Who Would You Rather Work For?

Women are more efficient and trustworthy, have a better understanding of their workforce and are more generous with their praise. In short they make the best managers, and if men are to keep up they will have to start learning from their female counter­parts, a report claims today.

The survey of 1,000 male and female middle and senior managers from across the UK is an indict­ment of the ability of men to function as leaders in the modern workplace.

A majority of those ques­tioned believed women had a more modern outlook on their profession and were more open minded and considerate. By way of con­trast, a similar number believe male managers are egocentric and more likely to steal credit for work done by others.

Management Today magazine, which conducted the research, said that after years of having to adopt a masculine identity and hide their emotions and natural behaviour in the workplace, women have become role models for managers.

The findings tally with a survey of female bosses carried out in the US. A five-year study of 2,500 managers from 450 firms found that many male bosses were rated by their staff of both sexes to be self-obsessed and autocratic. Women on the other hand leave men in the start­ing blocks when it comes to teamwork and communicat­ing with staff.

In Britain more than 61 per cent of those surveyed said men did not make better bosses than women. Female man­agers use time more effectively, with many of those surveyed commenting that juggling commitments is a familiar practice for women with a home and a family.

Female managers also appear to make good finan­cial sense for penny-pinching companies: most people, of either sex, would rather ask for a rise from a man.

'If men want to be suc­cessful at work they must behave more like women,' said the magazine's editor, Rufus Olins. 'Businesses need to wake up to the fact that so-called feminine skills are vital for attract­ing and keeping the right people. In the past women who aspired to manage­ment were encouraged to be more manly. It looks now as if the boot is on the other foot.'

Text 6

Read the text and define its main idea. Answer the questions given below.

Which Bosses are Best?

How do you like your boss? Sympathetic, empowering and not too busy, probably. They will be aware of the pressures of your job, but delegate responsibility where appropriate. They will be interest­ed in your career development. Oh, and, preferably, they will be male.

In a survey for Royal Mail special delivery, a quarter of secre­taries polled expressed a prefer­ence for a male boss. Only 7 per cent said they would prefer a woman. The future of management may be female, but Ms High-Flier, it seems, can expect little support from her secretary.

One should not, of course, assume that all secretaries are female, but women still make up the overwhelming majority. So it makes uncomfortable reading for those who like to believe that a soft and cuddly sisterhood exists in the previously macho office environ­ment, where women look out for their own. The findings also raise questions about neat predictions of a feminised future for management, where 'womanly' traits such as listening skills, flexibility and a more empathetic manner will become normal office currency.

Business psychologist John Nicholson is surprised by the sur­vey's findings, asserting that 'the qualities valued today in a success­ful boss are feminine, not mascu­line'. He is emphatic that women make better bosses. 'They listen more, are less status-conscious, conduct crisper meetings, are much more effective negotiators and display greater flexibility’.

They are also considerably more common than they used to be. According to information group Experian, women are no longer scarce in the boardroom – they occupy a third of the seats round the conference table. Women directors are still relatively uncommon in older age groups, but among young directors the proportion is growing.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a reluctance to work for a woman may be more a question of management style than substance. 'It's just women bosses' attitude,' says Martha, a PA for 25 years who has worked predominantly for women, including a high-profile politician. 'It's something women have that men don't. When they are critical they are much more personal, whereas men sail through not taking a blind bit of notice’.

Sonia Neill, a former secretary at Marks and Spencer, has experi­enced power struggles between women even where there was a significant disparity in status. 'Women either find it awkward to give you work or they try to assert themselves by giving you really menial tasks. Men never do that.'

1. Which ideas expressed in the text do you agree with? Do you find any of the ideas surprising?

2. What other qualities, knowledge, skills are necessary for a boss to be a success? Define your point of view.

Language

2.Practise reading the following words correctly. If necessary, use the dictionary.

Gender, stereotypes, identity, equity, corporate, opportunities, sexual harassment, parenthood, paternity, maternity, flexible, prejudice, masculine, consensus, alimony, minority, female, psychology, harass, freelancers, chauvinism, scheme.

2. Working in pairs, discuss the meaning of the underlined words.

1. Where women do get to run big companies, it is not by climbing the ordinary corporate ladder. 2. Men are expected to be assertive. 3. Made to choose between being thought pushy and being actually self-effacing, women tend to choose the latter. 4. Strident counter-examples … leap to mind just because they are so rare. 5. Women’s employment is much like the environment - it’s seen as essentially a window-dressing question.

Tokenism abounds. 6. The watershed diving different employers’ approaches is positive discrimination. 7. And back-of-the-envelope calculation of the costs of replacing a manager … suggest that the time it takes the new manager to get fully on top of the job is worth $25 000.

3. Study the following pairs of sentences, paying particular attention to the type of conditional used (first, second, third or mixed). How does the second sentence in each pair differ in meaning from the first?

4. Complete the sentences below using appropriate forms of the following auxiliaries: must; would; should; could; need; have to; to be able to.

Note: Some sentences will require negative forms.

1. It is recommended by the committee that women ... be given longer vacations. 2. At the end of the pilot scheme, many of the women ... get jobs in the companies to which they were attached. 3. We worded our advertisement carefully to avoid accusations of discrimination, but we ... bothered because no women applied for the job. They ... been very impressed by the employment terms we offered. 4. Some of our directors think we ... appointed a woman to the board years ago. If we had done so, we ... avoided the trouble we're now having with female staff. 5. ... you wish to study this legislation, you can buy copies of the act at government bookstores. 6. To enter certain parts of pubs in Canada, a woman ... be accompanied by a male. If she made an attempt to go in, the proprietor ... immediately ask her to leave. 7. It has been proposed that non-working wives … be paid a salary by the government to compensate them for their housekeeping responsibilities. 8.Progress towards equal rights has been slower in Britain than in Sweden. It... be that British people are conservative, and therefore they ... make quick changes in attitude. 9.When we were young, we ... joke with our sister about her boyish looks, but there's nothing boyish about her now! 10. Our company ... taken on many more females last year, but few women seemed interested in working for us. 11. To become qualified as a doctor, you ... study for many years. 12. The law in our country … changing. It... be illegal for an employee to dismiss a woman who is pregnant. 13. If only people ... realize how unfair it is for a woman to be paid less for equal work. 14. The employment office has urged that more women ... be interviewed for factory jobs. 15. A woman has been appointed to the Chief Accountant's position. She ... convinced the interview team she ... do the job successfully.

5. This exercise gives you practice in using adverbs correctly. For each blank space, supply an appropriate adverb selected from the list below. (Use an adverb more than once, if you wish.)

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