Unfeeling female bosses fail to win over staff

Female managers who are seen as unkind, insensitive and unaware of otherís feelings are judged as worse bosses because of it ñ but men who exhibit the same qualities arenít.

This is the conclusion of Kristin Byron, assistant professor of management in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, USA, who wanted to see if being good at spotting emotions meant managers had more satisfied staff. She will reveal her findings today, 24 November 2007, in the Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology (advance copies available on request).

She studied 44 part-time students who were employed in a position with supervisory responsibilities as part of their Master's in Business Administration course, and 78 managers from four participating companies in the hospitality industry (i.e. upscale restaurant and catering companies), to see how good they were at spotting emotions.
She also asked the staff of these managers to rate how supportive their manager was (by scoring statements such as ëMy manager shows concern for me as a personí), how persuasive they were (scoring statements such as ëMy manager can inspire enthusiasm for a projectí) and how satisfied they were (scoring statements like ëI am satisfied with the degree of respect and fair treatment I get from my bossí).

She found that female managers who couldnít read unspoken emotions, such as facial expressions, posture and tone of voice, were seen as less caring and thus received lower ratings of satisfaction from their staff. But male leaders who were bad at spotting emotions were not subject to the same expectations.

Dr Byron said: ìIt seems female managers may be expected to be sensitive to othersí emotions and to demonstrate this sensitivity by providing emotional support. Because of this female managersí job performance is judged on them being understanding, kind, supportive and sensitive.

ìIn contrast, this is not the basis to evaluate the performance of male managers. It is far more important for male managers, and men, in general, to be seen as analytical, logical and good at reasoning than showing care and concern for others.î