent had no preference. While 50 per cent agreed that female bosses were more temperamental, only 15 per cent felt they were more capable than male bosses.

Separately, LifeStyle also interviewed 50 male and female workers aged between 20 and 60 on their views of women versus men bosses. The results largely mirrored those of the STI poll, with more than half - and comprising an equal mix of both males and females - saying men make better bosses.

Reasons given in favour of male bosses include how they are fair, decisive, professional and less inclined to be affected by their own emotions. Said lawyer Lorraine Sim, 30: 'Female bosses are usually more sensitive and hold grudges for a longer time.' Account manager Teddy Foo, 40, added: 'Men are generally more flexible and focused on the larger picture, while women managers can be overly obsessed with details.'

To be fair, women bosses did get their share of positive comments. Respondents agreed that females generally have better interpersonal skills. 'Women tend to be more people-oriented, while guys are more task-oriented. They won't ask you: 'What's wrong?' ' said Ms Carol Teo, 32, a corporate services manager.

The issue of how well women bosses perform came under the limelight recently following the ouster of former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina. Although the unhappy merger with Compaq and patchy profit records have been cited by industry watchers as the main causes of her downfall, Ms Fiorina's detractors have also slammed her autocratic and risk-taking style.

Mr Roger Kay, an analyst at IT advisory firm IDC, told Reuters: 'I gave Carly extra points for being a woman. The community looked harshly at her because of that. She was in the spotlight the entire time and everyone was watching what she did.'

Ironically, Ms Fiorina - who was only one of eight women running a Fortune 500 company in the United States - was also known to motivate her staff with human touches such as get-well cards and thank-you notes.

Which raises the question: Are women really bosses from hell?

Human resource experts interviewed were quick to dismiss this perception, which they said stems from a 'career sexism' attitude. 'No self-respecting person with a brain on the right side will ever want to say that their women bosses are bitches,' said Mr David Leong, managing director of HR company PeopleWorldwide Consulting. He said the negative stereotypes of women bosses as being emotional, fussy and incompetent are probably a result of men feeling increasingly threatened by their female counterparts. 'They ascribe such connotations to assert their authority since they are losing their tenuous hold on what limited power they have,' said Mr Leong.

So, in the end, I believe it is all a matter of perspectives. Definitely there are a bunch of blacksheeps in the horde which tarnishes the reputation of the rest but it is not fair to generalise the results of this survey to everyone as, let's face it, everyone is different and statistics is just a tool to generate information. The main thing is how we ANALYZE the results. By the way, the survey conducted by Lifestyle is likely to be invalid due to the low sample size of 50 as such longitudinal studies require large sample sizes to be valid. For more details and even an analysis of the various female bosses type, go to Straits Times Interactive.